Joseph of Nazareth – Dothan, AL, US
N 31° 13.439 W 085° 23.345
16R E 653436 N 3455543
The Joseph Monument is located in Millennium Park in downtown Dothan, Alabama, USA.
Waymark Code: WM6ET9
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 05/23/2009
Views: 11
This 10-foot tall, cast bronze sculpture, known as the Joseph Monument, is located in the historic downtown area of Dothan and is the centerpiece for Millennium Park. The statue depicts the bible verse "For I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. -Genesis 37:17" which inspired city founders in 1885 to change the name of the town from Poplar Head to Dothan.
The following information is from the New World Encyclopedia website:
Joseph (also Joseph the Betrothed, Joseph of Nazareth, and Joseph the Worker) was, according to Christian tradition, the husband of Mary and the adopted father of Jesus of Nazareth. Christian faith holds that Joseph did not physically beget Jesus, but that Mary had conceived him through divine means.
According the Matthew's Gospel, Joseph agonized over Mary's apparently illegitimate pregnancy but protected her and the unborn Jesus by accepting her as his wife after an angel appeared to him in a dream and directed him to do so. Receiving rich presents from mysterious eastern magi at Bethlehem after Jesus' birth, he then fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod the Great, returning to the land of Israel after Herod's death and settling in Nazareth. In Luke's account, Joseph travels to Bethlehem for a census and returns to Nazareth without going to Egypt, after presenting Jesus publicly in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Little else is known of Joseph except that he was reportedly descended from King David and worked as a carpenter. Joseph's death is not recorded in the Bible. He is reported by Luke to still be alive when Jesus was around 12 years old (Luke 2:41-42), and the lack of any mention of him in the biblical accounts of Jesus' adult ministry is taken to imply that he had already died by that time. Controversy exists as to whether he and Mary ever engaged in conjugal relations or had other children together. A notable fact about Joseph is that not a single word is spoken by him in any of the Four Gospels.