4028 being from the seed of David and Abraham, in truth, and not in appearance, being true God, with the assumption of humanity, and for this reason the holy Virgin is truly and in truth the Theotokos, who bore him in the same manner as she also conceived him. For she conceived incorruptibly, and gave birth in a manner befitting God. For He who was incarnate of her was God, and in no way needed doors for his entrance or exit. But He who was born of her in truth, Emmanuel, being perfect in humanity, being one and the same in each nature, preserving in himself always the difference, that is, the property, of the natures that came together into one person and one hypostasis. And our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. For the rulers from Judah had already ceased, according to the prophecy, having lasted until a certain Aristobulus, a high priest, who also put on the royal diadem. But Pompey, the general of the Romans, besieged him and sent him as a prisoner with his children to Rome, and having imposed a portion of tribute on the Jews, he appointed Hyrcanus, the brother of Aristobulus, as high priest; And this Hyrcanus maintained a friendship with a certain Antipater, an Ascalonite idol-worshipper, the father of Herod, whom he appointed as steward of the land. And Herod, his son, was competent in affairs and suppressed many bandit chiefs with his courage. But when Hyrcanus was taken captive by the Parthians, and Antipater was assassinated, and there was no one to take charge of affairs, Herod seized power by giving a great deal of money to the Romans, and becoming their tributary. And when Augustus Caesar set out for Egypt with the largest possible army, for the war against Cleopatra, to whom the rule of Egypt had devolved, being of the race of the Ptolemies, Herod met him, providing no ordinary service in both troops and money. And God delivered Cleopatra into the hands of Caesar, and thus the dynasty in Egypt came to an end in the twelfth year of the reign of Augustus Caesar. And returning 4029 to Rome, as Herod had been well-disposed, with the counsel of the senate he proclaimed him king of Judea, placing a diadem on him also. And this man, upon entering Jerusalem, and the Jews being unwilling to receive him, as he was a foreigner, slaughtered many of them, plundering the city and the temple, and using his authority wickedly, he burned with fire all the records of their tribes and families that had been laid up since the time of Ezra, so that the Jews would no longer know from what family they are, from what tribe, and who are the natives, and who are the so-called sojourners, and he placed the priestly vestment under his own seal, and henceforth he fearlessly sold the high priesthood to certain obscure men for sufficient sums of money. In the forty-second year of Caesar Augustus a decree went out from him that all the world should be registered. This registration was the first to take place, as the holy history of the Gospels says. And this census, or rather taxation, Caesar entrusted to Quirinius, as to one most loyal and greatest of the senate, whom he appointed governor of Syria, that is, of Judea, in the thirteenth consulate of Augustus and Silvanus, in which consulate our Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophecy, in the thirty-third year of the reign of Herod, the son of Antipater, on the eighth day before the Kalends of January. But Epiphanius, the great and holy bishop of the Cypriots, contentiously insists, affirming that the true birth of our Lord Jesus Christ from the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary took place on the eighth day before the Ides of January. But all the other divinely wise teachers of the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, as from one mouth, decreed it to be the

