may be committed till the time of marriage, lest, by remaining in the temple, there should happen to her what often happens to women, and we sin on that account, and God be angry with us.
CHAPTER IV.
Therefore, having forthwith sent out messengers, they called together twelve aged men of the tribe of Judah, and they wrote the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Now the lot fell upon the pious old man, Joseph the Just. Then the priests answered and said to my blessed mother,—Go with Joseph and be with him until the time of marriage. Therefore Joseph the Just received my mother and took her to his home. And Mary found James the Less in the house of his father, broken in mind and sad because of his bereavement of his mother, and she brought him up. Hence she is called Mary the Mother of James. After this Joseph left her in his house and went to his workshop, where his calling of carpenter was carried on. But after the holy virgin had spent two years in his house, her age became exactly fourteen years, including the time from which Joseph received her.
CHAPTER V.
I loved her with a peculiar affection, with the
