The Childhood of Jesus
The Gospel of James
Biographical Gospel of the Lord
- Chapter 9 -
An Angel Witnesses To Joseph
AND MARY told Joseph everything that happened to her while she was still working on the purple, and then ended her story with this assurance,
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'Therefore I again assure you, father, that as truly as God, the Lord of heaven and earth lives, that truly am I also clean and know no man and know just as little about the secret of God which I now must carry under my heart to my own great anguish!'
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Here Joseph became silent before Mary and was filled with a mighty dread - for Mary's words went deep into his distressed soul, and he quakingly found his secret presentiment confirmed.
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He therefore began to consider back and forth what he should do and said in his heart,
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'If I conceal from the world what it now considers to be an undeniable sin on Mary's part, even though I do not recognize it as such any more, I shall be adjudged a blasphemer against the Lord's law and will not escape certain punishment.
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But if, against my innermost conviction, I reveal her as a cheap sinner before the sons of Israel, when That which she carries under her heart - according to her unequivocal statement - proceeds from an angel,
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then I shall be found by the Lord God to be one who has delivered innocent blood to the judgment of death.
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What then shall I do with her? Shall I secretly leave her, that is, shall I secretly send her away and hide her somewhere in the hills near the border of the Greeks?(4601)
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Or shall I wait for the day of the Lord so He may then tell me what to do? And if tomorrow or the day after someone comes to me from Jerusalem and recognizes Mary, what then? Yes, I think it is best that I secretly send her away without anyone except my children knowing anything about it.
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The Lord will surely reveal her innocence in time, and then everything will be saved and won; so let it be in the name of the Lord!'
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Thereupon Joseph secretly made this known to Mary who acquiesced in Joseph's good intention, prepared herself and then, as it was already late in the evening, retired.
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Joseph, given to his manifold thoughts, also fell into a slumber, when lo, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said to him:
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'Joseph, have no fear about Mary, the purest maiden of the Lord! For What she carries under her heart is conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, and you shall give the Child, when He is born, the name: Jesus!'
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Here Joseph awoke and praised the Lord God, who had bestowed such grace upon him.
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And since it was already morning, Mary came to Joseph all ready for the intended journey, and indicated that it might be time to go.
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At this Joseph embraced the girl, pressed her to his bosom and said to her: 'Mary, you pure one, you shall remain with me. Today the Lord has given me a mighty witness for you, for That which will be born from you shall be named: Jesus!
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Here Mary knew immediately that the Lord had spoken to Joseph, since she now heard the same name which the angel had told her, although she had mentioned nothing of this before to Joseph. -
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Joseph now watched over the girl attentively and let her want for nothing that she needed in that condition.