ARTICLE
St. Joseph, “Ženích” (the Bridegroom) or “Manžel” (the Spouse, Husband) of the Virgin Mary? Erroneousness of the Designation “ženích” or Its Equivalents in Some Other Languages
Jaroslav RINDOŠ
volume 6, issue 2, 2014, pages 186-196
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsGPXQ6478
Published online: 2014-12-01
Published in print: 2014-12-30
Abstract: In Slovakia, we often call St. Joseph “ženích Panny Márie” – “the Bridegroom of the Virgin Mary”. The word “ženích” (bridegroom) implies that Joseph was not united to Mary by the bond of marriage (this perhaps is also true of formulations in Czech, Polish, German and some other languages) which does not respect biblical testimony, denies a privilege given to St. Joseph, underlays an erroneous idea about the family, obliterates the argumentation of St. Matthew in regard to the Messiah and does not respect the request of St. John Paul II expressed in his Exhortation about St. Joseph. The Latin sponsus should be taken as one of the words for designating “spouse, husband” while translating “cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso” into all modern – and not solely Latin-related – languages.