4. Apocryphal Text - Proto-Gospel of James

In the world of the apocrypha of the New Testament there are many different texts. We have seen an example of a Gnostic text in the Gospel of Thomas, simply an anthology of sayings, some of which are a little strange and esoteric, but there is another area of the gospels that is catalogued as apocryphal containing stories related mainly to the fundamental moments of Jesus' life, his childhood and his passion.

In particular, the apocryphal gospels about Jesus' childhood; are interesting because we have little news of the canonical gospels, only Matthew and Luke narrate some episodes, but much has remained unknown. There are texts of extreme fantasy, fruit of a novel, that is, some authors invented a story of Jesus' childhood following their own imagination, attributing to Jesus events decidedly distant and contrary to the evangelical revelation.

These stories have also become quite famous because they were preserved in the Latin tradition, translated into Latin and known in the Middle Ages and divulged until today. This is the case of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew who has many anecdotes about the infant Jesus. For example, he plays with Judas to make clay birds. Judas sees that those of Jesus are more beautiful and wants to step on them. Jesus claps his hands and the birds take flight. It is a small, banal story that exploits the contrast between Jesus and Judas. There are other decidedly negative stories. Jesus uses his divine powers as if he were a little wizard. He makes jokes, he mocks his companions. His companions' parents complain to St. Joseph, and he (Jesus) makes his parents blind because he was scolded.

He is not at all the Jesus of the Gospels. It is simply the work of an author who has built a fantasy story according to his very small imagination, attributing to Jesus superhuman powers used with criteria that are not at all those revealed by the gospels.

Among all these texts, the oldest and most deserving of attention is usually known as the "Proto-Gospel of James." This is how it was titled in the first printed edition of the 1500s. The original is written in Greek, probably dating back to the year 200; the original environment must be Egypt. The original title was probably "Nativity of Mary." It is attributed to James, one of the twelve apostles, the youngest called James de Alpheus, son of Cleopas, but considered in this tradition as the son of St. Joseph, of a first marriage. This writing is born as an apology, that is, a defense of some important elements of the tradition documented by the canonical texts, that is, the virginal conception of Mary and the attitude of St. Joseph who respects the virginity of the mother of God.

The text serves to present in a legendary way Mary's birth, her education in the temple, her perpetual virginity. It mentions the facts present in the childhood gospels of Matthew and Luke and adds several other details. It is possible that the author of this apologetic text on Mary's virginity has taken some data from authentic traditions. The Orthodox Church holds him in great esteem and we Catholics have also derived some information from it. For example, the names of the Virgin Mary's parents; in the canonical gospels they do not appear, but we have the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne on July 26 and everyone knows that Mary's mother name was Anne, but they know it by virtue of the Proto-Gospel of James.

It is an apocryphal gospel, however, respectable; known since always, translated into Latin and very popular even in our environment. Think of Giotto's pictorial work, in the early 1300s, in the chapel of Scrovegni in Padova, the great painter represents evangelical scenes and the first scenes represented are taken from the text of the Proto-Gospel of James, not of the canonical stories. From the Gospel of James we have the feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8; we have the memorial of the Presentation of Mary in the temple on November 21. So we are in an interesting position since the Church does not consider this book to be canonical, does not read it in the liturgy, but it draws out information because tradition has considered that at least some aspects were reliable.

The text is naive, presenting many wonderful elements that are historically unfounded, some of them impossible. Let us try to look more closely at this text to discover its unique characteristics. It begins with the painful situation of Joachim, presented as a very rich and very generous person who offered in the temple twice as much as others. "It is not right for you to offer your gifts first, since you haven’t had a child in Israel, a certain Reubel stands in front of him and stops him: It is not lawful for you to present your offerings because you have no descendants in Israel.

This person rebukes him, insults him because Joachim has no children. "Joaquin was very grieved and went to the history of the twelve tribes of the people, saying to himself, I’ll look in the history to see whether “I’m the only one who hadn’t had a child in Israel.” And he searched, and found that all the just people in Israel had raised children. And he remembered that during the last days of the patriarch Abraham, the Lord gave him a son. Joachim was in pain and saddened and did not go to his wife. He fled to the desert and pitched his tent there and he fasted forty days and forty nights, saying to himself, 'I will not go down, either for food or drink, until the Lord my God considers me, and my prayer shall be my food and drink.”

The scenes represented by Giotto begin with the confrontation of Reubel, who blocks Joachim, and then with the retreat to the desert. Forty days and forty nights of fasting are clearly an allusion of an evangelical text. As Jesus did, Jesus' grandfather, Joachim, also retired to the desert and prayed.

