Joseph's Dreams

Also known as: Joseph's First Dream, The Angel Appears to Joseph, The Dream of Righteous Joseph, The Angel's Revelation to Joseph, The Four Dreams of Joseph the Betrothed

The first and best-known of the four dreams by which “an angel of the Lord” guides Righteous Joseph the Betrothed through Christ’s infancy (Matthew 1–2). When Joseph, a just man of the house of David, resolves to divorce the pregnant Virgin quietly, the angel appears in a dream: he must not fear to take Mary as his wife, for the child is “of the Holy Spirit,” and he is to name Him Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins” — fulfilling Isaiah’s word that the virgin shall bear Emmanuel. Three further dreams send Joseph to flee into Egypt, to return, and to settle in Galilee. Matthew names the messenger only as “an angel of the Lord” (angelos Kyriou), and — unlike the Annunciations to Zechariah and the Virgin — neither Scripture nor Orthodox liturgical tradition identifies him as Gabriel; the Church keeps the biblical wording. Understood as a created heavenly messenger (see the Angel of the Lord, HH-0019), the angel confirms the virginal conception, secures Christ’s legal descent from David, and inaugurates Joseph’s vocation as guardian of the Holy Family.