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19. δίκαιος ὤν, ‘since he was a just man,’ i.e. one who observed the law, and, therefore, feeling bound to divorce Mary. But two courses were open to him. He could either summon her before the law-courts to be judicially condemned and punished, or he could put her away by a bill of divorcement before witnesses, but without assigning cause. This is meant by λάθρα ἀπολῦσαι αὐτήν, the more merciful course which Joseph resolved to adopt. The tradition of mediæval art that Joseph was an old man at this time rests on no scriptural evidence, but the fact that he disappears from the Gospel history after Luk 2:51, and the inference that he died before our Lord’s ministry began are adduced in support of that view.
καὶ μὴ θέλων. καὶ appears to have a restrictive force and to be equivalent to καίτοι. See Jelf, 759. 3, and Campbell’s Soph. Introd. § 25. 2. 6. Cp. ὦ στέφανε χαίρων ἄπιθι καί σʼ ἄκων ἐγὼ | λείπω, Aristoph. Eq. 1250, and καὶ θεὸς ἐμμὶ καὶ οὐ δύναμαί σε διώκειν, Bion, Id. I. 53. In all these passages, however, it is better to see the restrictive or adversative force not in the connecting particle but in the contrasted clauses and to regard καὶ as simply conjunctive. See Winer, 545.
μὴ θέλων, ‘since he was unwilling,’ quum nollet. In modern Greek μὴ is always the negative used with participles. Perhaps the origin of the usage may be traced to the fact that the participle generally explains the motive or condition of an action and so would require μὴ rather than οὐ. Then from the tendency to grammatical uniformity the usage became universal. In the N.T. there is a close approach in this respect to the rule of modern Greek.
δειγματίσαι, ‘to display,’ ‘exhibit,’ here ‘to expose in open court,’ as opposed to λάθρα ἀπολῦσαι. παραδειγματίσαι—the reading of the received text—is used by Polybius of punishing the guilty for an example to others, II. 60. 7, XV. 32. 5, et alibi, see Schweighäuser sub voc. The simple verb which does not appear to be classical is found in the sense of ‘displaying’ as in a triumph in Col 2:15, τὰς ἐξουσίας ἐδειγμάτισεν ἐν παρρησίᾳ, see Bp Lightfoot on the passage. The modern Greek version νὰ θεατρίσῃ conveys the idea of exposure simply.