466 
Mary W. Helms 
Anthropos 101.2006 
Conclusion 
In the cast of liminal personages enacting Chris 
tianity’s central theological drama, the role of 
Joseph was long the most subdued. Yet Joseph 
filled an important structural position in this sacred 
myth as earthly analog of God the Father and God 
the Creator. As such, he supplied vital functions in 
the canonical narrative as Jesus’ genealogical and 
Mary’s social legitimator and protector. In addi 
tion, Joseph grounds the saga of the Holy Family 
within the wider existential mysteries of universal 
creation and cosmological transformation as these 
are manifested by processes of skilled crafting. In 
so doing, he stands typologically, in Christianity, as 
archetype of earthly artisans, manipulating tangible 
matter and intangible supernatural potencies to cre 
ate new forms. 
In cross-cultural perspective, the archetypical 
skilled craftsman has long been the smith, an ex 
traordinary figure closely related traditionally to 
the shaman in ideological and cosmological sig 
nificance. It is not surprising, yet also fascinating, 
that during a still formative period of its West 
ern European development, Christianity to at least 
some degree associated the earthly father of its lim 
inal god-child with this most mysterious of liminal 
enterprises. It is also interesting, though perhaps 
merely coincidental, that this early medieval iden 
tification was paralleled by a notable silence in the 
official church in general about Joseph as a figure in 
Christian theology. Conversely, judging by exegeti- 
cal commentary, the metaphorical value of the pro 
cess of transformation and purification of matter by 
fire was appreciated by at least some early medieval 
church fathers since it evoked the spiritual purifi 
cation of humanity and the soteriological progress 
of the soul which lay at Christianity’s theological 
core. 
Such imagery was nothing new. It was widely 
used well before the early Middle Ages in pre- 
Christian Hebrew traditions and appears after the 
early Middle Ages in late medieval (and later) 
Western European intellectual contexts. In “The 
Forging of Israel,” Paula McNutt (1990) explores in 
detail metallurgical imagery and the symbolism of 
iron technology in the Hebrew Bible, including the 
metaphor of transformation by fire as it relates to 
the ancient Israelite understanding and presentation 
of its sacred history (e.g., Egypt as a womb-like 
“iron furnace” whence Israel will be transformed, 
strengthened, and reborn socially and spiritually as 
a people). Over a millennium later, Western Eu 
ropean alchemists, in spite of official opposition 
by the church, sought, with frequent reference to 
the opening chapters of Genesis (Eliade 1962: 225; 
Patai 1994: 18), to continue and hasten nature’s 
(God’s) processes of maturation and to perfect the 
spiritual growth of base matter (living stone) by 
probing, in the laboratory, into processes of creative 
transformation as they occurred in the hermetically 
sealed retort, where changes in the color of met 
als (indicative of the qualitative presence of light) 
would reveal the degree of spirituality achieved. 64 
Joseph as a smith in the early Middle Ages, 
therefore, is not an anomaly. Rather, appreciation 
of the cosmological and theological metaphors ex 
pressed by metallurgical processes and thus, pre 
sumably by extension, identification of Joseph him 
self as a smith, contained intrinsic worth. Though 
specific data are woefully limited, it can be sug 
gested that this identification was not only ecclesi 
astical metaphorical hyperbole, or simply an acci 
dent of linguistic translation, or just useful accom 
modation with pagan beliefs, or helpful refutation 
of heretical opinion, or part of a ubiquitous belief 
in magic, though to varying degree all of these may 
well have been involved, but also part of on-going 
Judaic and Christian and pagan traditions (held in 
common with numerous other societies, too) in 
volving the mysteries of material transformation 
that the uncanny knowledge and exceptional skills 
of the smith made manifest and controlled. 
It is also tempting to suggest that, while canoni 
cal medieval Christianity appreciated and appropri 
ated the ideological power of the transformational 
metallurgical process, it was hesitant to openly ac 
knowledge the potency of the smith as an extraor 
dinary liminal figure himself, for Joseph’s alter 
nate identity as a woodworker has always been 
far more acceptable, perhaps at least in part be 
cause both woodworking and woodworkers were 
inherently less mysterious entities and thus could 
be more readily co-opted or “domesticated” into 
the service of promoting the greater liminality and 
divinity of the central person of Jesus. 65 Smiths 
do not labor quietly and unobtrusively, sidelined in 
small residential workshops, as Christian lore and 
iconography have typically represented for Joseph 
as woodworker. Smiths and their smithies are be- 
64 Appreciation of the cosmological power and mystery of 
smithing continues to be evoked in literature into the present 
day. To note but one example, consider the poem titled “The 
Forge” by the Irish writer Seamus Heaney, which describes 
the obliterating darkness of the smithy, the noisy creative 
work of the earthy smith, and, set at the center of it all 
the ritualistic anvil, “immovable; an altar” where the smith 
expends his talent (1980: 49). 
65 Parallels between wood’s ability to die and decay and Ev 
eryman, as represented by Joseph, as a mortal form that dies 
and decays may be relevant here, too.