[1] Celsus says, in Origen, that Jesus Christ was a native of a little hamlet in Judea, and that his mother was a poor villager who only existed by her labor. Having been convicted of adultery with a soldier named Pandira, she was induced to flee by her betrothed, who was a carpenter by trade, who condoned their offence, and they wandered miserably from place to place. She was secretly delivered of Jesus, and finding themselves in want, they were constrained to flee to Egypt. After several years, his services being of no value to the Egyptians, he returned to his own country, where, quite proud of the miracles he knew how to perform, he proclaimed himself God.
Human nature was at those times not fundamentally different from what it is now, and we need, therefore, not be surprised to hear that one of the stalwart Roman warriors, whose name was Pandira, fell in love with one of the dark-eyed daughters of Nazareth, and that the fruit of their “illegitimate” union was a son whom they called Jehoshua, and who inherited from his father the manly pride of the Roman, and from his Jewish mother his almost feminine beauty and modesty.
Of Jehoshua’s mother, little is to be said. * * * * * Ignorant, innocent, and of modest manners, uneducated but kind, sympathetic and beautiful, Stada, like many others of her sex, was guided more by the decision of her heart than by the calculations of her intellect. Her heart yearned for love and she hoped to find in Pandira the realization of her ideal.—Life of Jehoshua, The Prophet of Nazareth, an Occult Study and a Key to the Bible. Franz Hartmann, M. D., Boston, 1889. [↑]
[2] A beautiful dove overshadowed a virgin; there is nothing surprising in that. It happened frequently in Lydia, and the swan of Leda is the counterpart of the dove of Mary.
| Qu’un beau Pigeon a tire d’aile Vienne abombrer une Pucelle, Rien n’est suprenant en cela; L’on en vit autant en Lydie. Et le beau Cygne de Leda Vaut bien le Pigeon de Marie. | When a pretty dove under her wing Happens to conceal a Virgin, There is nothing surprising in that. The same thing is known in Lydia, For the beautiful swan of Leda Is just as good as Mary’s pigeon. |
[3] In the book of Samuel, chap. vii, it is related that the Israelites being discontented with the sons of Samuel who judged them, demanded a King, the same as other nations, with whom they wished to conform. [↑]
[4] Jesus Christ was of the sect of the Pharisees, or the poor, who were opposed to the Sadducees, who formed the sect of the rich. [↑]