The Gospel of James is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, and events immediately following. It is the earliest surviving assertion of the perpetual virginity of Mary, meaning her virginity not just prior to the birth of Jesus, but during and afterwards, and despite being condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 and rejected by the Gelasian Decree around 500, became a widely influential source for Mariology.
Annunciation to Joachim and Anna, fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1544–45 (detail)
The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, an event that only appears in the Gospel of James, depicted on a Russian icon
Joseph was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus.
Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus by Guido Reni, c. 1635
Saint Joseph and the Christ Child by Guido Reni, 1640
Dream of St Joseph, c. 1625–1630, by Gerard Seghers
Christ in the House of his Parents, 1850, by John Everett Millais