FT261

According to the Bible, Jesus never travelled further than 300 miles from his home, and that was when he was a baby. Yet legends have persisted that in the years before he started his work as a Palestinian teacher and healer he travelled extensively – going as far as India in the east and Britain in the west (see also FT110:24–26; 146:50; 187:31).

The story of his trip to Britain is celebrated every time a football crowd, political party conference or Women’s Institute meeting sings the familiar words from the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ – “and did those feet in ancient time, walk upon England’s mountains green?” The feet referred to, of course, are those of Jesus – or the “holy lamb of God” as the poet, artist and eccent­ric William Blake called him.