Chapter 1.1616
| 1616 Two of
themss. have this prologue: I James, the
son of Joseph, living in the fear of God, have written all that with my
own eyes I saw coming to pass in the time of the nativity of the holy
virgin Mary, or of the Lord the Saviour: giving thanks to God,
who has given me wisdom in the accounts of His Advent, showing His
abounding grace to the twelve tribes of Israel. |
In those days there was a man in Jerusalem,
Joachim by name, of the tribe of Judah. He was the shepherd of
his own sheep, fearing the Lord in integrity and singleness of
heart. He had no other care than that of his herds, from the
produce of which he supplied with food all that feared God, offering
double gifts in the fear of God to all who laboured in doctrine, and
who ministered unto Him. Therefore his lambs, and his sheep, and
his wool, and all things whatsoever he possessed, he used to divide
into three portions: one he gave to the orphans, the widows, the
strangers, and the poor; the second to those that worshipped God; and
the third he kept for himself and all his house.1617
And as he did so, the
Lord
multiplied to him his
herds, so that there was no man like him in the
people of
Israel. This now he began to do when he was fifteen
years old. And at the age of twenty he took to
wife Anna, the
daughter of Achar, of his own
tribe, that is, of the
tribe of
Judah, of
the
family of
David. And though they had lived together for
twenty years, he had by her neither sons nor
daughters.
1618
| 1618 One of
themss. has: Only they vowed that, if God
should give them offspring, they would devote it to the service of the
temple; and because of this, they were wont to go to the temple of the
Lord at each of the yearly festivals. |
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