Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER III.

1 The an­gel ap­pears to An­na; 2 tells her a daugh­ter shall be born un­to her, 3 de­vot­ed to the ser­vice of the Lord in the tem­ple, 5, who, be­ing a vir­gin, and not know­ing man, shall bring forth the Lord, 6 and gives her a sign there­fore. 8 Joachim and An­na meet, and re­joice, 10 and praise the Lord. 11 An­na con­ceives, and brings forth a daugh­ter called Mary.

AF­TER­WARDS the an­gel ap­peared to An­na his wife, say­ing; Fear not, nei­ther think that which you see is a spir­it;

2 For I am that an­gel who hath of­fered up your prayers and alms be­fore God, and am now sent to you, that I may in­form you, that a daugh­ter will be born un­to you, who shall be called Mary, and shall be blessed above all wom­en.

3 She shall be, im­me­di­ate­ly up­on her birth, full of the grace of the Lord, and shall con­tin­ue dur­ing the three years of her wean­ing in her fa­ther’s house, and af­ter­wards, be­ing de­vot­ed to the ser­vice of the Lord, shall not de­part from the tem­ple, till she ar­rive to years of dis­cre­tion.

4 In a word, she shall there serve the Lord night and day in fast­ing and prayer, shall ab­stain from ev­ery un­clean thing, and nev­er know any man;

5 But, be­ing an un­par­al­leled in­stance with­out any pol­lu­tion or de­file­ment, and a vir­gin not know­ing any man, shall ring forth a son, and a maid shall bring forth the Lord, who both by his grace and name and works, shall be the Saviour of the world.

6 Arise there­fore, and go up to Jerusalem, and when you shall come to that which is called the gold­en gate (be­cause it is gilt with gold), as a sign of what I have told you, you shall meet your hus­band, for whose safe­ty you have been so much con­cerned.

7 When there­fore you find these things thus ac­com­plished, be­lieve that all the rest which I have told you, shall al­so un­doubt­ed­ly be ac­com­plished.

8 Ac­cord­ing there­fore to the com­mand of the an­gel, both of them left the places where they were, and when they came to the place spec­ified in the an­gels pre­dic­tion, they met each oth­er.

9 Then, re­joic­ing at each oth­er’s vi­sion, and be­ing ful­ly sat­is­fied in the promise of a child, they gave due thanks to the Lord, who ex­alts the hum­ble.

10 Af­ter hav­ing praised the Lord, they re­turned home, and lived in a cheer­ful and as­sured ex­pec­ta­tion of the promise of God.

11 So An­na con­ceived, and brought forth a daugh­ter, and, ac­cord­ing to the an­gel’s com­mand, the par­ents did call her name Mary.