This wearing of a linen garment would seem to imply a connection with the priestly tribe. St. Luke (i. 36) indeed calls the Virgin the kinswoman of Elisabeth. On this tendency to associate the old sacerdotal tribe with the new royalty of Messiah, cf., e.g., Protevangel. Jacobi, cc. 6, 7, 9; Augustine, contra Faustum, xxiii. 4; Epiphanius, Hær., lxxviii. 13. [See Reuben, sec. 6, p. 10, supra.]