We neither know the hour, nor day, nor month, nor year, of Jesus’s birth; divines generally agree that he was not born on Christmas Day, and yet on that day the anniversary of his birth is observed. The Oxford Chronology places the matter in no clearer light, and more than thirty learned authorities give a period of over seven years’ difference in their reckoning. The place of his birth is also uncertain. The Jews, in the presence of Jesus, reproached him that he ought to have been born at Bethlehem, and he never replied, “I was born there.” (John vii, 41, 42, 52.) Jesus was the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew i), from whom his descent is traced through Isaac—born of Sarai (whom the writer of the epistle to Galatians [iv, 24], says was a covenant and not a woman)—and ultimately through Joseph, who was not only not his father, but is not shown to have had any kind of relationship to him, and through whom therefore the genealogy should not be traced. There are two genealogies in the Gospels which contradict each other, and these in part may be collated with the Old Testament genealogy, which differs from both. The genealogy of Matthew is self-contradictory, counts thirteen names as fourteen, and omits the names of three kings. Matthew says Abiud was the son of Zorobabel (i, 13). Luke says Zorobabel’s son Was Rhesa (iii, 27). The Old Testament contradicts both, and gives Meshullam and Hananiah and Shelomith, their sister (1 Chron. iii, 19), as the names of Zorobabel’s children. The reputed father of Jesus, Joseph, had two fathers, one named Jacob, the other Heli. The divines suggest that Heli was the father of Mary, by reading the word “Mary” in Luke iii, 23, in lieu of “Joseph,” and the word “daughter” in lieu of “son,” thus correcting the evident blunder made by inspiration. The birth of Jesus was miraculously announced to Mary and to Joseph by visits of an angel, but they so little regarded the miraculous annunciation that they marvelled soon after at much less wonderful things spoken by Simeon. Jesus was the son of God, or God manifest in the flesh, and his birth was first discovered by some wise men or astrologers, a class described in the Bible as an abomination in God’s sight. These men saw his star in the East, but it did not tell them much, for they were apparently obliged to ask information from Herod the King. Herod in turn inquired of the chief priests and scribes; and it is evident Jeremiah was right if he said, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means,” for these chief priests either misread the prophets, or misquoted the scripture which is claimed to be a revelation from God, and invented a false prophecy (Matthew ii, 5, 6, c.f. (Micah v, 2), by omitting a few words from, and adding a few words to, a text until it suited their purpose. The star—after the wise men knew where to go, and no longer required its aid—led and went before