The narrator begins at the time when Mary and Joseph are betrothed (1.18b). Unlike the modern custom of engagement, betrothal was considered part of the marriage not a state prior to it, and here in 1.19 Joseph is called Mary’s husband as well as her betrothed. Betrothal was the period in which a young woman, usually aged between 12 and 14,3 was transferred from the authority of her father to that of her future husband. It had two stages. For the first year or so she would continue to live under her father’s roof, but then she would move in with her husband and he would support her
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