# 1) Non-biblical story about Joseph, Mary, and the fruit tree: Source/spread? 2) Joseph's jealousy **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 5, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135 "2018-08-05T16:44:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/1 "2018-08-05T16:44:03Z")
I wish I could remember where, but I recently read a story about the Holy Family which intrigued me: Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary are walking and Mary sees some lovely fruit hanging just out of reach. She asks Joseph to get one, and he says “Let he who got you pregnant get it for you!” Jesus in her womb hears this, and commands the tree to bend down so his Mother can reach and take the fruit. This seems to address nicely a recognizable element of the humanity of Joseph with any number of miracle acts of goodness of the Savior. It also seems to fold into it a retake on an actual bible story, in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, where [Jesus cursed/cursed at an olive tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursing_the_fig_tree) for being barren, which even to his own disciples down to this day was something which needed a little extra defending or at least explaining. Apologetics avant la lettre, if you will. 1. Has anyone heard of the fruit tree story, and know something about its source? 2. I can’t remember where in the New Testament the simple reactions of Joseph to his wife’s pregnancy are recorded. Can someone cite me those, and any important or interesting selections from the two-millennia canon of Christian commentary on that? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/2 "2018-08-05T17:12:13Z")
The story is told in a traditional song, the “[Cherry Tree Carol](https://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/peter+paul+mary/the+cherry+tree+carol_20107611.html)”. Though I don’t know if the story predated the song. > [@](#): > > 1. I can’t remember where in the New Testament the simple reactions of Joseph to his wife’s pregnancy are recorded. There’s not much to tell. All that we have is [Matthew 1:18-25](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1%3A18-25&version=NIV) > [@](#): > > 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[a]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet\*\* did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. > > 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.” > > 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[d] (which means “God with us”). > > 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/3 "2018-08-05T17:50:25Z")
Great, and thank you. There’s a Peter, Paul, and Mary version, apparently (is that how you know it, or from church?), who presumably got it, according to Wiki, from a 19th century compendium of English songs called Child Ballades (not the Christ child, but the name of the compiler of the ballades), and before that a carol from a 15th-century Corpus Christi festival. The story itself, minus the tune, according to [Wiki,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cherry-Tree_Carol)…is derived from the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which combines many earlier apocryphal Nativity traditions; however, in Pseudo-Matthew, the event takes place during the flight into Egypt, and the fruit tree is a palm tree (presumably a date palm) rather than a cherry tree. In the apocryphal Gospel, Jesus has already been born and so Joseph’s truculence is unrelated to any dismay over Mary’s pregnancy, but has to do with an inability to reach the fruits of the palm and a concern over the family’s lack of water. [\* off to find out about Pseudo-Matthew \*] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/4 "2018-08-05T18:31:05Z")
Actually, the first version of the song I heard was by Emmylou Harris. The Peter, Paul, and Mary was just the first one Google turned up, so that’s what I linked. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/5 "2018-08-05T20:22:17Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > …Jesus in her womb hears this, and commands the tree to bend down so his Mother can reach and take the fruit. > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > …derived from the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew… It seems to me that Jesus issued a sudo command, not a pseudo-command. Okay, I’ll get me coat. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/6 "2018-08-06T13:33:50Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > It seems to me that Jesus issued a sudo command, not a pseudo-command. > Okay, I’ll get me coat. sudo -u God bendtree or would it be -r? ---
**Author:** ![a\_dudes\_thought\_s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@a\_dudes\_thought\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_dudes_thought_s)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-non-biblical-story-about-joseph-mary-and-the-fruit-tree-source-spread-2-josephs-jealousy/819135/7 "2018-08-08T13:12:11Z")
I never heard of this before sounds interesting. It would make a great deal of sense to be honest considering Joseph would think she had gotten pregnant by another man before an angel clarified what had taken place.