(2) 3And behold, two angels came, saying to her, “Look, your husband Joachim is coming with his flocks.” 4For an angel of the Lord had come down to Joachim and said, “Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your entreaty. Go down from here; behold, your wife Anna has conceived a child. (Lily C. Vyong, The Protoevangelium of James [Early Christian Apocrypha 7; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2019], 56)
Anna has conceived a child: there is a discrepancy between the manuscripts over whether Joachim is told that Anna has conceived (ειληφεν, perfect tense) or will conceive (ληψεται; future tense); de Strycker offers a good discussion on the manuscript variants of this phrase (La forme la plus ancienne, 80). The reference to Joachim “resting” upon his return at Prot. Jas. 4:10 has conceived some that the future tense should be preferred (e.g., Gaventa, Mary, 112). There are also a number of variations that attest to the future form. Textual evidence and narrative sequence, however, favor the perfect form, especially the ideas that Mary was conceived miraculously and without sexual intercourse. The sequence of the announcements separately made to Anna and Joachim reinforce the geographical space between them and the idea that the conception happened in Joachim’s absence—namely, Joachim is given the news of his wife’s pregnancy before he returns from the wilderness (Prot. Jas. 4:3-4). Additionally, the idea that Mary was conceived without intercourse also aligns with the narrative’s goal of depicting her as exceptionally pure. One further argument made for this reading is that the perfect tense is found in our earliest manuscripts (Vuong, Gender and Purity, 166-70). While the preferred reading is that Ann conceived miraculously, it is not an argument for Anna’s virginity; indeed, the narrative seems to indicate that she and Joachim had been trying for a child without success. (Ibid., 56 n. C)
