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194
THE LIFE OF CHRIST

the world: O Mary, be devout towards thy Lord, and worship, and bow down with those who bow down. This is a secret history: we reveal it unto thee, although thou wast not present with them when they threw in their rods to cast lots which of them should have the education of Mary; neither wast thou with them when they strove among themselves. When the Angels said, O Mary, verily God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the word[1] proceeding from himself; his name shall be Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, honourable in this world and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God; and he shall speak[2] unto

  1. That is, Jesus, who, as Al-Beidâwi says, is so called, because he was conceived by the word or command of God, without a father.
  2. The spurious Gospel of the Infancy, relates a circumstance of this nature, from which the account seems borrowed. Vide Sale in loco. See also Jones on the Canonical authority of the New Testament.