No man in the wide world troubled about them, and yet had it not been for them the Roman Empire might not have fallen.

Years afterwards, indeed, it fell because of that carpenter.

People from all quarters of the globe dwelt in Galilee, even barbarians who had wandered there from the west and the north.

And it was often difficult to distinguish their descent.

Our carpenter was born in the south of Judaea, in the town of Bethlehem, which, in olden times, had been the native place of King David.