Saint Joseph’s Dreams: The Four Dreams in the Gospel of Matthew

Saint Joseph had four dreams, all narrated in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. In the first, an angel of the Lord commands him to receive Mary as his wife and give the child the name Jesus (Mt 1:20-24). In the second, he orders a flight to Egypt due to Herod’s threat (Mt 2:13-15). In the third, it announces the death of the persecutor and their return to the land of Israel (Mt 2:19-21). In the fourth, it warns Joseph to retire to Galilee, where the Holy Family settles in Nazareth (Mt 2:22-23). The Greek formula that weaves these episodes together is always the same, κατʼ ὄναρ (kat’ onar), “in dream,” and Joseph’s response is always the same: immediate obedience, without a single word.

Matthew narrates Jesus’ childhood from Joseph’s perspective, while Luke does so from Mary’s. The dreams are the guiding thread of this narrative: through them God leads, step by step, the man to whom He entrusted His most precious possession. Matthew 1-2 contains a fifth dream, that of the magi, warned in their dream not to return to Herod (Mt 2:12), but the four directed to Joseph form their own series, which lies at the biblical foundation of all subsequent josefology.

The Four Dreams of Saint Joseph, One by One

First Dream: Receiving Mary as Wife (Mt 1:20-24)

Joseph, a “just man” (Mt 1:19), discovers that Mary, already his wife in Jewish betrothal, is expecting a child that is not his. He decides to send her away secretly to avoid exposing her. It is then that Heaven intervenes: ἰδοὺ ἄγγελος κυρίου κατʼ ὄναρ ἐφάνη αὐτῷ, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream” (Mt 1:20). The message dispel his fear (“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife”) and reveals the mystery. The Catechism summarizes:

“What was conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit,” the angel tells Joseph about Mary, his fiancée (Mt 1:20). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 497)

The angel also entrusts Joseph with a properly paternal mission: to give the child a name. As Francis writes in his apostolic letter Patris corde:

He had the courage to assume legal paternity of Jesus, whom he gave the name revealed by the angel: “You shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). (Francis, Patris corde, preface)

His response comes immediately: ἐγερθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕπνου ἐποίησεν ὡς προσέταξεν αὐτῷ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου, “Joseph got up from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1:24). In this gesture lies the foundation of Saint Joseph’s true paternity: through his marital bond with Mary and by giving the child a name, he is also, legally and actually, Jesus’ father (cf. John Paul II, Redemptoris custos, no. 7).

Second Dream: Flight to Egypt (Mt 2:13-15)

After the magi’s departure, the Lord’s angel appears to Joseph in a dream (φαίνεται κατʼ ὄναρ, Mt 2,13), now with an urgent imperative: “Rise up, take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt,” because Herod is seeking the child to kill him. Joseph gets up in the middle of the night and leaves (Mt 2,14). Matthew reads this episode through the lens of Prophet Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Os 11,1, quoted in Mt 2,15). Francis sees in this dream a portrait of a father with creative courage:

Joseph is the man through whom God cares for the beginnings of the history of redemption; he is the true ‘miracle,’ by which God saves the Child and his Mother. (Francis, *Patris corde*, n. 5)

For this night of flight, the same document adds that Saint Joseph is “a special patron for those who have to leave their land because of war, hatred, persecution, and poverty” (*Patris corde*, n. 5).

Third Dream: Return to the Land of Israel (Mt 2,19-21)

Herod’s death, the Lord’s angel appears to Joseph again in a dream in Egypt (Mt 2,19). The order echoes the previous one: rise up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, “for those who had sought the child’s life are dead” (Mt 2,20). Exegetes recognize here an intentional echo of Exodus 4,19, when God commands Moses to return to Egypt with nearly identical words: Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses, and Joseph as the human instrument of this new exodus. The execution is immediate once again: Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and entered the land of Israel (Mt 2,21).

Fourth Dream: The Deviation to Galilee (Mt 2,22-23)

Upon learning that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father, Joseph feared to go there. The fourth revelation addresses this prudent fear: “Warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee” (Mt 2,22). The Greek verb χρηματισθείς (chrēmatistheis), a technical term for a divine oracle, is used here just as it was for the magi’s revelation (Mt 2,12). The detail is theologically significant: revelation does not dispense with human consideration; rather, it assumes it. Joseph thinks, evaluates the danger, and God responds within that discernment. The result is Nazareth, “he will be called Nazarene” (Mt 2,23), and there his long hidden life begins in which Jesus was submissive to Mary and Joseph (cf. Catholic Catechism, nn. 531-532).

The Parallel with Patriarch Joseph of Egypt

A careful reader of Scripture immediately recognizes the pattern: a Joseph, son of Jacob, who receives revelations in dreams, goes down to Egypt, and, chaste and provident, saves his own family and people from death (Gn 37-50). Matthew builds the portrait of Mary’s husband on this mold. The pharaoh’s invitation, in the Vulgate *Ite ad Ioseph* (“Go to Joseph,” Gn 41,55), became thus the classic motto of devotion to Saint Joseph, which we discussed in the article on *”Ide a José.”

