chief priest, who together with the priests began to reproach him and to say, Why hast thou wronged her who is such and so eminent a virgin, whom as a dove the angels of God nourished in the temple, who would never see nor have a husband, and who had the best learning in the law of God? If thou hadst not done violence to her, she had still remained in her virginity. And Joseph took a solemn oath that he had never touched her at all. The chief priest Abiathar answered him. As God liveth, I will now cause thee to drink the water of the Lord's drinking,[1] and forthwith thy sin will appear.
Then there gathered together a multitude of people which could not be numbered, and Mary was brought to the temple. Now the priests, and her relatives and her parents, weeping said to Mary, Confess to the priests thy sin, thou who wast as a dove in the temple of God, and used to receive food from the hand of an angel.
Joseph again was called to the altar and there was given to him the water of the Lord's drinking, which when anybody who told a lie had tasted he went round the altar seven times, and God gave a certain sign in his face. "When therefore Joseph had drunk it without fear, and had gone round the altar seven times, no sign of sin appeared in him. Then
- ↑ A Hebraism: for the water which the Lord commanded to be drunk.
