In regards to the legends of the birth of Shotoku Taishi including that 'he was born in front of a stable' and 'his mother Hashihito no Himemiko became pregnant with him when the Bodhisattva of Compassion entered her womb,' some scholars represented by Kunitake KUME insist on the possibility that 'when the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki were compiled, stories of the Bible and the like were introduced to Japan through Nestorian Christianity that had arrived in China so that the story of the birth of Jesus Christ was adopted to the legend of the birth of Shotoku Taishi as a story of the humble birth of a nobleman.'
「厩の前で生まれた」、「母・間人皇女は救世観音が胎内に入り、皇子を身籠もった」などの太子出生伝説に関して、「記紀編纂当時既に中国に伝来していた景教（キリスト教のネストリウス派）の福音書の内容などが日本に伝わり、その中からイエス・キリスト誕生の逸話が貴種出生譚として聖徳太子伝説に借用された」との可能性を唱える研究者（久米邦武が代表例）もいる。