This correspondence is not a devotional ornament but typological with doctrinal value, recognized by tradition and magisterium. Pius IX opens the decree Quemadmodum Deus (8.12.1870), by which he declared Saint Joseph patron of the Catholic Church, precisely for this parallel: just as God constituted the ancient Joseph, born to patriarch Jacob, governor over all Egypt to store the people’s grain, so, in sending His Son into the world, He chose another Joseph, from whom the first was a type, and made him guardian of His chief treasures (Acta Sanctae Sedis 6, p. 193). Leo XIII reprises the argument in his encyclical Quamquam pluries:

The Joseph of ancient times, son of patriarch Jacob, was a type of Saint Joseph, and the first by his glory prefigured the greatness of the future guardian of the Holy Family. (Leo XIII, Quamquam pluries, n. 4)

Dreams are the most visible point of this typology: in Genesis, they announce Providence’s use of a righteous one to save many. In Matthew, they guide the righteous who protects the very Savior.

The Theology of Silent Obedience

Matthew describes Joseph’s response three times using the same Greek participle, ἐγερθείς (egertheis), meaning “having risen” (Mt 1:24, Mt 2:14, and Mt 2:21). Joseph wakes up and acts. He does not ask for confirmations, negotiate deadlines, or speak: in the entire New Testament, not a single word of his is preserved. John Paul II, in his Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris custos, made this response the core of his theological portrait of Joseph:

In truth, Joseph did not respond to the “announcement” of the angel like Mary; but “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1:24). This that he did is pure “obedience of faith” (cf. Rom 1:5; 16:26; 2 Cor 10:5-6). (John Paul II, Redemptoris custos, n. 4)

Joseph’s silence is not mutism, it is language. John Paul II observes that this silence “has a special eloquence” because it reveals the judgment the Gospel gives him, the righteous of Mt 1:19 (Redemptoris custos, n. 17). The Gospels speak exclusively of what Joseph did, yet they hint at a climate of deep contemplation in these actions shrouded by silence (cf. n. 25). We delve deeper into this dimension in the article on Joseph’s Silence. Francis, in turn, reads the four dreams as four successive “yeses”:

In all circumstances of his life, Joseph knew to pronounce his ‘fiat’, like Mary at the Annunciation and Jesus in Gethsemane. (Francis, Patris corde, n. 3)

It is significant that God speaks to Joseph precisely while he sleeps. The iconography of Saint Joseph Sleeping arises from this: Joseph’s sleep is not an escape, it is a space of listening. And the obedience that follows his awakening expresses a peculiar mode of divine action, for God wished to save humanity by using the active collaboration of a man, the silent and faithful gesture of the carpenter of Nazareth.

From Dream to Mission

Os quatro sonhos de São José não são meras curiosidades psicológicas nem literatura edificante; eles constituem a estrutura narrativa pela qual Mateus revela Deus confiar o Redentor e sua Mãe à custódia de um homem justo. Por meio desses sonhos, José recebeu Maria como esposa, salvou o menino, conduziu-o de volta à terra da promessa e preparou-lhe uma casa na vida oculta. Em linha com o desejo expresso por João Paulo II em “Redemptoris custos”, “que São José se torne para todos um mestre singular no serviço da missão salvífica de Cristo” (n. 32), aprender sobre os sonhos de José significa compreender o essencial da vida cristã: escutar, levantar-se e agir.

## Perguntas Frequentes

### Quantos sonhos teve São José?
São José teve quatro sonhos, todos registrados no Evangelho de Mateus: receber Maria como esposa e dar-lhe o nome de Jesus (Mt 1,20-24), fugir para o Egito (Mt 2,13-15), retornar à terra de Israel (Mt 2,19-21) e se retirar para a Galileia (Mt 2,22-23). Considerando também o aviso dado aos magos (Mt 2,12), o Evangelho menciona cinco sonhos, mas apenas quatro são dirigidos diretamente a José.

### O que o anjo disse a São José no primeiro sonho?
No primeiro sonho, o anjo do Senhor disse: “José, filho de Davi, não temas receber Maria, tua mulher, porque o que nela foi gerado vem do Espírito Santo” (Mt 1,20). O anjo também ordenou que José desse ao menino o nome de Jesus, “porque Ele salvará o povo dos seus pecados” (Mt 1,21). Ao acordar, José seguiu as instruções do anjo e recebeu Maria (Mt 1,24).

### Qual anjo apareceu a São José em sonho?
O Evangelho de Mateus não identifica o mensageiro, referindo-se apenas ao “anjo do Senhor” (Mt 1,20 e 2,13.19). Qualquer tentativa de identificar o anjo como Gabriel é uma conjectura piedosa sem apoio no texto bíblico. No quarto aviso (Mt 2,22), não se menciona nenhum anjo, apenas que José foi avisado divinamente em sonho.

### Por que São José obedecia imediatamente aos sonhos?
José obedecia prontamente aos sonhos porque reconhecia neles a voz de Deus e respondia com uma “obediência da fé”, conforme descrito por João Paulo II em “Redemptoris custos” (n. 4). Mateus destaca a prontidão de José ao usar o particípio grego “egertheis”, que significa “tendo-se levantado”. José acordava e agia imediatamente, como no caso de sua partida para o Egito à noite (Mt 2,14). Francisco de Assis também ressalta que José soube pronunciar seu “fiat”, assim como Maria na Anunciação (Patris corde, n. 3).

### Qual a relação entre São José e o José do Egito?
O patriarca José, filho de Jacó (Gn 37-50), é visto como um tipo bíblico de São José. Ambos receberam revelações em sonhos, foram para o Egito e salvaram sua família e povo da morte. Pio IX iniciou o decreto “Quemadmodum Deus” (1870) com essa comparação, e Leão XIII ensinou em “Quamquam pluries” que o primeiro José prefigurou a grandeza do futuro guardião da Sagrada Família.