Considering the prevalence of Scriptural references in this article, I think it is classic nit-picking to say that “much of it is fictional”.
You write “ we need to read it with the understanding that much of it is fictional”. That may be your subjective understanding.
I don’t need to read it with that understanding. I read it with the understanding that plentiful Scriptural references are offered.
You say you “have great respect for Joseph as a man of God that(sic) parented Jesus in his early years.”
I see Joseph as the second person after Mary to accept the coming birth of Jesus, the second person after Mary to witness the face of the Incarnate Word, the person assigned by angels to protect and support the Infant Jesus and His Mother into Egypt and then back home again. Joseph is the father to whom Jesus placed Himself, under his roof, eating the bread Joseph supplied—He who would become Bread for us all.
Yes, we know that “scripture is silent about the actual family life of Jesus”. But in those years between the Finding of Jesus in the Temple and the opening of His public ministry, we also have no knowledge of when in that time frame that Joseph died. He possibly could have lived until Jesus had reached his full maturity; in which case that could have been many years in which the Holy Family shared the intimacy and unity of family life.
It is fictional..it is not nit picking..
I did not say the family life of Jesus was not important to Jesus ..but if it was important for us, for our lives or our salvation.. God would have recorded it for our benefit
He did not