By the time year 0 rolled around, the Jewish state of Judea had been under the control of the Roman empire for about 63 years and would stay that way until 313 C.E. Jews of the time were not necessarily happy with this arrangement, and wound up revolting again and again. As a smaller culture within a greater empire, they clung to traditional beliefs, meaning they followed whatever was written in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Such laws included stoning to death “promiscuous” women, women who were raped, and so forth. All Joseph had to do was speak up about his pregnant wife-to-be, Mary, and she would have been stoned to death by the local community.
Joseph, however, kept silent. He didn’t want to “expose her [Mary] to public shame. In this way, no matter how Joseph personally felt about the news of Mary’s pregnancy, he went against the current of the day by not drawing attention to her. This was Joseph’s fundamental reaction. Maybe he was incredulous, maybe he was hurt, maybe he believed that Mary had had a premarital liaison — we don’t know and the Bible doesn’t mention it. But, he definitely wasn’t concerned with prophecy stuff, Messiah stuff, or the forthcoming origins of a thousands-year-old, major world religion at that point. Joseph was concerned with the norms, rules, and traditions of the time. He was also concerned with not seeing his betrothed — no matter the truth behind her pregnancy — come to death.
