“History of Joseph the Carpenter”
From “Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8”, Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
The “History of Joseph the Carpenter” (Historia Josephi Fabri Lignari) is a compilation of traditions concerning Mary (mother of Jesus), Joseph, and the Holy Family, probably composed in Byzantine Egypt in Greek in the late sixth or early seventh centuries, but surviving only in Coptic and Arabic language translation (apart from several Greek papyrus fragments). The text bears witness to the belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary.
It is one of the texts within the New Testament apocrypha concerned with the period of Jesus’ life before he was 12.