Mary is Bought to the Temple

(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 4:1-4:8)

When Mary was three years old and had completed her weaning, her parents brought her with sacrificial offerings to a temple of Jehovah.  Leading to the temple were 15 steps to climb, corresponding to the 15 degrees of the Psalms.  The temple was built into the mountain and its incense altar, which was outside the temple, could only be reached by these steps.

The parents of the Blessed Virgin, the toddler Mary, put her down on one of these steps.  They then changed out of the clothes they had traveled in to don, according to custom, garments that were neat and clean.  In the meantime, Jehovah's Virgin ascended each of the steps, one at a time, without anyone to help her or lift her up, climbing them in a manner that anyone would have judged her to be grown up.  Jehovah accomplished this wonder in the childhood of his Virgin so that this miracle would foreshadow her future greatness.

The parents presented their sacrifices according to proper procedure.  In fulfillment of their vow, they left the Virgin in the living quarters of the temple with the other virgins who were being brought up there.  They then returned home.

Notes
1.  One cannot help note that the miracles presented in this gospel are somewhat underwhelming.  Mary, the three year old, climbing some temple steps on her own is not exactly Hercules strangling a snake in his crib.  But the narrator is compelled to make his subject more extraordinary than a "convent" education might allow.

2.  It seems a shame that Joachim and Anna cannot raise their own daughter, especially since they have been portrayed as being so admirable and devout.  At least Joachim, now a father, doesn't have to be embarrassed when he goes to the temple, although he has not yet fathered a son -- so maybe the high priest Isachar still has a bone to pick with him.