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4028 οὔσης ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυῒδ καὶ Ἀβραὰμ, κατὰ ἀλήθειαν, καὶ οὐ κατὰ φαντασίαν, Θεὸς ὢν ἀληθινὸς, μετὰ τῆς προσλήψεως, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο κυρίως καὶ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν Θεοτόκος ἐστὶν ἡ ἁγία Παρθένος, ἥτις οὕτως αὐτὸν ἀπεκύησεν, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ συνέλαβεν αὐτόν. Ἀφθόρως γὰρ συνέλαβεν, θεοπρεπῶς καὶ ἐγέννησεν. Θεὸς γὰρ ἦν ὁ ἐξ αὐτῆς σαρκωθεὶς, καὶ οὐδαμῶς θύρας πρὸς τὴν εἴσοδον ἢ τὴν ἔξοδον ἔχρῃζεν. Ἀλλ' ὁ ἐξ αὐτῆς τεχθεὶς κατὰ ἀλήθειαν ὁ Ἐμμανουὴλ, ὢν τέλειος ἐν ἀνθρωπότητι, εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς ὑπάρχων ἐν ἑκατέρᾳ φύσει, σώζων ἐν αὐτῷ ἀεὶ τῶν συνελθουσῶν φύσεων εἰς ἓν πρόσωπον καὶ μίαν ὑπόστασιν τὸ διάφορον ἤτοι ἰδίωμα. Ἐγεννήθη δὲ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς κατὰ σάρκα ἐν Βηθλεὲμ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἐν ἡμέραις Ἡρώδου τοῦ βασιλέως. Ἤδη γὰρ ἐκλελοίπασιν οἱ ἐξ Ἰούδα ἄρχοντες, κατὰ τὴν προφητείαν, διαρκέσαντες ἕως Ἀριστοβούλου τινὸς ἀρχιερέως, ὅστις καὶ βασι λικὸν διάδημα περιέθετο. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτον πολιορκήσας Πομπήϊος ὁ τῶν Ῥωμαίων στρατηγὸς δέσμιον σὺν παισὶ παρέπεμψεν εἰς Ῥώμην, καὶ ἐπιβαλὼν μέρος φόρου τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις Ὑρκανὸν, τὸν Ἀριστοβούλουἀδελφὸν ἀνέδειξεν ἀρχιερέα· Οὖτος δὲ ὁ Ὑρκανὸς φιλίαν ἦγεν πρός τινα Ἀντίπατρον Ἀσκαλωνίτην εἰδωλόδουλον, τὸν πατέρα Ἡρώδου, ὃν κατέστησεν ἐπί τροπον τῆς χώρας. Ἦν δὲ Ἡρώδης, υἱὸς αὐτοῦ, ἱκανὸς περὶ τὰ πράγματα καὶ πολλοὺς λῃστάρχας κατέστειλεν τῇ ἀνδρείᾳ αὐτοῦ. Τοῦ δὲ Ὑρκανοῦ αἰχ μαλωτισθέντος ὑπὸ Πάρθων, καὶ Ἀντιπάτρου δολο φονηθέντος, καὶ μηδενὸς ὄντος τοῦ ἀντεχομένου τῶν πραγμάτων, ἐπεπήδησε τῇ ἀρχῇ ὁ Ἡρώδης πάμ πολλα χρήματα δοὺς τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις, καὶ ὑπόσπονδος αὐτοῖς γενόμενος. Αὐγούστου δὲ Καίσαρος ἀπάραντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον μετὰ στρατιᾶς ὅτι μάλιστα πλείστης, εἰς τὸν κατὰ Κλεοπάτρας πόλεμον, εἰς ἣν περιέστη τὰ τῆς ἀρχῆς Αἰγύπτου, οὖσαν γένος τῶν Πτολεμαίων, ὑπήντησε δὲ αὐτῷ Ἡρώδης παρέχων οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν λει τουργίαν ἔν τε στρατεύμασι καὶ χρήμασι. Παρ έδωκε δὲ ὁ Θεὸς τὴν Κλεοπάτραν εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ Καίσαρος, καὶ οὕτως ἐπαύσατο ἡ κατ' Αἴγυπτον δυναστεία τῷ δωδεκάτῳ ἔτει ἐπὶ τῆς βασι λείας Αὐγούστου Καίσαρος. Ἐπανερχόμενος δὲ 4029 ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥώμην ὡς εὐνοήσαντα τὸν Ἡρώδην μετὰ βουλῆς τῆς συγκλήτου ἀναδείκνυσι βασιλέα τῆς Ἰουδαίας, περιθεὶς αὐτῷ καὶ διάδημα. Οὗτος δὲ ἐπιβὰς τοῖς Ἱερο σολύμοις, καὶ Ἰουδαίων μὴ βουλομένων αὐτὸν δέξασθαι, ὡς ἀλλόφυλον ὄντα, πολλοὺς παρ' αὐτῶν κατέσφαξεν, λαφυραγωγήσας τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν, πονηρῶς δὲ χρησάμενος τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ, πάσας τὰς τῶν φυλῶν καὶ τῶν γενῶν αὐτῶν τὰς ἀναγραφὰς τὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἔσδρα ἀνακειμένας πυρὶ κατέκαυσε, πρὸς τὸ μηκέτι γνῶναι τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, ἐκ ποίας πατριᾶς εἰσιν, ἐκ ποίας φυλῆς, καὶ τίνες εἰσὶν οἱ αὐτόχθονες, καὶ τίνες οἱ λεγόμενοι γειῶραι, καὶ τὴν ἱερα τικὴν στολὴν ὑπὸ τὴν ἰδίαν σφραγῖδα ἐπέθετο, καὶ λοιπὸν ἀδεῶς ἀσήμοις τισὶν ἐπὶ χρήμασιν ἱκανοῖς τὴν ἀρχιερωσύνην ἐπίπρασκεν. Ἔτους δὲ τεσσαρακοστοῦ δευτέρου Καίσαρος Αὐ γούστου ἐξῆλθε παρ' αὐτοῦ δόγμα ὑπογράφεσθαι πᾶ σαν τὴν οἰκουμένην. Αὕτη ἡ ὑπογραφὴ πρώτη ἐγέ νετο, ὥς φησιν ἱερὰ τῶν Εὐαγγελίων ἱστορία. Ταύτην δὲ τὴν ἀπογραφὴν ἤγουν φορολογίαν ὁ Καῖσαρ ὡς εὐνουστάτῳ τινὶ καὶ μεγίστῳ τῆς συγκλήτου ἐν εχείρισε Κυρινίῳ, ὃν κατέστησεν ἡγούμενον Συρίας ἤτοι τῆς Ἰουδαίας, ἐν ὑπατείᾳ τρισκαιδεκάτῃ Αὐγούστου καὶ Συλουανοῦ, καθ' ἣν ὑπατείαν ὁ Κύ ριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἐγεννήθη ἐν Βηθλεὲμ τῆς Ἰουδαίας, κατὰ τὴν προφητείαν, τῷ τριακοστῷ καὶ τρίτῳ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας Ἡρώδου τοῦ Ἀντιπάτρου, τῇ πρὸ ὀκτὼ Καλανδῶν Ἰανουαρίων. Ἐπιφάνιος δὲ ὁ μέγας καὶ ἱερὸς τῶν Κυπρίων ἐπίσκοπος, ἀγω νιστικῶς ἐνίσταται διαβεβαιούμενος, ὅτι πρὸ ὀκτὼ εἰδῶν Ἰανουαρίου γέγονεν ἡ ἀληθινὴ γένεσις τοῦ Κυ ρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Θεοτόκου καὶ ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας. Οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ πάντες θεόσοφοι διδάσκαλοι τῆς ἁγίας καὶ καθολικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας, ὡς ἐξ ἑνὸς στόματος, ὡρί σαντο εἶναι τὴν

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