Thank you for your note to us here at TruthBook.com. I am glad that you asked this question, as there is not much known about Joseph. Before the introduction of The Urantia Book, the scanty Biblical records were all that the world had to imagine this most-beloved figure in the earthly life of Jesus.

In Part IV of The Urantia Book, we get a very well-rounded picture of Joseph:

122:1.1 Joseph, the human father of Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, albeit he carried many non-Jewish racial strains which had been added to his ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines of his progenitors. The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the days of Abraham and through this venerable patriarch to the earlier lines of inheritance leading to the Sumerians and Nodites and, through the southern tribes of the ancient blue man, to Andon and Fonta. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of Joseph’s ancestry, neither did Joseph’s lineage go directly back to Adam. Joseph’s immediate ancestors were mechanics—builders, carpenters, masons, and smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family belonged to a long and illustrious line of the nobility of the common people, accentuated ever and anon by the appearance of unusual individuals who had distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of religion on Urantia.

In this section we even learn of how Mary and Joseph met:

122:5.8 When Joseph was a young man, he was employed by Mary’s father in the work of building an addition to his house, and it was when Mary brought Joseph a cup of water, during a noontime meal, that the courtship of the pair who were destined to become the parents of Jesus really began.

122:5.9 Joseph and Mary were married, in accordance with Jewish custom, at Mary’s home in the environs of Nazareth when Joseph was twenty-one years old. This marriage concluded a normal courtship of almost two years’ duration. Shortly thereafter they moved into their new home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with the assistance of two of his brothers. The house was located near the foot of the near-by elevated land which so charmingly overlooked the surrounding countryside. In this home, especially prepared, these young and expectant parents had thought to welcome the child of promise, little realizing that this momentous event of a universe was to transpire while they would be absent from home in Bethlehem of Judea.

There is no mention in this record of Joseph having been previously married. He was only 21 years-old when he married Mary, and so, it is highly unlikely that he would have had a previous wife. And, once he and Mary were wed, Joseph was kept quite busy with a growing family.

Joseph died when Jesus was only 14 years-old.

We have put together a topical study on this important figure HERE. I hope that you’ll have a look at it, and learn about Joseph—the beloved earth father of Joshua ben Joseph, Creator Son, and savior of the world…Joseph was instrumental in the early life of Jesus, and mightily influenced him, as do all earthly father influence their beloved children. Thanks again for writing to us with this question…