ore his
time was not known to fame. The precise date of his birth is unknown. It
took place in the reign of Augustus, probably some years before the year
one of the era which all civilised peoples date from the day of his
birth. Jesus came from the ranks of the common folk. His father, Joseph,
and his mother, Mary, were people in humble circumstances, artisans
living by their handiwork in the state, so usual in the East, which is
neither ease nor poverty. The family was somewhat large. Jesus had
brothers and sisters who seem to have been younger than he. They all
remained obscure. The four men who were called his brothers, and among
whom one at least, James, became of great importance in the early years
of the development of Christianity, were his cousins-german. The sisters
of Jesus were married at Nazareth, and there he spent the early years of
his youth.

The town must have presented the poverty-stricken aspect still
characteristic of villages in the East. We see to-day the streets where
Jesus played as a child in the stony paths or little lanes which
separate the dwellings from each other. No doubt the house of Joseph
much resembled these poor domiciles, lighted only by the doorway,
serving at once as workshop, kitchen, and bedroom, and having for
furniture a mat, some cushions on the ground, one or two clay pots, and
a painted chest. But the surroundings are charming, and no place in the
world could be so well adapted for dreams of perfect happiness. If we
ascend to the plateau, swept by a perpetual breeze, above the highest
houses, the landscape is magnificent. An enchanted circle, cradle of the
Kingdom of God, was for years the horizon of Jesus, and indeed during
his whole life he went but little beyond these, the familiar bounds of
his childhood.

No doubt he learnt to read and write according to the Eastern method;
but it is doubtful if he understood the Hebrew writings in their
original tongue. His biographers make him cite translations in the
Aramean language. Nevertheless, it would be a great error to imagine
that Jesus was what we should call an ignorant man. Refinement of
manners and acuteness of intellect have, in the East, nothing in common
with what we call education. In all probability Jesus did not know
Greek. His mother tongue was the Syrian dialect, mingled with Hebrew. No
element of secular teaching reached him. He was ignorant of all beyond
Judaism; his mind kept that free innocence which an ext