1 “Now this King Herod, when the Magi from Arabia came to him and said they had learned from a star that appeared in the sky that a King had been born in your country, and that they had come to worship Him, learned from the elders of your people that this was written about Bethlehem in the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come the leader who will shepherd my people.’ 2 So the Magi from Arabia came to Bethlehem and worshiped the Child and presented Him with gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh; but after worshiping the Child in Bethlehem they were warned in a revelation not to go back to Herod. 3 And Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, at first wanted to send away his fiancée Mary, thinking she was pregnant by a man, that is, through fornication; but he was commanded in a vision not to send away his wife, and the angel who appeared to him told him that what was in her womb was from the Holy Spirit. 4 So he was afraid and did not send her away; and at the time of the first census taken in Judaea, under Cyrenius, he went up from Nazareth, where he lived, to Bethlehem, where he was from, to be registered; for his family was of the tribe of Judah, which then lived in that region. Then he was ordered to go to Egypt with Mary and stay there with the Child until another revelation told them to return to Judaea. 5 But when the Child was born in Bethlehem, since Joseph could not find a place to stay in that village, he took shelter in a cave near the village; and while they were there Mary gave birth to the Christ and laid Him in a manger, and there the Magi who came from Arabia found Him. 6 I have repeated to you,” I continued, “what Isaiah foretold about the symbol of the cave; but for the sake of those who have joined us today, I will remind you of the passage again.” Then I recited the passage from Isaiah that I have already written down, adding that it was because of those words that the devil prompted those who hand down the mysteries of Mithras to say that their followers are initiated by him in a place they call a cave. 7 “So Herod, when the Magi from Arabia did not return to him as he had asked them to, but went back to their own country by another road as they had been commanded, and when Joseph with Mary and the Child had already gone into Egypt, as it had been revealed to them, since he did not know which child the Magi had come to worship, ordered all the children in Bethlehem without exception to be killed. 8 And it had been prophesied through Jeremiah that this would happen, the Holy Spirit speaking through him this way: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she would not be comforted, because they are no more.’ So, because of the voice that would be heard from Ramah, that is, from Arabia (for there is still a place in Arabia called Rama), weeping would come on the place where Rachel, the wife of Jacob, called Israel, the holy patriarch, is buried, that is, on Bethlehem, as the women weep for their own murdered children and have no comfort for what has happened to them. 9 For Isaiah’s phrase, ‘He shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria,’ foretold that the power of the evil demon who lived in Damascus would be overcome by Christ as soon as He was born, and this is shown to have happened. For the Magi, who had been taken as spoil for every kind of evil deed worked by that demon, by coming to worship Christ show that they have broken away from the power that held them captive; and the Scripture has shown us in a mystery that this [power] lived in Damascus.⁠a 10 And in a parable it rightly calls that sinful and unjust power Samaria. And none of you can deny that Damascus was and is part of Arabia, even though it now belongs to what is called Syrophoenicia. So it would be good for you, sirs, to learn what you have not understood from those who have received grace from God, that is, from us Christians, and not to struggle in every way to uphold your own teachings while dishonoring God’s. 11 That is why this grace has also been transferred to us, as Isaiah says in these words: ‘This people draws near to Me; they honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain they worship Me, teaching human commands and doctrines. Therefore look, I will proceed to remove this people, and I will remove them; and I will take away the wisdom of their wise, and set aside the understanding of their clever ones.’ ”