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unto the birds of heaven, for the birds of heaven are fruitful before thee, O
Lord....And lo! an angel of the Lord from above spake thus unto her: Anna,
Anna! the Lord God hath heard thy cry, and thy seed shall be spoken of over the
whole earth. Anna said, As the Lord my God liveth, if a child, either male or
female, be born unto me, I will offer it as a gift to the Lord my God, and it
will be in his service all the days of its life....And when her full time had
come in the ninth month, Anna was delivered....And she gave the breast to the
child and called its name Mary.
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In an Arabic apocryphal book, called the History of our holy Father the Aged,
the Carpenter (Joseph), there is given the following account of Mary as a child.
Her parents took her to the Temple when three years old, and she remained there
nine years. Then when the Priests saw that the Holy Virgin had grown up, they
spoke among themselves, Let us call a righteous man, one that fears the Lord,
to take charge of Mary till the time of her marriage, that she may not remain in
the Temple. But before that time when her parents brought her, a new occasion
had arisen, of which we read as follows in the Protoevangelium:
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The Priest accepted the child, and having kissed and blessed her, spake thus
to her: May the Lord glorify thy name over all the races on the face of the
earth. The Lord God will in the latter days manifest to thee the ransom of the
house of Israel. And Mary remained like a dove in the Temple of the Lord, and
received food at an angel's hand. And when she was twelve years of age, the
Priests came together saying: See now, Mary is twelve years old, and still in
the Temple of the Lord; what then shall we do with her?....And behold an angel
of the Lord stood beside him and said: Zacharias; Zacharias! come forth, and
bring together all the widowers of thy people, and let each carry his rod, and
whom the Lord God
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will signify, his wife shall she be. And the criers went over the whole land
of Judea, and proclaimed it by the trumpet of the Lord, and all flocked
together; and Joseph also carrying his rod hurried to the Synagogue. So having
come together, they went to the Priest, who, gathering all their rods, went into
the Temple and prayed. Having finished the prayer, he came forth, and gave to
each man his rod, but upon none of them was there any mark. Joseph's rod came to
him last of all. And lo! a dove came out of the rod, and sat upon Joseph's head.
Then the Priest said to him: - Thou hast been chosen to take the Virgin of the
Lord; take her therefore under thy protection ....
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And Mary, taking a pitcher went forth to fill it with water; and lo! a voice
saying, "Hail thou highly favoured one: the Lord is with thee; blessed
art thou among women." And she looked to the right and to the left to see
whence the voice came; trembling she returned to her house, and putting down the
pitcher, sat upon her seat ....And lo, the angel of the Lord from over her
cried, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with the Lord and shalt
conceive by his word." Mary hearing it, became anxious in her soul, saying,
Am I to conceive, as every woman doth, and bring forth? And the angel said unto
her: - "Not thus, Mary, for the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
therefore that Holy Child shall be called the Son of the Highest, and thou shalt
call his name JESUS."
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Anyone reading the above will see that it gives a close account of Mary's
residence in the Holy Temple. We have pretty much the same in other books, such
as the following from the Coptic book on the Virgin Mary:
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When placed by Hanna in the Temple, Mary was fed there like the doves, as the
angels of the Lord brought her food from the heavens. When she worshipped the
Lord in the Temple, they did reverence to her, and often brought her fruit from
the Tree of Life, which she did eat with cheerfulness. .... Mary
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