In Nat. Mary 5 the name Mary is given at the command of the angel.
6. When the child is six months old, Anna sets her on the ground ‘to try whether she can stand, and she walks seven steps’; Anna vows that Mary shall not walk on this earth until she has been taken to the temple of the Lord. When Mary is a year old, Joachim makes a great feast; the chief priests bless the child, and Anna sings a song to the Lord. 7. When Mary is three years old, her parents take her to the temple in fulfilment of their vow. After the high priest has blessed her, he ‘sets her down upon the third step of the altar’; she ‘dances with her feet, and all the house of Israel love her.’
In pseudo-Mat. 4 the child is put down before the doors of
the temple, and ‘goes up the fifteen steps so swiftly, that she does not look back at all.’ In Nat. Mary 6 the virgin of the Lord goes up all the steps without help ‘in such a manner that you would think she had already attained full age.’ The Lord ‘by the indication of this miracle’ foreshowed the greatness of ‘his virgin.’ 8. Mary dwells in the temple ‘as if she were a dove,’ and is fed by the hand of an angel. When she is twelve years old, Zacharias the high priest summons the widowers in order that the Lord may signify whose wife Mary is to be.
Pseudo-Mat. 6 adds many marvels, as, ¢.g., the angels often speak to Mary and most diligently obey her; sick people who touch her go home cured. Both in psewdo-Mat. and Nat. Mary
the age of Mary is fourteen when she refuses to be given in marriage, and announces her resolve to be a virgin to God.
9. Joseph, throwing away his axe, obeys the sum- mons ; the widowers present their rods to the high priest in the temple. A dove comes out of Joseph’s rod and rests upon his head—the sign that he is chosen to keep the virgin of the Lord. 10. When Joseph refuses, saying, ‘I have children, and I am an old man,’ the priest warns him of the guilt
of disobedience. J oseph therefore takes Mary from the temple to his home.
In pseudo-Mat. 8 the tribe of Judah is chosen by lot; then every man of that tribe, ‘who has no wife,’ takes his rod to the temple. The high priest does not at first bring Joseph’s rod out of the Holy of Holies ‘ because he was an old man.’ Joseph asks : ‘ Why do you hand over to me this infant, who is younger than my grandsons?’ In Nat. Mary 8 Joseph withholds his rod; God is consulted a second time, and Joseph is found out ; also Joseph’s rod produces a flower on which the Spirit descends in the form of a dove (cf. Is 111-2),
11. The angel of the Lord announces to Mary at the well the coming upen her of the power of the Lord.
In pseudo-Mat. 9 the angel appears to Mary in her chamber, while she is working at the purple for the veil of the temple.
12. Mary visits Elisabeth, who greets her as ‘the mother of my Lord.’ 13. Mary returns home after her three months’ visit to Elisabeth ; Joseph re- proaches her, and with weeping she maintains her innocence. 14. The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph. 15. Annas the scribe accuses Joseph of stealthily marrying Mary ; the officers bring her with Joseph tothe tribunal. 16. Joseph and Mary drink the water of the ordeal and remain unhurt. Pseudo-Mat. 10-12 describes with even less restraint the incidents recorded in chs. 13-16. In Nat. Mary 9 the words of the angel to Mary are much expanded; from one addition it would seem that when this apocryphal book was written the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was unknown: ‘that which shall be born of thee shall alone be holy, because it alone,
pong, conceived and born without sin, shall be called the Son of God.’
17. Joseph takes Mary and his sons to be enrolled in Bethlehem. In Mary’s face sometimes there is laughter and sometimes sorrow; she explains to Joseph, ‘I see two peoples with my eyes; the one lamenting, and the other rejoicing.’
Pseudo-Mat. 13 adds ‘she saw the people of the Jews weeping,
because they have departed from their God; and the people of the Gentiles rejoicing, because they have been made near to the Lord.’ But cf. Gn 2528 or Lk 234, 18. Joseph leaves Mary in a cave in charge of his two sons, whilst he seeks a woman to minister to her needs. The sky is astonished and the birds keep still. 19. When the woman enters the cave a great light shines, but it gradually decreases until the infant’s birth. 20. The woman tells Salome of the strange event; Salome demands proof. Her hand is made to burn with fire as a punishment for her unbelief, but is restored when she touches the infant. 21. The Magi are led by the star to the cave, and present their gifts. 22. Herod sends murderers to kill the children from two years old and under. Mary puts her child into an ox-stall. A mountain is cleft to receive Elisabeth and John.