This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel with Professor James Tabor. His new book is The Lost Mary,

Rediscovering the Mother of Jesus. The mother and the father of Mary are in Sephirus.

The husband, Joseph, is in Nazareth. The father of Jesus is

unknown or Pantera or whatever. You've come across in the researches of that which the professor

calls Mary's secret. We then have to deal with the fact that church fathers, over 2,000 years,

are uncomfortable with the idea that there is a father who is not Yahweh, not holy. And therefore,

they've come to come up with a parallel story that is compelling but entirely inspired, not scientific.

It's called the proto-evanglium of James.

What does that inform us of James?

What are they trying to achieve with this fantastic story?

Well, I hope everybody will read it. I recounted a little bit in the book, you know,

the summary of it. But it's quite a tale. Here we go. Mary is three years old. Little Mary,

little Mary daughter of Joachim and Anna. She's so holy, we send her to the temple in Jerusalem. And she grows up,

almost like a vestal virgin, you know, that they had in the Roman temples, untouched, completely

non-sexual. Then she becomes 12 years old. During the time that she's there from 3 to 12, when she

starts her menstrual cycle and becomes a woman, they got to remove her.

She doesn't even eat.

She's so perfect living like a little angel in the temple.

And then she becomes pregnant.

And when she becomes pregnant, there's a horror in the town. She's back in

Cephyrus in the Nazareth area. And they think, well, she's married to Joseph, but who's the

father? Because Joseph is saying, I'm not the father. And so they actually examine her. And the physical

...