In the increasingly futile search for the ‘historical Jesus’ that biblical scholars set themselves in the 20th century, any miraculous element was automatically discounted. From what little remained, the most likely elements were ingeniously selected. So Vermes himself thinks it ‘likely’ that Jesus was born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem.

But likeliness is not always the measure of truth. Say you came across the name Bobinson in a 19th-century register. The more likely name would be Robinson. But then, why should someone have entered the less likely name Bobinson? Or take Lloyd George, known by everyone as a Welshman. He was in fact born in Manchester. Everyone knew Jesus was from Nazareth. But where was he born? We have only Matthew and Luke, or speculation of what is likely, to go on. It seems to me that the ox and ass, the existence of which is likely enough but not stated by the Gospels, are emblematic of the efforts of speculative biblical history.

Vermes’s own conclusion is that the ‘sweet and simple’ Christmassy side to the nativity narratives is given by Luke, while Matthew has a ‘spoiling effect’ with the ‘fear, panic and tears caused by Herod’s edict threatening with untimely extinction the life of the Son of God’.

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