Finally, the good news comes. Following the model of the annunciation to Mary, the annunciation to Anne is also narrated: "And behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Anna, saying, 'Anne, Anne, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you will conceive, and give birth, and your offspring will be spoken of through the whole world.” And at that moment two messengers came and announced: Look, Joachim, your husband, is coming with his flocks. An angel of the Lord came down to him and said: Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Come down quickly, because your wife Anne has conceived in her womb."

And the two meet and Giotto represents the scene of the meeting at the door of the city of Joachim and Anne with a herd. The painter reads this text and produces the painting. Joaquin and Anne therefore have a daughter. "After a few months, Anne gave birth. She asked the midwife, 'Who did I give birth to? She said, 'It’s a girl.’ And Anne said: 'My soul is enlarged this day, and put her to bed. And when the days were fulfilled, Anne was cleansed and gave her breast to the child and gave her the name Mary." It is the story of Mary's birth. Many paintings represent the birth of Mary with the old woman Anne in bed, with Joachim, the midwives who wash the girl.

"And day by day the child grew stronger. When she was six months old her mother stood her on the ground to test whether she could stand; and walking seven steps, she came to her mother’s breast. And she caught her up saying: “As the Lord my God lives, you won’t walk on this ground again, until I bring you into the temple of the Lord. And she made a sanctuary in her bedroom and did not allow anything impure or unclean to pass through it. And he called the pure daughters of the Hebrews, and they played with her.” The room of the girl became a sanctuary, it was defended from all that is impure, only unimpeachable women approach and entertain her.

"When the girl's first year was over, Joachim made a great feast, and called the chief priests, and the priests, and the scribes and all the people of Israel. Joachim brought the child to the priests and they blessed her saying: 'May the God of our ancestors bless this child and give her a name that will be recognized forever among all generations.' The mother decides to offer her to the Lord.

"The child's months were increasing. When she was two years old Joachim said to Anne, 'Let us take her to the temple of the Lord to fulfill the promise we made, lest the Lord should be angry with us and find our gift be unacceptable.' And Anne said, 'Let us wait until the third year, so that she won’t seek her father or mother.” Joachim said, 'Let's wait.’. When the girl turned three years old, Joachim said: 'Summon the pure daughters of the Hebrews and let each one take a lamp and let them be lit, so that the child won’t not turn back and her heart won`t be drawn away from the temple of the Lord.’ And they did so until they went up to the temple of the Lord. And the priest welcomed her, kissed her, and said: “The Lord has made your name great among all the generations. Through you, the Lord will show his redemption to the children of Israel in the last days.”

Let us note how there are elements taken from the canonical texts and applied to Mary. What is said of Jesus is anticipated for Mary. Jesus was presented in the temple, Mary also is presented in the temple and is blessed with formulas very similar to those found for Jesus in the New Testament. "And he made her sit upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God poured grace upon her. And she danced on her feet and all the house of Israel loved her". Mary remains in the temple, is a girl who at the age of three separated from her parents without looking back and celebrates with a dance her joy of staying in God's house.

"Her parents returned home in amazement and praising the Lord God that the child hadn’t turn back. She climbed the steps and was happy to stay in God's house. "And Mary was in the temple of the Lord. She was nurtured like a dove, and received food from the hand of an angel.” This is a legendary fact, historically impossible: a little girl welcomed into the temple and fed by an angel.

Many Byzantine icons about the presentation in the temple show a cell in one corner at the top of the temple where this girl is and the angel brings her food. The naive storyteller presents a story of Mary's childhood as the story of a nun, a little girl raised in the temple fed by the hand of the angels therefore absolutely uncontaminated, lived always in the sacred environment surrounded by this religious reality.

When the girl reaches the age of 12 she can no longer remain in the temple because she would become impure as she matured and would contaminate the temple and then immediately it is necessary to find her a husband. They get organized, including the priests of the temple, "the high priest went in taking the robe with twelve bells into the Holy of Holies and prayed about her, and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said 'Zechariah, Zechariah go out and assemble the widowers of the people, and let each one bear a staff; and whoever the Lod God points out with a sign, she’ll be his wife.”

