The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-01-08
THE NATIVITY.

THE NATIVITY.
The suppressed story OF the Nativity
an Narrated In the Gospel OF the Pro-
tevamge1iOn.
The Protevangelion, or historical ac-
count of the birth of Christ and the
perpetual Virgin Mary, his mother, is
ascribed to James the Less, who has
been sometimes styled "Cousin and
| brother of the Lord Jesus, and chief
apostle aud first bishop OF the Cnr1s-
| tians in Jerusalem. The alluslons 10
this gospel in the ancient Fathers are
frequent, and their expressions indicate
that at one period it was widely credit.
ed. The controversies founded on IL
chiefly relate to the age OF Joseph at
| the birth of Christ, and to his being a
widower with children before his mar
riage with the virgin. The book is
supposed to have been originally COM
! posed in Hebrew. Postellus brought
the MS. of this gospel from the Levant,
translated it into Latin, and sent it to
| Oporinus, a printer at Basle, where
Bibliander, Protestant divine, and the
professor of divinity at Zurich, caused
| it to be printed in 1862. Postellus as
/ serted that it was publicly read as
canonical in the Eastern churches, they
making no doubt that James was the
author of it. It is, nevertheless, con-
sidered apocryphal by the most learned
divines in the Protestant and Roman
Catholic Churches. We reproduce from
| this ancient, though reputed spurious
gospel, the account of the Nativity :.
= = +
And it came to pass that there went
forth q decree from the Emperor Au-
gustus that all the Jews should be tax
| ed, who were of Bethlehem in Judea.
| r G-H- -
my children be taxed; but what shah
do with this young woman?
TO have her taxed as my wife, I am
| ashamed and if tax her as my daugh-
ter, all Israel knows she is not my
daughter.
When the time of the Lords appoint
ment shall come, let him do as seems
good to him.
And he saddled the ass, and put her
upon it, and Joseph and Simon followed
after her, and arrived at Bethlehem
within three miles.
Then Joseph, turning about, saw
Mary sorrowful, and said within him
self, perhaps size is in pain through that
which is within her.
But when he had turned about again,
he saw her laughing, and said to her,
Mary, how happens it that I sometimes
see sorrow, and sometimes laughter and
Joy In thy countenance?
| And Mary replied to him, see two
people with mine eyes, the one weeping
and moaning, the other laughing and
rejoicing.
And he went again across the way,
and Mary said to Joseph, Take me down
from the ass, for that which is in me
presses to come forth.
But Joseph replied, Whittier shall I
take thee, for the place is desert?
Then said Mary again to joseph, Take
me down, for that which is within me
nightly presses me.
And Joseph took her down. And he
found there a cave, and let her into it.
And leaving her and his son in the
brew midwife in the village of Bethle-
hem.
But as I was going (said Joseph I
looked up into the air, and saw the
clouds astonished, and the fowls of the
air stopping in the midst of their fight
And I looked down toward the earth,
and saw a table spread, and working
people sitting around it, but their hands
were upon the table. and they did not
move to eat.
They who lifted their hands mp to
their heads did not draw them back.
And they who lifted them up to their
mouths did not put anything in.
But all their faces were fixed upward.
And I beheld the sheep dispersed,
and yet the sheep stood still.
And theshepherd lifted up his hand to
smite them, ard his hand continued up.
And looked unto a river, and saw
the kid with their mouths close to the
water, and touching it, but they did not
drink.
Then beheld a woman coming down
f6o md Qh IN
Where art thou going, o man?
And said to her, ] go to inquire for
Hebrew midwife.
She replied to me, Where is the
woman that is to be delivered?
And I answered, In the cave, and
.. she is betrothed to me.
! Then said the midwife, Is she not thy
wife?
Joseph answered, It is Mary, who
was educated in the Holy of Holes, in
the house of the Lord, and she fell to
me by lot, and is not my wife, but has
conceived by the Holy Ghost.
The midwife said, Is this true?
He answered. Come and see.
And the midwife went along with him
and stood in the cave.
Then q bright cloud overshadowed
the cave, and the midwife said, This
day my soul is magnified. for mine eyes
have seen surprising things, and saliva
tion is brought forth to Israel.
But on a sudden the cloud became q
) great light in the cave, SO that their
eyes could not bear it.
But the light gradually decreased,
until the infant appeared, and sucked
the breast of his mother Mary.
Then the midwife cried out and said
How glorious . day is this, wherein
: mine eyes have seen this extraordinary