to be more wonderful. Therefore Anna thy wife shall bear thee a daughter, and thou shalt call her name Mary; she shall be, as you have vowed, consecrated to the Lord from her infancy, and shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from her mother's womb.[1] She shall neither eat nor drink anything impure, nor shall her conversation be among public crowds out of doors, but in the temple of the Lord, that nothing evil may be said or so much as suspected of her. Therefore with advancing age, as she shall be marvellously born of one barren, so she who is incomparably a virgin shall conceive the son of the Most High who shall be called Jesus, and according to the etymology of his name shall be the Saviour of all nations. And this shall be to thee a sign of what I announce: when thou comest to the Golden Gate at Jerusalem,[2] thou shalt have there to meet thee Anna thy wife, who now being anxious through the delay of thy return, will then rejoice in seeing thee. This said, the angel departed from him.
CHAPTER IV.
Then he appeared to Anna his wife, saying. Fear not, Anna, nor think it is a fantasm which thou
