(2) When Joseph was taken, his father Jacob lost his sight because of the tears of blood that flowed from his eyes. The name of Joseph was always on his lips. At last the Angel Gabriel went to him and said: ' If ever again you utter the

word ''Joseph'' I will strike your name from the roll of prophets and messengers.' When Jacob received this message from God the name of Joseph was lifted from his tongue, but he did not cease to repeat it in his heart. One night he saw Joseph in a dream, and would have called to him, but remembering God's command, he beat his breast and heaved a sad sigh from his immaculate heart. Then Gabriel came: ' God says that although you have not pronounced the name "Joseph" with your tongue, you have heaved a sigh, and thus destroyed all the effect of your repentance.'

(46) And Joseph died 2242 a.m. m the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year, and they buried him in the land of Egypt, and all his brethren died after him.

(45) And he gave all his books and the books of his fathers to Levi his son thathe might preserve them and renew them for his children until this day. The Death of Joseph. The Bones of Jacob's Sons (except Joseph) interred at Hebron. The Oppression of Israel by Egypt (xlvi. -; cf. Gen. 1.; Exod. i.).

(29) And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Laban went to shear his sheep ; for they were distant from him a three days' journey.

(34) And he mourned for Joseph one year, and did not cease, for he said " Let me go down to the grave mourning for my son." *

(46) And Joseph died being a hundred and ten years old ; seventeen years he lived in the land of Canaan, and ten years he was a servant, and three years in prison, and eighty years he was under the king, ruling all the land of Egypt.

(5) And towns and towers by toil of ill-starred men He raised. Then to the Hebrew race proclaimed, That each male child should in deep-flowing Nile Be drowned. My mother bore and hid me then Three months (so afterwards she told). Then took, And me adorned with fair array, and placed On the deep sedgy marsh by Nilus bank, While Miriam, my sister, watched afar.

(44) I shall go down with thee, and I shall bring thee up2 (again), and in this land wilt thou be buried, and Joseph will put his hands upon thy eyes. Fear not ; go down into Egypt."

(22) Like the Gnostics, the Essenes were emanationists. One of their chief objects was the reinterpretation of the Mosaic Law according to certain secret spiritual keys preserved by them from the time of the founding of their order. It would thus follow that the Essenes were Qabbalists and, like several other contemporary sects flourishing in Syria, were awaiting the advent of the Messiah promised in the early Biblical writings. Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, are believed to have been members of the Essene Order. Joseph was many years the senior of Mary. According to The Protevangelium, he was a widower with grown sons, and in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew he refers to Mary as a little child less in age than his own grandchildren. In her infancy Mary was dedicated to the Lord, and the Apocryphal writings contain many accounts of miracles associated with her early childhood. When she was twelve years old, the priests held counsel as to the future of this child who had dedicated herself to the Lord, and the Jewish high priest, bearing the breastplate, entered into the Holy of Holies, where an angel appeared to him, saying, "Zacharias, go forth and summon the widowers of the people and let them take a rod apiece and she shall be the wife of him to whom the Lord shall show a sign." Going forth to meet the priests at the head of the widowers, Joseph collected the rods of all the other men and gave them into the keeping of the priests. Now Joseph's rod was but half as long as the others, and the priests on returning the rods to the widowers paid no attention to Joseph's but left it behind in the Holy of Holies. When all the other widowers had received back their wands, the priests awaited a sign from heaven, but none came. Joseph, because of his advanced age, did not: ask for the return of his rod, for to him it was inconceivable that he should be chosen. But an angel appeared to the high priest, ordering him to give back the short rod which lay unnoticed in the Holy of Holies. As the high priest handed the rod to Joseph, a white dove flew from the end of it and rested upon the head of the aged carpenter, and to him was given the child.

(44) And there were born to Joseph in Egypt before his father came into Egypt, those whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphar priest of Heliopolis bare unto him, Manasseh, and Ephraim — three.

(38) And they continued to pay tribute to Jacob until the day thathe went clown into Egypt.

(17) And the child grew and became an archer, and God was with him ; and his mother took him a wife from among the daughters of Egypt.

(34) And he mourned all that night, for they had brought it to him in the evening, and he became feverish with mourning for his death, and he said : " An evil beast hath devoured Joseph " ; and all the members of his house [mourned with him that day, and they] were grieving and mourning with him all that day.

(39) These are the generations of Jacob. And Joseph was seven- teen years old when they took him down into the land of Egypt, and Potiphar, an eunuch of Pharaoh, of the prison guards and compassion before him, for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all thathe did to prosper.

(43) And early in the morning they departed, and it came to pass that, when they had gone from thence, Joseph said unto the steward of his house : " Pursue them, run and seize them, saying, ' For good ye have requited me with evil ; you have stolen from me the silver cup out of which my lord drinks.' And bring back to me their youngest brother, and fetch (him) quickly before I go forth to my seat of judgment."

(46) And it came to pass that after Jacob died the children of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt, and they became a great nation, and they were of one accord in heart, so that brother loved brother and every man helped his brother, and they increased abundantly and multiplied exceedingly, ten weeks 2242 a.m of years, all the days of the life of Joseph.