Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 1:19

19 Then Joseph her Husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

It was found she was with Child (possibly her self, or some of her Friends told it to Ioseph) her espoused Husband, it is plain from this Text, he came to the knowledge of it, for upon it, the Evangelist saith, he was minded to put her away privily; had Ioseph at this time heard and believed, that the Holy Ghost had come upon her, and the Power of the most High overshadowed her, being a good Man, he would not have entertained Thoughts of putting her away: But tho she had before received this Revelation, and might possibly have Communicated it to some of her Friends, yet it is manifest that her Husband Ioseph had not heard it, or at least was not easie to believe a thing of so unusal and extraordinary a Nature. That she was with Child, was Evident, how she came to be so, was as yet hidden from him, in Nature, and so incredible a thing, as it had argued too much of easiness of belief for him to have believed, had not Ioseph had (as afterward he had) a divine Revelation for it, he therefore receiving such a Report, and finding it to be true, resolves to put her away in the privatest manner he could, rather then to expose her to a publick Shame, or to be made a publick Example. Their being betrothed was a thing publickly taken notice of, and he could not put her away so privately, but there must be Witnesses of it, the meaning therefore must be as privately as the Nature of the thing would bear. Ioseph in this Case had the choice of three things. 1. He might notwithstanding this, have taken her to his House, as his Wife, for the Law of Divorce or putting away, was but a Law giving a Liberty in Case of a discerned uncleanness to put away the Wife, it did not lay any under an Obligation so to do. 2. He might give her a Bill of Divorce, and leave her with her Friends. Now those skilled in the Iewsh Writings tell us this might be done; either, more privately before two or three Witnesses putting a Writing of that import into her Bosom, or more openly, and publickly before the Magistrate. 3. He might according to the Law, Deut. 22.23.24. &c. have brought her forth to be examined, whether she had only suffered a Rape, or had her self Consented. If it was done with her Consent she was by the Law to be stoned. Of these Ioseph, in his first Thoughts upon the Matter, and before he rightly did understand the thing, chuseth the Second, and the milder part, and resolves to put her away, but in the most private manner the Law would in that Case allow him: He did this (saith the Vangelist) because he was a just Man, where the term [non-Latin text not transcribed] signifieth Equitable, in opposition to Severity and Rigour; nor ought any to say Ioseph in this shewed himself an unjust Man, because by the Law, she ought to have been Stoned to Death, for that is a mistake, supposing she had been with Child by man, yet if she had been forced, the man only wa[illegible: 1 letter] to dye, Deut. 22.28, 29, or she might have been with Child before her betrothing, in which Case she was only obliged to marry him that had so abased her: A kind, and Equitable man always presumeth the be[illegible: 1 letter]t, especially in a Case where Life is concerned, besides that no doubt Mary had by this time told Ioseph the Truth, and what the Angel had said to her, to which (it being so incredible a thing as not to be believed, but upon a divine Revelation) tho Ioseph was not obliged having as yet no such Revelation to give a present easie Faith, yet he might reasonably give so much Credit as to resolve upon the mildest Course he could take, tho he was willing also to avoid the blot upon himself by taking her to him for his Wife according to his Contract. God will not leave so good a man long unresolved what to do.

Marginal references: Deut. 24.1.