Library/New Testament apocrypha
Protevangelium of James
The infancy of Mary, her presentation, Joseph as aged guardian, a midwife, a cave, and Salome’s doubting hand. Not canonical, wildly influential: it is why Western art knows Joachim and Anne.
- Status
- New Testament apocryphon
- Date
- late 2nd century CE
- Languages
- Greek · many versions
- Setting
- Mary’s childhood, the Temple, the cave of the nativity
What it contains
- Joachim and Anne
- Mary in the Temple
- Joseph’s rod
- The cave and the midwife
Why it sits outside most canons
Fills gaps the Gospels declined to fill; pious, but extra.
Themes
- Mary
- Purity
- Nativity
- Temple
Passages
Prot. Jas. 7
The priest received her, and sat her on the third step of the altar, and the Lord God put grace upon her, and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loved her.