And here, O my brother, behold, I have settled for thee that which is true, and I have revealed unto thee the genealogy, and laid for thee the firm foundation, which not one of the writers and of the wise men, could make known.
2But, O my brother, give me thy heart and make it clean, that I may tell thee what things remain, and how the reckoning of generations come all round to reach unto and to stand firm by the birth of Christ.
3Yet after the birth of Christ there remained no more trustworthy reckoning [of kindred] to the Jews, for Christ was the end of the generations; He took it and gave it to us.
4Yet let me tell thee, O my brother, that the 5,000 years from [the creation of] Adam, did not end before the days of Cyrus, king of Persia.
5Then from Cyrus to the sufferings of our Saviour Jesus Christ, even as the faithful Daniel prophesied, saying, "After seven weeks Christ shall come, and shall be put to death."
6Now 7 weeks are 490 years; for a great week is of 70 years. But in that the prophet said, “After 7 years,” he pointed to the 10 years [that remained]; for he did not say, “Christ shall come at the end of the 7 weeks,” but he said, “After 7 weeks [He shall come] and be put to death.”
7Yet the meaning here of "after" is those 10 years, that make up the 500 years. And that is the fulfilment of the promise that God made to Adam, that He would save him at the end [of that time].
8Henceforth are the mouths of the Jews struck dumb, and to them belongs shame, because they blaspheme and say that Christ is not yet come.
9Yet while they say so, they, of necessity, believe the first statement [of the prophets] to be true and the last to be a lie.
10If they say "Christ came," believing, as they do, the prophecy of the prophet Daniel, they now see that the prophecy of Daniel is fulfilled, and that the House of God is laid waste [and taken] from them; that the priesthood is abolished, and that the seven weeks were fulfilled, and that Christ came, and was put to death; and that the Holy City was laid waste by king Vespasian and his son Titus.
11Yet let me also tell thee, O my brother, that in the 32nd year of the reign of Augustus Caesar, Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judah, as it is written in the Gospel.
12And, behold, it is made plain to us, that Christ came when the prophecy was fulfilled.
13As Micah the prophet said, "But thou, O Bethlehem, [in the] land of Judah, thou art not lower than the kings of Judah; for from thee shall come a king, that shall feed my people Israel."
14Let the Jews now feel ashamed of themselves; for if they make Daniel a liar, they cannot again make the prophet Micah a liar; yet if they will make them liars still, behold, Christ was born in Bethlehem [in] the land of Judah.
15And when He was born at Bethlehem [in] the land of Judah, a star in the East made it known, and was seen by Magi.
16That star shone in heaven, amid all the other stars; it flashed and was like the face of a woman, a young virgin, sitting among the stars, flashing, as it were carrying a little child of a beautiful countenance.
17From the beauty of His looks, both heaven and earth shone, and were filled with His beauty and light above and below; and that child was on the virgin woman's arms; and there was a cloud of light around the child's head, like a crown.
18Yet it was a custom of the Chaldaeans to observe the stars of heaven; to take counsel from them; and they were numbered by them.
19So when they saw the star of the figure we have just mentioned, they were greatly troubled, and said among themselves, "Surely the king of the Helonaeans is putting himself in battle array against us!"
20And they inquired among soothsayers and philosophers, until they ascertained the fact and discovered that the king of the children of Israel was born.
21As to this matter of the stars, the Chaldaeans used to work it out, and to take counsel from the power of the stars; so that they knew every event that should be, ere it happened.
22Likewise the captains of large ships, when they went on a voyage upon the seas, [knew beforehand] the signs of winds, of whirlwind, of gloom, and of thick darkness.
23Thus the Magi when they read in their books, knew from them, that Christ should be born in the land of Judah.
24So they went upon a high mountain in the east, while coming westward; and they took with them the presents they had prepared ere they set off on their journey; that is, gold, frankincense and myrrh — that had been with Adam in the cave of treasures.
25Gold, namely as unto a king; frankincense, as unto God; and myrrh, as for His death.