And the Gospels, which were written even earlier, state that Joseph did not *know* Mary until after she had given birth to Jesus.
All four Gospel writers mention his brothers and sisters, two of them name them by name, and in a context that clearly indicates that they are Mary’s other children.
There is NO evidence in Scripture to support the speculation that Joseph was an older man or that he had been married before and had other children.
It is fascinating to watch Catholics demand a literal, word for word interpretation of Jesus’ teachings on His body and blood, and claim Scriptural evidence for that and condemn Protestants for not believing it, and then turn around and weasel out of the plain, literal, word for word reading of the passages concerning Jesus’ family and siblings.
Does scripture say anything of Joseph’s life before or after? What happened to him according to scripture? Do you have any answers for that?
This thought just occurred to me, if Joseph did have other children from a previous marriage, how come there is no mention of them when he and the very great with child, Mary, had to leave Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem? Wasn't he traveling in order to fulfill the census by command of the emperor, Caesar Augustus? If he did not take those other kids, he would have been breaking the law, would he not? If he could have just left them at home in the care of relatives, then he certainly could have left Mary there as well rather than risking her health making such a trip in her condition.