2. The brief but exquisite sketch of our Lord’s early years contained in the NT provided a natural stimulant to imagination and curiosity, and the craving for further particulars was supplied by the writers of the Apocryphal Gospels, sometimes with the ulterior aim of magnifying asceticism or incul- cating some special doctrine of their own. Hence in the Apostolic Constitutions (vi. 16) these works are spoken of as ‘ poisonous apocryphal books in which the wicked heretics reproach the creation, mar- riage, the providential government of the world,’ etc. Their popularity, however, was so great, that Catholic writers found it necessary either to imitate or to revise them. We will give here a gensral sketch of the further story of the Infancy.
erived from a comparison of these apocryphal sources, disregarding minor discrepancies.
* Blass (1.6. p. 238) quotes Nonnus’ paraphrase τί iue/, γύνα, ἠὶ σοὶ αὐτῇ, as implying that ὃ must have been read instead of καί in a contemporary MS of the Fourth Gospel, aud argues that we should replace ἢ in the text. Prof. Ramsay thinks that we may understand the existing text in the same general sense, ‘how does that concern wa’ (/.c, p. 84). The objection to this is (1) the constant use of the phrase in the other sense ; (2) the consensus of the ancient commentators ; (3) the almost certainty that the other meaning would have been expressed by τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς as in Mt 274, Jn 2122; (4) the inappropriateness of the supposed language in the mouth of Jesus under the actual circumstances. Surely it is every man’s ‘concern’ to save his friend from incon- venience or discredit. And what, on this supposition, is the force of the words which follow ‘mine hour has not yet come 't —words which give a natural reason for the τὶ ime) mai σοί ι
4 TR reads μενοῦνγε with B2OD, but the γε is rightly dropped by WH, Nestle, εἰ ad.
The first development is concerned with the period preceding the betrothal of Mary. Her parents are said to have been Joachim of Nazareth and Anna of Bethlehem, both of the family of David. When they had been married twenty years without children, Joachim, going up to make iis offering at the temple, was repelled as coming under the curse pronounced in Scripture against those who had not raised up seed to Israel. ‘Being ashamed to return home, he retired to the wilder- ness and fasted there forty days, and received an assurance that a child should be born to him. Meanwhile his wife was bewailing her barrenness and her husband’s desertion, envying even the sparrows which had their nest in her garden. An angel comforted her by the news that Joachim was returning, and that she should bear him a child, whom she at once vowed to dedicate to the service of the temple. At the age of three, the child of promise was accordingly taken by her parents to the temple, where she charmed all the beholders by dancing on the steps of the altar. She remained in the temple, ministered to by angels, till she had completed her twelfth year, when the high press was directed to summon all the widowers of srael to bring each his rod to present before the altar, in order that it might be made known by a miraculous sign to whose care the Virgin was to be committed. When Joseph’s rod was returned to him, a dove issued from it and hovered over his head: to him therefore Mary was entrusted in spite of his protests. Seven virgins were appointed to be her companions, and to work with her at a new veil for the temple, while Joseph left his home to follow his calling as a shipwnght. One day Mary, going out to draw water, heard a voice saying, ‘Hail! thou that art highly favoured.’ Being alarmed at seeing no one, she left her vessel and returned to work at the veil, when an angel
appeared and addressed her in the words, ‘ Fear
not, Mary, thou hast found favour with God by thy vow of chastity, and shalt conceive by His word. . . . A virgin thou shalt conceive, a virgin bring forth, a virgin rear thy Son.’ Shortly after- wards Mary appeared before the high priest with the veil, and received his blessing. hen come the visit to Elisabeth, the return home, the meet- ing with Joseph, the quieting of his suspicions by a vision, a summons from the priests, directing hoth Mary and Joseph to attend at the temple and reply to the charge brought against them ; the proof of their innocence by the ordeal of the water of bitterness (Nu 5%).
In the apocryphal account of the visit to Beth- lehem the following points are noticeable. Mary rides on an ass, and is accompanied by Joseph and two of his sons ; as they approach Bethlehem they stop before a cave,* into which Joseph carried her. As soon as she entered it the darkness was lit up by a glory brighter than the sun, which continued as long as she remained there. Meanwhile Joseph had gone to seek for a midwife. As he went, he looked up and saw all movement brought to a sudden pause, both in heaven and earth. When the pause was over, he beheld a woman coming down from the mountain, who told him she was a midwife, and went with him to the cave, on which a bright cloud was resting. Going in they found Mary with her Child at her breast, but no other sign of her delivery. Salome, who had followed them, would not believe in the miraculous birth without further examination,+