that it was the relations of Jesus, who, having taken refuge in
Batanea, attempted to recompose the genealogies.]

[Footnote 5: The _Ebionites_, the "Hebrews," the "Nazarenes," Tatian,
Marcion. Cf. Epiph., _Adv. Haer._, xxix. 9, xxx. 3, 14, xlvi. 1;
Theodoret, _Haeret. fab._, i. 20; Isidore of Pelusium, Epist. i. 371,
ad Pansophium.]

The legends about him were thus the fruit of a great and entirely
spontaneous conspiracy, and were developed around him during his
lifetime. No great event in history has happened without having given
rise to a cycle of fables; and Jesus could not have put a stop to
these popular creations, even if he had wished to do so. Perhaps a
sagacious observer would have recognized from this point the germ of
the narratives which were to attribute to him a supernatural birth,
and which arose, it may be, from the idea, very prevalent in
antiquity, that the incomparable man could not be born of the ordinary
relations of the two sexes; or, it may be, in order to respond to an
imperfectly understood chapter of Isaiah,[1] which was thought to
foretell that the Messiah should be born of a virgin; or, lastly, it
may be in consequence of the idea that the "breath of God," already
regarded as a divine hypostasis, was a principle of fecundity.[2]
Already, perhaps, there was current more than one anecdote about his
infancy, conceived with the intention of showing in his biography the
accomplishment of the Messianic ideal;[3] or, rather, of the
prophecies which the allegorical exegesis of the time referred to the
Messiah. At other times they connected him from his birth with
celebrated men, such as John the Baptist, Herod the Great, Chaldean
astrologers, who, it was said, visited Jerusalem about this time,[4]
and two aged persons, Simeon and Anna, who had left memories of great
sanctity.[5] A rather loose chronology characterized these
combinations, which for the most part were founded upon real facts
travestied.[6] But a singular spirit of gentleness and goodness, a
profoundly popular sentiment, permeated all these fables, and made
them a supplement to his preaching.[7] It was especially after the
death of Jesus that such narratives became greatly developed; we may,
however, believe that they circulated even during his life, exciting
only a pious credulity and simple admiration.

[Footnote 1: Matt. i. 22, 23.]

[Footnote 2: Gen. i. 2. For the analogous idea among the Egyptians,
see Herodotus, iii. 28; Po