Thus says Joseph.

6

Then a foreigner received royal power over the Jewish people for the first time - the prophecy written by Moses was fulfilled: "The ruler will not perish from the family of Judah, nor the ruler from his loins, until He comes, Whom the nations are waiting for." 2 This prophecy remained unfulfilled as long as the Jews were permitted to live under the rule of their own countrymen, from Moses himself to the reign of Augustus, when the power over the Jews was first entrusted by the Romans to a stranger, Herod. And this is what Joseph reports about him: he was an Edomite by his father and an Arab by his mother; but Africanus (no one, but a good historian) says that, according to those who have carefully studied his genealogy, Antipater (Herod's father) was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the hierodules in the temple of Apollo. 3 This Antipater was captured by the Edomite robbers as a child, remained with them (his father, a poor man, could not ransom him), and was brought up in their notions. Then Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews, fell in love with him, and from this Antipater in the time of our Saviour Herod was born. 4 It was to such a man that the kingship of the Jews had passed, when, according to prophecy, the expectation of the nations was already at the door, for they had no more rulers and leaders of their own, who had succeeded one another in succession from Moses himself. (5) Before they were taken captive and migrated to Babylon, they were ruled by kings, beginning with the first Saul and then with David. Before the kings, they were ruled by the so-called judges; they came after Moses and his successor Jesus. 6 After their return from Babylon their government remained aristocratic-oligarchic (everything was governed by the high priests) until Pompey, the Roman general, besieged Jerusalem and took it by force; he desecrated the holy place by entering the Holy of Holies of the temple. Aristobulus, who at that time was king and high priest by succession from his ancestors, he sent in chains with his children to Rome and handed over the high priesthood to his brother Hyrcanus, and made all the Jewish people tributaries of Rome. 7 Hyrcanus, at which the succession of the high priesthood was completed, was taken captive by the Parthians, and the Jewish people were, by the will of the Roman senate and the emperor Augustus, for the first time, as I have said, delivered into the hands of the stranger Herod. (8) Under him the coming of Christ became evident; According to the prophecies, he was accompanied by the salvation and calling that the nations were waiting for. From that time on, the rulers and leaders descended from Judah - I mean those who came from the Jewish people - disappeared, and everything was immediately mixed up in the transfer of the high priestly rank, which rightfully passed from the one who held this rank to his nearest relative and successor. 9 A reliable witness to this will be Josephus, who says that Herod, when he received the royal power from the Romans, never ordained high priests of an ancient family, but gave this honourable dignity to people who were completely unknown. Just like Herod, his son Archelaus ordained priests, and after him - the Romans, who subdued the Jews. 10 He also relates that Herod was the first to keep the sacred high priestly garment under his key and seal, and did not allow the chief priests to have it with him. Archelaus did the same after him, and the Romans after Archelaus. (11) May these words serve as a confirmation of another prophecy concerning the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. In the book of Daniel, after determining the exact number of weeks before the appearance of Christ the Leader (we discussed this in another work), there follows a prophecy that after their anointing will not be among the Jews. This has clearly been fulfilled since the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. It was necessary to note this in order to establish the accuracy of the dates.

7

Since the evangelists Matthew and Luke give the genealogy of Christ in different ways, many believers believe that they contradict each other, and everyone, not knowing the truth, tries his best to come up with an explanation of these passages. Let us cite an account of them which has come down to us in a letter to Aristides, in which Africanus, whom we have recently mentioned, writes about the agreement of the Gospel genealogies. Refuting the opinions of others as far-fetched and erroneous, he conveys in these words the story he has heard. (2) "The names of the generations in Israel were numbered either by nature or by law: by nature, when there was a succession of legitimate sons; according to the law, when after the death of a childless brother, his brother gave his child the name of the deceased. At that time there was no clear hope for the resurrection, and the future promise was considered together with the mortal resurrection: the name of the dead was to be preserved forever. 3 Of the persons mentioned in this genealogy, therefore, some were legitimate heirs of their fathers by nature, while others were born of some fathers, and belonged to others in name. Both were mentioned: both real fathers and those who were, as it were, fathers. (4) Thus neither the one nor the other gospel errs in counting names according to nature and law. Descendants of Solomon

and Nathan were so intertwined with each other as a result of the "resurrection" of childless, second marriages, and the "restoration of seed" that the same persons could justly be considered children; both imaginary and real fathers. Both narrations are perfectly correct and reach Joseph by a winding but true path.

