Chapter 2
It follows as above.
1:18 Since therefore we are going to perform the purification of the temple on the twenty‑fifth day of the month of Casleu, we have judged it necessary to make this known to you, etc.
Now those things which the Jews of Jerusalem wrote to the Jews who were in Egypt, about the fire found in a well, which was changed into the likeness of thick water, we have been unable to find anywhere in the writings or sayings of Ezra or Nehemiah; just as that other matter which, in the later passages, they claim about Jeremiah hiding the ark and the tabernacle, can in no way be found written in the book of Jeremiah himself. From this it is clear that they learned this either from the tradition of their elders, or found it written in their apocryphal books. We, therefore, not curiously pursuing what is uncertain, shall turn our pen to those things which are clearly established by the evidence of the canonical books.