stood and knew the frame of the ark of the old covenant, that in five thousand five hundred years Jesus Christ should come in the ark of the body, and we find that he is the God of Israel, the Son of God. For after his passion we, the chief priests, wondering at the signs which came to pass because of him, opened this volume, seeking out all the generations unto the generation of Joseph, and reckoning that Mary, the mother of Christ, was of the seed of David: and we found that from the time in which God made heaven and earth and the first man, there were 2212 years to the Flood; and from the Flood to the building of the tower 531 years; and from the building of the tower to Abraham 606 years; and from Abraham to the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt 470 years; from the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt to the building of the temple 511 years; and from the building of the temple to the destruction of the same temple 464 years; thus far we found in the volume of Ezra: and reckoning from the burning of the temple to the coming of Christ and his nativity we find there are 636 years. These together are 5500 years,[1] as we find written in the volume that Michael, the archangel, foretold to Seth, the third son of Adam, that Christ, the Son of God, would come in 5500 years. Hitherto we
- ↑ The sum of the foregoing numbers is 5430, and not 5500 as stated in the text. Other copies give even a lower sum.
