Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/60

lvi my conversation in the fear of God, have written all which with my own eyes I saw happen at the time of the nativity of St. Mary or of the Saviour; giving thanks to God, who gave me wisdom in the histories of his advent, showing the fulfilment unto the twelve tribes of Israel." The writer of this supposed he might as well refer the book to James as to any one else. Others have preferred to prefix to it the name of Matthew.

A book which contains so few incidents not to be found in other and more independent documents of its class, supplies little matter for comment. It resembles the Protevangelium in a feature which I have not referred to in the introduction to that book: I mean the sudden and total disappearance of the parents of Mary on her presentation in the temple. In the Protevangelium this occurs in chap, viii., and in Pseudo-Matthew in chap. v. Herein they both differ in a remarkable manner from the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, which says she went to the house of her parents in Galilee after her espousal to Joseph (Nativ. viii.). Mary's going up the fifteen steps at the temple is omitted by Pseudo-James, but is found in the Nativity (Pseudo-Matt, iv., Nativ. vi.). The names of the high-priests differ from those in