The Feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple is celebrated today. There is no mention of the events of this feast – the presentation and consecration of the infant Mother of God in the Jerusalem Temple – in the New Testament, so its historicity has been questioned by modern scholars. However, we know that the aim of the Gospels was not to cover all the aspects of Christ’s ministry, and this rings true for other relevant events. As St. John the Divine put it: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” (KJV, John 21:25) The Protoevangelium of James mentions the event of the today’s feast. This apocryphal (in this context, meaning “outside of the Canon of the books of Holy Scripture”) story came into being in the mid-late 2ndcentury. The apocryphon reflects Orthodox theology contained in the oral tradition of the Church in the sense of prefiguration (e.g., 1 Chron. 1:15, Ps. 44) and there are parallels with the account of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Lk. 2:22-38). The Church has the supreme “magisterium” (teaching authority) over Holy Scripture. Christians received the canon of Holy Scripture within and from the Church herself. How many years did Christians live before the Gospels had been written down? Then, it was the Church that pointed out in Her canons which of the books of Holy Scripture are authentic. These books became the Canon of Scripture, which has been referred to by all Christians. At the same time, there are other meaningful elements of Tradition (lit. paradosis “transmission”), which has been passed on to us from generation to generation. Today’s feast is one of them. Source: A.A.Lukashevich, “Vvedenie,” [Entrance in the Temple]. Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopedia | 
