Chapter 7.
Then Abiathar the priest offered gifts without end
to the high priests, in order that he might obtain her as wife to his
son. But Mary forbade them, saying: It cannot be that I
should know a man, or that a man should know me. For all the
priests and all her relations kept saying to her: God is
worshipped in children and adored in posterity, as has always happened
among the sons of Israel. But Mary answered and said unto
them: God is worshipped in chastity, as is proved first of
all.1631
| 1631 Or, by the first of
all. |
For before
Abel there was none
righteous among men, and he by his offerings pleased
God, and was
without
mercy slain by him who displeased Him. Two
crowns,
therefore, he received—of oblation and of
virginity, because in
his
flesh there was no
pollution.
Elias also, when he was in the
flesh, was taken up in the
flesh, because he kept his
flesh
unspotted. Now I, from my infancy in the
temple of
God, have
learned that
virginity can be sufficiently dear to God. And so,
because I can offer what is dear to God, I have resolved in my heart
that I should not know a man at all.
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