Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER IX.

1 The priests de­sire a new veil for the tem­ple, 3 sev­en vir­gins cast lots for mak­ing dif­fer­ent parts of it, 4 the lot to spin the true pur­ple falls to Mary. 5 Zacharias, the high priest, be­comes dumb. 7 Mary takes a pot to draw wa­ter, and hears a voice, 8 trem­bles and be­gins to work, 9 an an­gel Ap­pears and salutes her, and tells her she shall con­ceive by the Holy Ghost, 17 she sub­mits. 19 Vis­its her cousin Eliz­abeth, whose child in her womb leaps.

AND it came to pass, in a coun­cil of the priests, it was said, Let us make a new veil for the tem­ple of the Lord.

2 And the high-​priest said, Call to­geth­er to me sev­en un­de­filed vir­gins of the tribe of David.

3 And the ser­vants went and brought them in­to the tem­ple of the Lord, and the high-​priest said un­to them, Cast lots be­fore me now, who of you shall spin the gold­en thread, who the blue, who the scar­let, who the fine linen, and who the true pur­ple.

4 Then the high-​priest knew Mary; that she was of the tribe of David; and he called her, and the true pur­ple fell to her lot to spin, and she went away to her own house.

5 But from that time Zacharias the high-​priest be­came dumb, and Samuel was placed in his room till Zacharias spoke again.

6 But Mary took the true pur­ple; and did spin it.

7 And she took a pot, and went out to draw wa­ter, and heard a voice say­ing un­to her, Hail thou who art full of grace, the Lord is with thee; thou art blessed among wom­en.

8 And she looked round to the right and to the left (to see) whence that voice came, and then trem­bling went in­to her house, and lay­ing down the wa­ter-​pot, she took the pur­ple, and sat down in her seat to work it.

9 And be­hold the an­gel of the Lord stood by her, and said, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour in the sight of God.

10 Which when she heard, she rea­soned with her­self what that sort of salu­ta­tion meant.

11 And the an­gel said un­to her, The Lord is with thee, and thou shalt con­ceive:

12 To which she replied, What! shall I con­ceive by the liv­ing God and bring forth as all oth­er wom­en do?

13 But the an­gel re­turned an­swer, Not so, O Mary, but the Holy Ghost shall come up­on thee, and the pow­er of the Most High shall over­shad­ow thee;

14 Where­fore that which shall be born of thee shall be holy, and shall be called the Son of the Liv­ing God, and thou shalt call his name Je­sus; for he shall save his peo­ple from their sins.

15 And be­hold thy cousin Eliz­abeth, she al­so hath con­ceived a son in her old age.

16 And this now is the sixth month with her, who was called bar­ren: for noth­ing is im­pos­si­ble with God.

17 And Mary said, Be­hold the hand­maid of the Lord; let it be un­to me ac­cord­ing to thy word.

18 And when she had wrought her pur­ple, she car­ried it to the high-​priest, and the high-​priest blessed her, say­ing, Mary, the Lord God hath mag­ni­fied thy name, and thou shalt be blessed in all the ages of the world.

19 Then Mary, filled with joy, went away to her cousin Eliz­abeth, and knocked at the door.

20 Which when Eliz­abeth heard, she ran and opened to her, and blessed her, and said, Whence is this to me, that the moth­er of my Lord should come un­to me?

21 For lo! as soon as the voice of thy salu­ta­tion reached my ears, that which is in me leaped and blessed thee.

22 But Mary, be­ing ig­no­rant of all those mys­te­ri­ous things which the archangel Gabriel had spo­ken to her, lift­ed up her eyes to heav­en, and said, Lord! What am I, that all the gen­er­ations of the earth should call me blessed?

23 But per­ceiv­ing her­self dai­ly to grow big, and be­ing afraid, she went home, and hid her­self from the chil­dren of Is­rael; and was four­teen years old when all these things hap­pened.