336 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



apocryphal gospels give of the life of Christ, espe- 

 cially with regard to his birth and childhood, have 

 just as much (or, on the whole, just as little) claim 

 to historical validity as the four canonical gospels. 



Now, we find in one of these documents an 

 historical statement, confirmed, moreover, in the 

 Sepher Toldoth Jeschua, which probably furnishes 

 the simple and natural solution of the " world- 

 riddle " of the supernatural conception and birth of 

 Christ. The author curtly gives us in one sentence 

 the remarkable statement which contains this solu- 

 tion : " Josephus Pandera, the Roman officer of a 

 Calabrian legion which was in Judaea, seduced Miriam 

 of Bethlehem, and was the father of Jesus." Other 

 details given about Miriam (the Hebrew name for 

 Mary) are far from being to the credit of the " Queen 

 of Heaven." 



Naturally, these historical details are carefully 

 avoided by the official theologian, but they assort 

 badly with the traditional myth, and lift the veil from 

 its mystery in a very simple and natural fashion. That 

 makes it the more incumbent on impartial research 

 and pure reason to make a critical examination of 

 these statements. It must be admitted that they 

 have much more title to credence than all the other 

 statements about the birth of Christ. When, on 

 familiar principles of science, we put aside the notion 

 of supernatural conception through an " overshadowing 

 of the Most High " as a pure myth, there only remains 

 the widely-accepted version of modern rational theo- 

 logy — that Joseph, the Jewish carpenter, was the true 

 father of Christ. But this assumption is explicitly 

 contradicted by many texts of the gospels ; Christ 

 himself was convinced that he was a " Son of God," 