5 In order that what has been said may be clearer, I shall give an account of how this confusion came about. Counting from David through Solomon, in the third place from the end stands Matthan, who begat Jacob, the father of Joseph. According to Luke, after Nathan, the son of David, the third from the end was Melchius, whose son Eli was the father of Joseph.). 6 Since we have set out to make the genealogy of Joseph, it is necessary to show why two men are called his father, Jacob, a descendant of Solomon, and Eli, a descendant of Nathan; how they, Jacob and Eli, were brothers, and how their fathers, Matthan and Melchius, descended from different families, are the grandfathers of Joseph. 7 Matthan and Melchius married one after the other to the same woman, and begat half-brothers, for the law did not forbid an unmarried woman, whether divorced or widowed, to marry another. (8) From Esther (as the woman is said to have been called), Matthan, who was of the family of Solomon, begat Jacob at first; and when Matthan died, Melchius, who belonged to the family of Nathan, married his widow (he came, as I have said, from the same tribe, but from a different family), by whom he had a son Eli. 9 Thus we shall find that Jacob and Eli, though of different kinds, were half-brothers. Eli died childless, Jacob married his widow and begat Joseph (this is the third generation), who was his son by nature (and according to the Scriptures: "And Jacob begat Joseph"), and according to the law - the son of Eli, for Jacob, his brother, "restored his seed to him". 10 Therefore the genealogy concerning him cannot be rejected. The Evangelist Matthew counts: "Jacob begat Joseph," and Luke counted in the ascending line: "He was, as I thought (he adds), the son of Joseph, Eli, Melchius." The birth according to the law could not have been more clearly described, and Luke, speaking of such births, avoids the word "begotten" to the end, and in his enumeration he reaches Adam and God.

(11) All this is not unsubstantiated or arbitrarily invented.

Later, it fell in love with Hyrcanus, the high priest of Judea. 12 Sent as ambassador to Pompeii on Hyrcanus business, he asked for the royal power for him, which had been seized by his brother Aristobulus. Antipater himself was fortunate: he was appointed epimelet of Palestine. After his death - he was treacherously killed out of jealousy of his happy fate - this office was inherited by his son Herod, whom later, by decree of the senate, Antony and Augustus made king over the Jews. His sons, Herod and others, were tetrarchs. These are events that are also reported in the history of the Greeks.

(13) Hitherto the archives have preserved the genealogies of both Jewish and ancient proselytes, such as Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the Moabite woman, as well as immigrants from Egypt who were related to the Jews. Herod, who had nothing in common with the people of Israel, vexed at his low origin, ordered the lists of the families to be burned, thinking that he would seem noble if no one could trace his family to the patriarchs, or to the proselytes, or to the so-called giores - foreigners who had become related to the Jews. 14 Only a few who have preserved the memory of their family have preserved their particular genealogies, either by memorizing the names of their ancestors or by having lists of them. They were proud of the fact that they preserved the memory of their nobility. Among them were the above-mentioned desposins - they are so called because of their kinship with the family of the Savior. Natives of the Jewish villages of Nazareth and Kochaba, they scattered to the rest of the region and compiled the mentioned genealogy on the basis of the Book of Days, as best they could.

15 Whether this is true or not, a better explanation, in my opinion, and in the opinion of any prudent person, can hardly be found. And we will hold to it, although it is not confirmed by testimony, for there is no better or more faithful, but the gospel is at least true in all things."

16 At the end of the same letter, Africanus adds: "Matthan, a descendant of Solomon, begat Jacob. After the death of Matthan, Melchius, a descendant of Nathan, begat Eli by the same woman; therefore, Eli and Jacob were half-brothers. Eli died childless; And Jacob restored his seed, and begat Joseph, who was his son by nature, and the son of Eli by law. So Joseph was the son of both."

17 Thus says Africanus. If this is the genealogy of Joseph, then Mary must have come from the same tribe as him, for, according to the law of Moses, it was not allowed to marry persons of different tribes. It was prescribed to take a wife from the same city and from the same kinship, so that the inheritance would not pass from one tribe to another.

Let's finish here.