Book of the Bee

Historical scan page 107

OF THE ANNUNCIATION BY GABRIEL TO MARY. 79 and doubt, and said to her, ‘ Whence hast thou this ? and who has beguiled thee, O perfect dove ? Wast thou not brought up with the pure virgins and venerable matrons in the temple of the Lord?’ And she wept, saying, ‘ As the Lord God liveth, I have never known man nor had connexion with any one;’ but she did not speak to him of the angel and the cause of her conception. Then Joseph meditated within himself and said, ‘ If I reveal this matter before men, I fear lest it may be from God ; and if I keep it back and hide it, I fear the rebuke and penalty of the law.’ For the Jews did not approach their wives until they made [v&] a feast to the high priest, and then they took them. And Joseph thought that he would put her away secretly; and while he was pondering these things in his heart, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary thy wife ; for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit.’ He spake well when he said ‘ in her,’ and not ‘ of her.’ And the priests heard of Mary’s conception, and they made an accusation against Joseph, as if deceit had been found in him. Joseph said, ‘ As the Lord liveth, I know not the cause of her conception ; ’ and Mary likewise swore this. There was a custom among the Jews that, when any one of them was accused with an accusation, they made him drink ‘the water of trial1;’ if he were innocent, he was not hurt, but if he were guilty, his belly swelled, and his body became swollen, and the mark of chastisement appeared in him. When they had made Mary and Joseph drink of the water of trial, and they were not hurt, the high priest commanded Joseph to guard her diligently until they saw the end of this matter 2. CHAPTER XXXVI 3. OF THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD IN THE FLESH. One year before the annunciation of our Lord, the emperor of the Romans sent to the land of Palestine Cyrinus 4 the governor, to write 1 Num. v. 18. 2 See Hone, Apoc. New Test., Protevangelion, chap, xi; Cowper, Apocryphal Gospels, p. 48 ; Thilo, Codex Apocryphus, p.372; Tischendorf, Evangelia Apoc., p. 7 2. 3 Chap, xl in the Oxford MS. 4 Luke ii. 1-2. The name is written in the MSS. of ‘ the Bee ’ Kv/Ao9=Quirinus.