the Most High shall overshadow thee contrary to all fire of concupiscence; therefore, what is born of thee will be alone holy, because alone conceived and born without sin, and shall be called the Son of God. Then Mary, with outspread hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, for I am unworthy of the name of lady; let it be unto me according to thy word.
It would perhaps be long and tedious to some, if we wished to insert, in this little work, all that we read preceded or followed the Lord's nativity; wherefore, omitting those things which are more fully written in the Gospel, let us come to the narration of those things which are less detailed.[1]
CHAPTER X.
Joseph, therefore, having come from Judea into Galilee, intended to take as wife the virgin who was espoused to him; for three months had now elapsed, and the fourth approached from the time when she had been espoused to him. Meanwhile her pregnancy began gradually to show itself, and it could not be hidden from Joseph; for entering freely to the virgin in the manner of a spouse, and talking
- ↑ This last paragraph reads like an addition, but is not such of necessity. Comp. Pseudo-Matthew ix.
