Madam, - I refer to Vincent Browne's column concerning the birth of Jesus and the variety of ways in which it was recorded or not recorded at all in the Gospels. Mr Browne informs us that the earliest gospel was not written down until 40 years after the death of Christ. This reminds me of an experiment the Jesuit headmaster in our school conducted many years ago.
He selected five students. Four of them were asked to leave the room. The Headmaster then proceeded to tell the whole class and the fifth student a story something like the following. He told us of a man who was very poor and married a rich woman. Then they both emigrated to the US. They had two children there but then the mother died. The man abandoned the two children and was never heard of again. The two children went on to become millionaires when they grew up.
The headmaster then told the fifth student to go out and tell one of the other students the story he had just heard. That student then told the next student and so on until the last student heard the story and came back into the room.
The headmaster asked this last student to tell the story to the class. He told the story of a man who came to Ireland to find the woman who had killed his children in America. We were in stitches. the story was unrecognisable. The student was embarrassed and pleaded with the headmaster, "But that's what your man told me, Father". The headmaster reassured the student and said that that was fine.
The headmaster showed us what could happen to an orally transmitted story over the space of about 20 minutes. We imagined what could happen to it over 40 years. That is the logical way of looking at it. The religious way is to believe that if God wanted it written down accurately he could arrange it. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL McGUIRE, Speenogue, Burt, Co Donegal.