CHAPTER 1.
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Levi
Palestine. Birth of Mary. Joachim’s feast. Mary is blest by the priests. His prophecy. Mary abides in the temple. Is betrothed to Joseph.
Augustus Cæsar reigned and Herod Antipas was ruler of Jerusalem.
2 Three provinces comprised the land of Palestine: Judea, and Samaria, and Galilee.
3 Joachim was a master of the Jewish law, a man of wealth; he lived in Nazareth of Galilee; and Anna, of the tribe of Judah, was his wife.
4 To them was born a child, a goodly female child, and they were glad; and Mary was the name they gave the child.
5 Joachim made a feast in honor of the child; but he invited not the rich, the honored and the great; he called the poor, the halt, the lame, the blind, and to each one he gave a gift of raiment, food, or other needful thing.
6 He said, The Lord has given me this wealth; I am his steward by his grace, and if I give not to his children when in need, then he will make this wealth a curse.
7 Now, when the child was three years old her parents took her to Jerusalem, and in the temple she received the blessings of the priests.
8 The high priest was a prophet and a seer, and when he saw the child he said,
9 Behold, this child will be the mother of an honored prophet and a master of the law; she shall abide within this holy temple of the Lord.
10 And Mary did abide within the temple of the Lord; and Hillel, chief of the Sanhedrim, taught her all the precepts of the Jews, and she delighted in the law of God.
11 When Mary reached the age of womanhood she was betrothed to Joseph, son of Jacob, and a carpenter of Nazareth.
12 And Joseph was an upright man; and a devoted Essenes.