Joseph made an important decision when he heard that Mary was pregnant before their arranged marriage and instead of allowing her to be stoned by townspeople, he took her away and protected her.
often balding, occasionally frail and with arthritic fingers and a sharp nose, a comparatively marginal figure alongside Mary and Jesus if not entirely in the background, passive other than when leading them on their flight to Egypt.
Joseph having died in the “arms of Jesus and Mary” according to Catholic tradition,
José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ gives a humanist perspective on the life of Joseph who is represented as the biological father of Jesus who is crucified by the Romans after being mistaken for a rebel
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IZLWU9zvj-4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=tekton+joseph&ots=BlPEZlQelK&sig=S7ZPLYOMyBtDmm5MggAbm175s8M#v=onepage&q=tekton%20joseph&f=false
Joseph, Mary, Jesus
By Lucien Deiss, Madeleine Beaumont