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152 God of heaven. I asked him where he got that parchment. He said it was the law of the covenant of the Jews. He also said a star had travelled before them all the way to Jerusalem. I told him his God was mistaken; that Bethlehem was not a kingdom, neither was it the least in the kingdom of Judea. I told them that they were superstitious fanatics, and ordered them out of my presence.

"But the excitement grew until it became intense. I found nothing could control it. I called the Hillel court, which was the most learned body of talent in Jerusalem. They read out of their laws that Jesus was to be born of a virgin in Bethlehem; that he was to rule all nations, and all the kingdoms of the world were to be subject to him; and that his kingdom should never end, but his appointees should continue this rule forever. I found this court just as sanguine as those strangers, and, in fact, it was in everbody'severybody's [sic] mouth; I thought I could discover already a sort of deriding and mocking spirit among the lower classes in regard to the Roman authority. Now, it is my opinion that the scene that occurred at Bethlehem was nothing more than a meteor travelling through the air, or the rising vapor from the foot of the mountains out of the low, marshy ground, as is often the case. And as to the noise heard by Melker and those shepherd-boys, it was only the echo of the shepherds on the other side of the mountain calling the night-watch, or scaring away the wolves from their flocks.

"But although this was nothing but a