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.

And Jacob counted his sons from him upwards and Levi fell to the portion of the Lord, and his father clothed him in the garments of the priesthood and...

They fulfilled the days, and as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. They, supposing...

"It came to pass, when the sun rose in the east, thereafter then through the First Mystery, which existed from the beginning, on account of which the...

Thus in that fore-mentioned Year, the Angel Gabriel came, being sent of God the Father to Nazareth, to a poor (yet chaste and modest) Virgin, called...

But the Law hath said this concerning the power which hath came forth out of the Saviour, and which is the light-man within us to-day. The Law hath mo...

There were also women looking on: among which was Mary Magdalene; and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses; and Salome the mother of Zebedee...

And Israel blessed his sons before he died and told them everything1 that would befall them in the land of Egypt ; and he made known to them what woul...

¶Then came unto Jesus the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, desiring a certain thing of him. He said unto her,

When the wise men were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee...

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the...

The Saviour continued and said unto Mary: "Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: No prophet hath entered into the Light; but the rulers of the æons have...

He went down with them to Nazareth, and was subject into them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

Besides, she brought not the heavenly Virgin to her out of her own Ability; for the Angel said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Po...

Hath not thus the Law made statement thereon?" And when Salome had said this, the light-power in Mary Magdalene bubbled up in her and she said to the ...

They said, Is not this Joseph's son? And Jesus said,

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,...

IN the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre at the...

"I will give you the mystery of the twelve æons of the rulers and their seals and their ciphers and the manner of invocation for reaching their region...

The women which came with Jesus from Galilee beheld the sepulchre, and how the body was laid. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, the...

And then also the holy Bodies went out of the Graves; consider this well; those that had put their Trust in the Messiah, had (in the Promise) got the ...