Buddha, as well as Crishna and Jesus, was presented with "costly jewels and precious substances."[152:3] (Why not gold and perfumes?)
_Rama_--the seventh incarnation of Vishnu for human deliverance from evil--is also hailed by "_aged saints_"--(why not "wise _men_"?)--who die gladly when their eyes see the long-expected one.[152:4]
_How-tseich_, who was one of those personages styled, in China, "Tien-Tse," or "Sons of Heaven,"[152:5] and who came into the world in a miraculous manner, was laid in a narrow lane. When his mother had fulfilled her time:
"Her first-born son (came forth) like a lamb.
There was no bursting, no rending, No injury, no hurt-- Showing how wonderful he would be."
When born, the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care.[152:6]
The birth of _Confucius_ (B. C. 551), like that of all the demi-G.o.ds and saints of antiquity, is fabled to have been attended with allegorical prodigies, amongst which was the appearance of the _Ke-lin_, a miraculous quadruped, prophetic of happiness and virtue, which announced that the child would be "a king without a throne or territory." _Five celestial sages, or "wise men" entered the house at the time of the child"s birth, whilst vocal and instrumental music filed the air._[152:7]
_Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, and mediator between G.o.d and man, was also visited by "wise men" called Magi, at the time of his birth.[152:8]
He was presented with gifts consisting of gold, frankincense and myrrh."[152:9]
According to Plato, at the birth of _Socrates_ (469 B. C.) there came three Magi from the east to worship him, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.[152:10]
_aesculapius_, the virgin-born Saviour, was protected by goatherds (why not shepherds?), who, upon seeing the child, knew at once that he was divine. The voice of fame soon published the birth of this miraculous infant, upon which people flocked from all quarters to behold and worship this heaven-born child.[153:1]
Many of the Grecian and Roman demi-G.o.ds and heroes were either fostered by or worshiped by shepherds. Amongst these may be mentioned _Bacchus_, who was educated among shepherds,[153:2] and _Romulus_, who was found on the banks of the Tiber, and educated by shepherds.[153:3] _Paris_, son of Priam, was educated among shepherds,[153:4] and _aegisthus_ was exposed, like aesculapius, by his mother, found by shepherds and educated among them.[153:5]
Viscount Amberly has well said that: "Prognostications of greatness in infancy are, indeed, among the stock incidents in the mythical or semi-mythical lives of eminent persons."
We have seen that the _Matthew_ narrator speaks of the infant Jesus, and Mary, his mother, being in a "_house_"--implying that he had been born there; and that the _Luke_ narrator speaks of the infant "lying in a manger"--implying that he was born in a stable. We will now show that there is still _another_ story related of the _place_ in which he was born.
FOOTNOTES:
[150:1] "The original word here is "_Magoi_," from which comes our word "_Magician_." . . . The persons _here_ denoted were philosophers, priests, or _astronomers_. They dwelt chiefly in Persia and Arabia. They were the learned men of the Eastern nations, devoted to _astronomy_, to religion, and to medicine. They were held in high esteem by the Persian court; were admitted as councilors, and followed the camps in war to give advice." (Barnes"s Notes, vol. i. p. 25.)
[150:2] Matthew, ii. 2.
[150:3] Luke, ii. 8-16.
[151:1] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 129, 130, and Maurice: Hist.
Hindostan, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257 and 317. Also, The Vishnu Purana.
[151:2] Oriental Religions, pp. 500, 501. See also, Ancient Faiths, vol.
ii. p. 353.
[151:3] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157.
[151:4] Amberly"s a.n.a.lysis, p. 177. See also, Bunsen"s Angel-Messiah, p.
36.
[151:5] Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 76.
[151:6] Bunsen"s Angel-Messiah, p. 6, and Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 58, 60.
[152:1] Bunsen"s Angel-Messiah, p. 36.
[152:2] See Amberly"s a.n.a.lysis p. 231, and Bunsen"s Angel Messiah, p.
36.
[152:3] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 58.
[152:4] Oriental Religions, p. 491.
[152:5] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 200.
[152:6] See Amberly"s a.n.a.lysis of Religious Belief, p. 226.
[152:7] See Thornton"s Hist. China, vol. i. p. 152.
[152:8] King: The Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 134 and 149.
[152:9] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 353.
[152:10] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 96.
[153:1] Taylor"s Diegesis, p. 150. Roman Antiquities, p. 136, and Bell"s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27.
[153:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322.
[153:3] Bell"s Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 213.
[153:4] Ibid. vol. i. p. 47.
[153:5] Ibid. p. 20.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BIRTH-PLACE OF CHRIST JESUS.
The writer of that portion of the Gospel according to _Matthew_ which treats of the _place_ in which Jesus was born, implies, as we stated in our last chapter, that he was born in a _house_. His words are these:
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea _in the days of Herod the king_, behold, there came wise men from the east" to worship him. "And when they were come _into the house_, they saw the young child with Mary his mother."[154:1]
The writer of the _Luke_ version implies that he was born in _a stable_, as the following statement will show:
"The days being accomplished that she (Mary) should be delivered . . . she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and _laid him in a manger_, there being no room for him in the _inn_."[154:2]
If these accounts were contained in these Gospels in the time of Eusebius, the first ecclesiastical historian, who flourished during the Council of Nice (A. D. 327), it is very strange that, in speaking of the birth of Jesus, he should have omitted even mentioning them, and should have given an altogether different version. He tells us that Jesus was neither born in a _house_, nor in a _stable_, but in a _cave_, and that at the time of Constantine a magnificent temple was erected on the spot, so that the Christians might worship in the place where their Saviour"s feet had stood.[154:3]
In the apocryphal Gospel called "_Protevangelion_," attributed to James, the brother of Jesus, we are informed that Mary and her husband, being away from their home in Nazareth, and when within three miles of Bethlehem, to which city they were going, Mary said to Joseph: