78 One of the MSS. has: And when Joseph, worn out with old age, died and was buried with his parents, the blessed Mary lived with her nephews, or with the chilfdren of her sisters; for Anna and Emerina were sisters. OF Emerina was born Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. And as Anna, the mother of the blessed Mary, was very beautiful, when Joachim was dead she was married to Cleophas, by whom she had a second daughter. She called her Mary, and gave her to Alphaeus to wife; and of her was born James the son of Alphaeus, and Philip his brother. And her second husband having died, Anna was married to a third husband named Salome, by whom she had a third daughter. She calle dher Mary likewise, and gave her to Zebedee to wife; and of her were born James the son of Zebedee, and John the Evangelist.
Another passage to the same effect is prefixed to the Gospel. It reads Emeria for Emerina, and Josph for Philip. It ends with a quotation from Jerome's sermon upon Easter:-WE read in the Gospels that there were four Marys-first, the mother of the Lord the Saviour; second, His maternal aunt, who was calle dMary of Cleophas; third, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, fourth, Mary Magdalene-though some maintain that the mother of James and Joseph was His aunt.
The same MS. thus concludes: The holy Apostle and Evanglis John with his own hand wrote this little book in Hebrew, and the leraned doctor Jerome rendered it from Hebrew into Latin.
1 1 Macc. iv. 52-59; 2 Macc. x. 1-8; John x. 22; Josephus, Antiq. xii. 7.
2 The spelling in the text is that in the Hebrew, the Samaritan Codex, the Targums, and the Textus Receptus. There is no Issachar in the lits of high priests.
3 This statement does not occur in Scripture in so many words; but sterility was looked upon as a punishment from God.
5 Gen. xvii. 17. Sarah was ninety years old.
6 Ps. cxx.-cxxxiv. The fifteen steps le dfrom the court of the women to that of the men.
1 The Coptic has: The 26th day of Epep. This is the departure from the body of our father Joseph the carpenter, the father of Christ after the flesh, who was 111 years old. Our Saviour narrated all his life to His apostles on Mount Olivet; and His apostles wrote it, and put it in the library which is in Jerusalem .Also that the day on which the holy old man laid down his body was the 26th of the month Epep. In the peace of God, amen.
His day is the 19th of March in the Roman calandar.
8 Jer. ix. 23, 24; 1 Cor. i. 31; 2 Cor. x. 17.
11 Ps. ii. 9; Rev. xi. 5, xix. 15.
13 It was Herod Antipas who ordered John to be beheaded.
15 The Salome here mentioned was, according to two of the MSS. of Pseudo-Matthew, the third husband of Anna, Mary's mother, and the father of Mary the wife of Zebedee. But compare Matt. xxvii. 56 with Mark xv. 40.
17 One the subject of guardian angels, see Shepherd of Hermas, iii. 4; Justin, Apol., ii. 5, Tryph., 5; Athenagoras, Legat., 10, 20; Clem. Alex., Strom., vi. 17.
18 This clause looks like an interpolation. But the doctrine of purgatory was held from an early date. Clem. Alex., Poedag., iii. 9; Strom., vii. 6; Origen against Celsus, v. 14, 15.
19 Note the change from the first person.
20 Here the Coptic has: This is the end of the life of my beloved father Joseph. When forty years old he married a wife, with whom he lived nine (? forty-nine) years. After her death he remained a widower one (or two) year: and my mother lived two years in his house before she was married to him, since he had been ordered by the priests to take charge of her until the time of her marriage. And my mother Mary brought me forth in the third year that she was in Joseph;s house, in the fifteenth year of her age. My mother bore me in a cave (this seems a mistranslation for mystery), which it is unlawful either to name or seek, and there is not in the whole creation a man who knows it, except me and my Father and the Holy Spirit. It is to be noted that the last clause is omitted in the Coptic. The phrase one essence was first used in regard to the doctrine of the Trinity by Augustine.