“Chapter 1: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham⁠ ⁠… Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah⁠ ⁠…” and he went on to read: “Zorubbabel begat Abiud.⁠ ⁠…”

All this was just what he expected⁠—some kind of involved, worthless jargon. Had he not been in prison he could not have read a single page to the end; but here he went on reading for the sake of the mechanical act of reading⁠—“Just like Gógol’s Petroúsha,” he thought to himself. He read the first chapter, about the Virgin Birth and the prophecy which said that the newborn child would be named Emmanuel, which meant “God with us.”