Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER VI.

1 Mary at nine months old, walks nine steps. 3 An­na keeps her holy. 4 When she is a year old, Joachim makes a great feast. 7 An­na gives her the breast, and sings a song to the Lord.

AND the child in­creased in strength ev­ery day, so that when she was nine months old, her moth­er put her up­on the ground, to try if she could stand; and when she had walked nine steps, she came again to her moth­er’s lap.

2 Then her moth­er caught her up, and said, As the Lord my God liveth, thou shalt not walk again on this earth, till I bring thee in­to the tem­ple of the Lord.

3 Ac­cord­ing­ly she made her cham­ber a holy place, and suf­fered noth­ing un­com­mon or un­clean to come near her, but in­vit­ed cer­tain un­de­filed daugh­ters of Is­rael, and they drew her aside.

4 But when the child was a year old, Joachim made a great feast, and in­vit­ed the priests, scribes, el­ders, and all the peo­ple of Is­rael;

5 And Joachim then made an of­fer­ing of the girl to the chief- priests, and they blessed her, say­ing, The God of our fa­thers bless this girl, and give her a name fa­mous and last­ing through all gen­er­ations. And all the peo­ple replied, So be it, Amen:

6 Then Joachim a sec­ond time of­fered her to the priests, and they blessed her, say­ing, O most high God, re­gard this girl, and bless her with an ev­er­last­ing bless­ing.

7 Up­on this her moth­er took her up, and gave her the breast, and sung the fol­low­ing song to the Lord.

8 I will sing a song un­to the Lord my God, for he hath vis­it­ed me, and tak­en away from me the re­proach of mine en­emies, and hath giv­en me the fruit of his righ­teous­ness, that it may now be told the sons of Reuben, that An­na gives suck.

9 Then she put the child to rest in the room which she had con­se­crat­ed, and she went out and min­is­tered un­to them.

10 And when the feast was end­ed, they went away re­joic­ing, and prais­ing the God of Is­rael.