Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/216

The writer represents our Saviour as seated with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, and repeating to them the story which is here told. Christ, then, is almost throughout, the only speaker. After a sort of introduction, we have a brief account of Joseph, who is represented as a priest, married, and having six children. After the death of his wife, he is espoused to Mary. The history then proceeds to narrate the incarnation and birth of Christ, and other details. A long account of Joseph's last days, his terrors at the approach of death, his eventual decease and burial, follows. This book is characterised by features by no means devoid of interest, although most improbable, unreasonable, and in the worst possible taste. The marvellous and the supernatural abound, and the writer is not always careful to be consistent even with himself; his audacity in ascribing the narration to our Lord, and in claiming the same authority for the observance of the annual commemoration of Joseph, will be apparent to every reader. Although it embodies some older traditions, it does not always accurately reproduce them, and contains independent fictions, for which its author alone must be held responsible.