The Hebrew prophets

There were, then, certain men among the Jews who were prophets of God, through whom the prophetic Spirit proclaimed beforehand the things that were going to happen before they happened. The kings who ruled among the Jews at various times carefully preserved these prophecies as they were spoken, arranged in books by the prophets themselves in their own Hebrew language.

When Ptolemy, king of Egypt, was establishing a library and trying to gather the writings of all peoples, he also heard about these prophecies and sent to Herod, who was then king of the Jews, asking that the books of the prophecies be sent to him. King Herod sent them, written in the Hebrew language just mentioned. But because what was written in them was not understood by the Egyptians, Ptolemy sent again and asked him to send men who would translate them into the Greek language. When this had been done, the books remained among the Egyptians down to the present day, and they are also found everywhere among all the Jews. Yet although they read them, they do not understand what is said. Instead, they regard us as enemies and adversaries and, like you, kill and punish us whenever they can, as you yourselves can be convinced. For in the recent Jewish war, Bar Kokhba, the leader of the Jewish revolt, ordered Christians alone to be led away to terrible punishments unless they denied Jesus the Christ and blasphemed.

In the books of the prophets, then, we found it proclaimed beforehand that Jesus our Christ would come, be born through a virgin, grow to manhood, heal every disease and every sickness, raise the dead, be envied and unrecognized, be crucified, die, rise again, and ascend into heaven; that he is and is called the Son of God; that certain persons would be sent by him to every race of humanity to proclaim these things; and that people from the nations would believe in him more readily. He was prophesied before he appeared—at one time five thousand years beforehand, at another three thousand, then two thousand, again one thousand, and at another eight hundred—for in the succession of generations different prophets arose at different times.