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View Full Version : The term 'Holy Family': does it have a place in Orthodoxy?



R. Murray
28-10-2008, 04:14 AM
Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I seek your counsel on the use of the phrase "The Holy Family"

What is your understanding of the Holy Family? Is it Jesus, Mary and Joseph? or something else.

Is the phrase is used the above mentioned context is it accurate? Is there a Holy Family?

If we look at Matthew 1:19 (New King James Version) "19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly."

Joseph is referred to as Mary's Husband

There is a footnote in the Study Bible referring the the term "Her Husband":
The bible calls engaged couples husband and wife before their Marriage. Thus Joseph is called the husband of Mary, and Mary is called his wife. In the Church Joseph is remembered as the Bethrothed, pointing out Mary's "Ever Virginity"

The passages that are used to support this foot note were: (note the use of the words espoused and wife)
Rachel was called the wife of Jacob before their Marriage by virtue of their engagement
Genesis 29:21 "21 And Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her."

Deuteronomy 22:23,24 "23 And if there be a young damsel espoused to a man, and a man should have found her in the city and have lain with her; 24 ye shall bring them both out to the gate of their city, and they shall be stoned with stones, and they shall die; the damsel, because she cried not in the city; and the man, because he humbled his neighbour’s spouse: so shalt thou remove the evil one from yourselves."

Esther 2:7 "7 And he had a foster child, daughter of Aminadab his father’s brother, and her name was Esther; and when her parents were dead, he brought her up for a wife for himself: and the damsel was beautiful."

From I understand there is no Husband and Wife in Joseph
and Mary and therefore there is no Marriage.

With no marriage there is no Family?

Which begs the questions: Can Jesus, Mary and Joseph be called "Family" or "Holy Family"?

It is apparent that the phrase is used, probably more so in the West.

Where did it originate? Where did the tradition originate?

Is using the Phrase "Holy Family" labeled as Heretical?, Wrong?, or Misguided?


Any input, help, guidance or commentary would be appreciated.


In Christ

Ruairi

Olga
28-10-2008, 10:56 AM
Hello Ruairi, and welcome to the forum.

Briefly, the notion of a "holy family", referring to the young Christ, the Mother of God, and St Joseph the Betrothed, arose in the Roman Catholic church, probably no earlier than the 16th century, and is not part of Orthodox thought or doctrine. You are correct in referring to the OSB's reference on prospective spouses who are engaged, or betrothed, as "husband and wife", however, the Orthodox understanding of the relationship between St Joseph and the Virgin is made very clear in both the iconographic record, and in the liturgical texts (hymnody) of the Orthodox Church.

These matters are addressed in a series of posts on the thread "St Joseph the Betrothed". Unfortunately, many posts on this thread contain numerous formatting marks, which make following some posts rather difficult. Therefore, I have provided a link to the archived thread (which is in plain text), as well as a link to the whole thread, and another one to the heart of the matter within this thread:

http://www.monachos.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-1674.html

http://www.monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?p=22216#poststop

http://www.monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?p=49266#post49266

Hope this helps. You're most welcome to ask more questions, too.

R. Murray
28-10-2008, 07:51 PM
Olga,

Thank you for your reply and insight in to the origin of the term "Holy Family". I glanced through the other thread links that you had provided and I enjoyed reading the stances on iconography of Joseph the Betrothed.


Should someone who uses the term " Holy Family " be corrected or admonished in any way? Should we say there is no such thing as ""The Holy Family" ? How should we approach this in dialogue with our fellow Orthodox (if it were to come up) or in conversation with someone from the Roman Catholic Church?

In Christ

Ruairi

Olga
28-10-2008, 10:23 PM
Should someone who uses the term " Holy Family " be corrected or admonished in any way? Should we say there is no such thing as ""The Holy Family" ? How should we approach this in dialogue with our fellow Orthodox (if it were to come up) or in conversation with someone from the Roman Catholic Church?

I would think it best that an Orthodox Christian not use the term "Holy Family", because of the doctrinal and theological problems this can lead to, which were addressed in the thread I linked to. An example of this risk is the painting in recent years of "icons" such as this one:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_ALN7_3uQFD8/R1DD_mryYpI/AAAAAAAAA9E/YO2YmhXii4o/s400/iconHolyFamily.jpg

This image in no way conforms to the liturgical and doctrinal truths and traditions of the Orthodox Church, but its geometric and non-realistic artistic style could lead an Orthodox believer to regard it as a legitimate icon.

Regarding the use of the term by Roman Catholics, I would suggest that if they are fine with this terminology, so be it, as their theological and doctrinal position on St Joseph is quite different from the Orthodox, though there would be nothing wrong with explaining the Orthodox position to such people. It would certainly do much good if the correct position was discussed with Orthodox people, as this matter is not often well-understood in the Orthodox world. Fr David Moser's post in the "St Joseph the Betrothed" thread is particularly good at showing the distinction between the RC and Orthodox positions on the "role" of St Joseph.

M.C. Steenberg
28-10-2008, 10:52 PM
Dear all,

This is just a note to say that, with Olga's permission, I've gone back through the St Joseph the Betrothed thread (http://www.monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1674) that she indicated above, and removed the host of broken formatting tags from her posts there. You should now be able to view posts in a readable form in the main thread, rather than having to go via the archive.

INXC, Deacon Matthew