The Cave of Treasures 67

A¹🔗nd because Joseph was the son of Mary’s uncle, by the fore-knowledge of God, Who knew that Mary would be certainly attacked by the Jews, Mary was given to Joseph, who was the son of her uncle, that he might take care of her. Observe, O our brother Nemesius, that the fathers of the blessed woman Mary belonged to the succession of the generations of David.

²🔗 Behold, I have set thee upon a foundation of truth, which none of the [former] chroniclers found to stand upon; see, too, how these sixty-three generations [reaching] from Adam to the birth of Christ, succeeded each other. And the Jews also rejoiced because they also had found the generations of the families of their fathers.

³🔗 Observe, O our brother Nemesius, that in the days of Cyrus the FIFTH THOUSAND [YEARS] CAME TO AN END. And from the thousand [years] of Cyrus until the Passion of our Redeemer, the years were in number five hundred, according to the prophecy of Daniel, who prophesied and said, “After sixty-two weeks the Messiah shall be slain.”

⁴🔗 And these weeks make five hundred years. Behold, from this time the mouth of the Jews is shut, for they have dared to say that the Messiah hath not yet come. They must, perforce, do one of two things: either accept the prophecy of Daniel, or say, “We do not accept it.” For the prophecy hath fulfilled itself, and the weeks have passed, and the Messiah hath been slain, and the Holy City hath been laid waste by Vespasian.