(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.

8

When Christ was born, according to the prophecies, in Bethlehem of Judea at the time indicated by us, Herod, as a result of the inquiries of the Magi who had come from the East: "Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We saw His star, for this reason we went on such a journey and had a strong desire to worship the Born One as God" - he was greatly alarmed by this event; believing that his power was threatened, he asked the teachers of the law of the people where the birth of Christ was expected. Learning that according to the prophecy of Micah in Bethlehem, he issued a decree commanding to kill suckling babies and children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, starting from two years old and younger, in accordance with the time that the Magi had precisely indicated. He thought it only natural that Jesus should share the bitter fate of his peers. But the child was warned of his plan: his parents had known beforehand what was to come, and had taken him to Egypt. This is what the Holy Gospel teaches us. (3) It is worth knowing what punishment befell Herod for his transgression against Christ and his contemporaries. Immediately, without the slightest delay, God's judgment befell him while he was still alive, as if showing in advance what he would receive if he parted with his life. 4 The state seemed to prosper, but he darkened his house by continual misfortunes: the murder of his wife, children, relatives, those closest by blood and the dearest. It is impossible to describe these events now, but the story of them would overshadow any tragedy. Josephus tells about them in detail in his "History", where he talks about Herod. (5) Immediately after the attempt on our Saviour and other infants, the scourge of God overtook him and drove him to the very end. It is worth listening to this writer himself. In the 17th book of the Antiquities of the Jews, he describes its end in these words. (6) "Herod's illness increased: God punished him for his iniquities. It was a faint flame that smoldered in it; when palpated, a large inflammation could not be detected, and it was precisely this that aggravated his internal disease. He had a terrible desire to eat something, and nothing could be done to help him; ulcers in the viscera, especially in the rectum, and inflammation of the legs full of clear fluid, severe pains. (7) The groin is the same condition; The man's penis rotted, and worms appeared in it. He could only breathe erectly, and his rapid and heavy breathing gave off a heavy stench. All his limbs were tightened by unbearably strong convulsions. (8) Men inspired by God, to whom it is given to provide all things wisely, said that God punishes the king for the multitude of his wicked deeds."

Here is what the writer mentioned above tells us in the above-mentioned work. 9 And in the second book of the History he gives similar information, and writes thus: "His whole body was seized with an illness which parted him with manifold sufferings. He had a latent fever, an unbearable itching all over his skin; constant pain in the rectum; swelling of the legs, like that of a dropsy patient; inflammation in the groin; A rotting penis with worms in it. In addition, heavy asthmatic breathing and convulsions in all limbs; Inspired people called these diseases a plague. 10 But he struggled with these torments, clung to life, hoped for recovery, and sought a cure. Having crossed the Jordan, he used the warm waters of Callirhoe, which flow into the Asphalt Lake; in themselves they are fresh and suitable for drinking. (11) The doctors decided to warm up his body by immersing him in a bath full of warm olive oil, but he fainted and his eyes rolled back. The servants raised a shout; From their screaming he came to his senses. Despairing of recovery, he ordered fifty drachmas and large sums to be distributed to ordinary soldiers to commanders and friends.

(12) He returned to Jericho in a gloomy mood. Ready to threaten almost death itself, now he planned an even more criminal deed. Having gathered together the nobles from every village throughout all Judea, he ordered them to be shut up in the so-called hippodrome,13 and summoning his sister Salome and her husband Alexander, he said to them: "I know that the Jews will celebrate my death, but it is in my power to make others mourn for me, and to celebrate my funeral magnificently, if only you will do my bidding: As soon as I have lost my breath, order all these people to be surrounded by soldiers and killed: let all Judea and every house mourn for me, even if against my will." (14) A little later Joseph says: "Again tormented by the desire to eat and by fits of coughing, he decided to avert fate. Taking an apple, he asked for a knife, for he liked to eat, cutting food into pieces. Then, looking around to see if anyone would interfere, he raised his right hand to strike himself."

15 The same writer tells us that just before his death he gave orders for his son to be killed (this was the third after the two who had been slain even earlier), and immediately died in the midst of great suffering. (16) Such was the end of Herod, who suffered a just punishment for the massacre in the vicinity of Bethlehem and for his evil design against our Saviour. After the death of Herod, an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph, who lived in Egypt, and told him to get up and return to Judea together with the Child and His Mother, for those who sought to destroy the Child had died. To this the Evangelist adds: "When Joseph heard that Archelaus reigned in the place of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither; but having received an answer in a dream, he went into the borders of Galilee."

9

In accordance with the Gospel, the above-mentioned historian speaks of the enthronement of Archelaus after Herod, and tells how he, by the will of his father, Herod, and by the decision of Caesar Augustus, received by inheritance the royal power over the Jews, how he lost power ten years later, and how his brothers, Philip and Herod the Younger, together with Lysanias, received their tetrarchy.