Mark, which predates them, has no birth story, and the differences between Matthew and Luke are so great that it is highly unlikely either comes from the other or that they shared a common independent source.
22.
However, there were a number of Unitarians who questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible ( such as Symon Budny, Jacob Palaeologus, Thomas Belsham, and Richard Wright ), and this made them question the virgin birth story.
23.
Another line of thought points to the depiction of the Gandavyuha, the last chapter of the Flower Garland or Avatamsaka sutra on the median levels of the Borobudur stupa ( and Buddha's birth story from the Lalitavistara on the lowest ).
24.
These frescoes portray sundry " Jathaka Stories " ( the stories which portray previous birth stories of Lord Buddha ) like " Vessanthara ", " Sachchankira " and " Mandhathu " " jathaka stories ", including the " Vessanthara Jathaka Story ".
25.
Thundy does not assert that there is any historical evidence that the Christian birth stories of Jesus were derived from the Buddhist traditions, but suggests that " maybe it is time that Christian scholars looked in the Buddhist tradition for the sources of the idea ".
26.
Miraculous human birth stories are common in biblical tradition, going back to Abraham and Sarah ( Gen . 17.15 19, 18.9 15, I . 1 7 ), and numerous references to deities impregnating women are found within the Greco-Roman tradition.
27.
Satyavati s relationship to Santoshi Ma, established through the parallel story of the goddesses, suggests that there is more agency involved here than at first appears to be the case though it is the diffused, depersonalised agency favoured in Hindu narrative ( as in Santoshi Ma s own birth story ).
28.
Humphreys deals with parents who mock his sex drive, midwives who question his usefulness, friends who share only horrific birth stories, strangers who rub his wife s belly and folks who seem to know everything there is to know about pregnancy ( but often do not have kids of their own ).
29.
The birth stories in Matthew and Luke address these concerns but otherwise give radically different accounts ( e . g ., in Matthew Joseph and Mary live in Bethlehem; in Luke they live in Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem for the census ) . talk ) 16 : 44, 21 December 2008 ( UTC)
30.
While it is possible that the broad outlines of Gosala's birth story or early life are correct-- that he was born into poverty in a cowshed-- it may be equally likely that these versions of his early life were concocted by Buddhist and Jain partisans to bring a rival teacher into disrepute.