The high priest is called Zachariah, who would be the father of John the Baptist, is identified with this famous character, old man, who takes care of Mary. A divine revelation proposes a kind of competition. All widowers must bring their staff to the temple, "even Joseph who was a widower leaves his tools of work and goes to meet the priests, listens to the message and like everyone else brings his staff to the temple. After the prayer, the priest comes out with these staffs and gave them back, but there was no sign among them. Joseph received his staff last, and behold, a dove flew out of his staff and landed on Joseph's head. Then the priest said: 'Joseph, Joseph, you were chosen to welcome the virgin of the Lord into your own care. Joseph refused, saying: 'I have children, I am old and she is young, I fear that I will become a mockery to the children of Israel. No, the high priest says to him: Fear the Lord your God, do not despise the command of God, fear that these things do not happen in your house, as Dathan, Kore and Abiron were punished. Joseph, afraid, welcomed her into his care.”

And this is where the idea of old Joseph comes from. In almost all of our paintings St. Joseph is depicted as an old man. This is not in the gospels; it is promised to this young woman and naturally he had to be young. This apologetic text, instead, has invented the idea of an old and aged Joseph to solve two problems. The first is that of the brothers and sisters of Jesus named in the Gospels; they would be the children of Joseph's first marriage. And the second is that being an old man now he had no problem respecting the virginity of this young woman entrusted to him, so he simply took her as his wife, as his guardian. He is a bit like a grandfather who takes a child home to defend her, protect her and guarantee her virginity.

He continues to tell the story of the Annunciation and narrates a first moment: "Mary took the pitcher and went to fill it with water: and behold, she heard a voice saying Rejoice, blesses one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” And Mary looked around to the right and to the left, to see where the voice might be coming from. And she became terrified and went into her house. And setting down the pitcher, she took up the purple one and sat down on her seat and spun the purple." The first announcement is the first appearance at the source. Remember that in Nazareth, at the main well of Nazareth, there is the Orthodox Church of the Archangel Gabriel where, they say, it was the first announcement, linked precisely to this text of the Proto-Gospel of James. And in many icons Mary at the Annunciation is represented by the red thread in her hand. It is an iconographic detail derived from this literary detail. Mary spun the purple by order of the high priest for the great veil of the temple.

When she returned home, suddenly an angel said to her: 'Don't be afraid, Mary, You have found favor with the Lord of all things, and you will conceive from God’s word.” It follows the story of Joseph's doubt, the revelation, the acceptance with many interrogations. Mary submits herself to tests to verify that she is not an adulteress; she passes them all brilliantly. The Jewish authority recognizes that it is not adultery, that there is no intervention by man, that it is really a miracle of God. They leave for the census in Bethlehem.

The text of the Proto-Gospel of James speaks of a donkey on which Joseph makes Mary sit down and the detail of the donkey enters into all the representations of the trip shows Joseph pulling of this beast of burden and Mary sitting on the donkey's back. The scene is set in a cave in the middle of the desert; Joseph comes out of the cave while Mary is giving birth, he is not present out of respect, out of modesty and tells in first person a static scene.

It is the image of the wonderful night of Christmas, of silence and of all things that stop. "I, Joseph, was walking and walking. And I looked up into the air and saw the air with amazement. And I looked up to the vault of heaven and saw it stopped in time and the birds of the sky without movement. And I looked upon the earth and saw a plate set and workers lying near it and their hands were on the plate, and those who chewed, did not chew and those who picked up the food, did not pick it up and those who put it in their mouths, did not put it in either, but the faces of all of them were looking up. And there were sheep being led, but they were not going forward, but were stopped; and the shepherd raised his hand to beat them with his rod and his hand remained up. And I looked at the stream of the river and saw the mouths of the goats in the water and they did not drink. And suddenly everything began to move forward in its course.”

It is a scene of a manger; everything is still, at the moment of birth the world stops, even the waters stopped and then resumed normally. Joseph goes looking for a midwife, he finds her, the midwife helps the mother, washes the baby and witnesses by physical contact Mary's virginity even after the birth, and she goes out and tells a colleague named Salome that she has found a virgin who has given birth. The other midwife doesn't believe it and wants to go in and check it out and wants to stick her hand in, she realizes that she is actually a virgin, but is paralyzed by her disbelief.

The text is naive and apologetic, adds many details and continues the story with the visit of the Magi and then the martyrdom of Zechariah, misinterpreting a biblical text that speaks of the blood of Zechariah, but he is an ancient priest from many centuries ago. This text applies to Zechariah, father of John, a priest who was condemned to death and the author ends: "Now I, James, wrote this history in Jerusalem when there was a commotion over Herod's death. I withdrew to the desert until the disturbance ceased in Jerusalem. Glorifying God the Lord who gave me the wisdom to write this history. And grace will be with those who fear our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

This apocryphal, naive and apologetic text has been highly appreciated in the Christian tradition in the East and in the West and we pay the consequences. Not everything is to be discarded, it is a literature that must be known and valued, and in some things, it can still be useful to us.