Then Abiathar the priest offered gifts without end to the high priests, in order that he might obtain her as wife to his son.
2But Mary forbade them, saying: It cannot be that I should know a man, or that a man should know me.
3For all the priests and all her relations kept saying to her: God is worshipped in children and adored in posterity, as has always happened among the sons of Israel.
4But Mary answered and said unto them: God is worshipped in chastity, as is proved first of all.
5For before Abel there was none righteous among men, and he by his offerings pleased God, and was without mercy slain by him who displeased Him.
6Two crowns, therefore, he received—of oblation and of virginity, because in his flesh there was no pollution.
7Elias also, when he was in the flesh, was taken up in the flesh, because he kept his flesh unspotted.
8Now I, from my infancy in the temple of God, have learned that virginity can be sufficiently dear to God.
9And so, because I can offer what is dear to God, I have resolved in my heart that I should not know a man at all.