The day before we had stopped in one of the Egyptian Rooms at the British Museum. I gazed at the Mummy of Hornedjitef. I was already a bit depressed at my birthday and I started wondering about the artifact before me, which dated from 246 BC.

Hornedjitef’s religious beliefs would seem absurd to the modern mind. How can one take one’s physical possessions and body into the afterlife. But the thought occurred to me – would not Hornejitef have found our beliefs, such as the virgin birth, just as ridiculous?

The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah:

The word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

(Jeremiah 1:1 4-10)