Sir - Roger Moreton would have us believe that Jesus was born in a place called 'Palestine' (Letters, December 22). Jesus would have been no less surprised to hear this than Henry VIII on being told that he was born in the United Kingdom.

No such place as Palestine existed at the time of Jesus: the name was invented by the Roman occupiers over a century later. Jesus was a Jew born in Judea (cf. Matthew 2, 1; Luke 2, 4), and would never have thought of himself any other way because no other way existed.

Isaac Szobel, Steeple Aston