LatineEnglish
And Adam knew his wife Eve, who conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man through God.1
Adam vero cognovit uxorem suam Evam, quae concepit & peperit Cain dicens, Possedi hominem per Deum.
Cum propter alia, tum vel hoc nomine lingua Hebraea qua utitur divina Scriptura, merito appellatur sancta, quod viri & mulieris commixtionem carnalemque copulam tam honeste casteque significet, appellans eam, cognitionem foeminae. Honeste quidem Latini id dixerunt, dare operam liberis; & Graeci, communicare mulieri: sed Hebraice honestius, virum cognoscere uxorem. Cur autem congressus viri cum muliere nominetur cognitio mulieris, varias afferunt rationes Lyranus & Oleaster: sed quas, ut leviusculas, neque castis auribus ingerendas, praeteriri hoc loco satius fuerit.
Both for other reasons, and even on this account, the Hebrew tongue which divine Scripture uses is rightly called holy: because it signifies the union and carnal copula of man and woman so honorably and chastely, calling it 'the knowing of the woman.' The Latins indeed said it honorably, 'to give attention to children'; and the Greeks, 'to have communion with a woman': but in Hebrew more honorably, 'the man to know his wife.' But why the intercourse of the man with the woman is named 'the knowing of the woman,' Lyra and Oleaster bring various reasons; but which, as somewhat trivial and not to be forced upon chaste ears, it will be better to pass over in this place.2
Ex hoc loco satis apparet, primos homines quoad fuerunt in Paradiso, fuisse virgines, siquidem primam eorum commixtionem fuisse indicat Moses, postquam Paradiso eiecti sunt. Et haec sententia est Patrum, eo maxime probabilis, quod perexiguo tempore illi fuerint in Paradiso ante peccatum: statim autem ut peccarunt, eodem, inquam, die, Paradiso pulsi sunt. Scitum igitur est illud Hieronymi adversus Iovinianum: Nuptiae, inquit, terram replent, virginitas Paradisum. Neque hoc dicimus, quod in Paradiso futuram generationem prolis fuisse negemus: sed quod brevi illo tempore quo sunt in Paradiso versati, virginitatem illibatam custodierint: quod umbram & imaginem quandam praetulit eius virginitatis, quae in Paradiso coelesti post resurrectionem corporum in omnem aeternitatem a sanctis conservanda est. At enim, dicet aliquis, Deus praeceperat primis illis hominibus, ut generationi prolis operam darent, dicens, Crescite & multiplicamini, & replete terram: confestim igitur eos divinis iussis obtemperantes, generationi prolis operam dedisse putandum est. Verum, illud Dei praeceptum, affirmativum erat, id est, obligans semper, sed non ad semper. Et, ut inquit Augustinus, divinum illi homines mandatum expectabant vacandi prolis generationi, quod illis, dum fuere in Paradiso, non est datum.
From this passage it sufficiently appears that the first men, so long as they were in Paradise, were virgins, since Moses indicates their first union to have been after they were cast out of Paradise. And this is the opinion of the Fathers, the more probable because they were in Paradise for a very short time before sin; and immediately as they sinned, on the same day, I say, they were driven from Paradise. Well known, therefore, is that saying of Jerome against Jovinian: 'Marriage,' he says, 'fills the earth, virginity Paradise.' Nor do we say this because we deny that the generation of offspring was to be in Paradise; but because in that short time in which they were in Paradise, they kept their virginity unspotted — which bore a shadow and a certain image of that virginity which is to be preserved by the saints for all eternity in the heavenly Paradise after the resurrection of bodies. But indeed, someone will say, God had commanded those first men to give attention to the generation of offspring, saying, 'Increase and multiply, and fill the earth': therefore it must be thought that they, at once obeying the divine commands, gave attention to the generation of offspring. But that command of God was affirmative — that is, binding always, but not unto always [obliging at all times, but not for every moment]. And, as Augustine says, 'those men were awaiting the divine mandate of devoting themselves to the generation of offspring, which was not given to them while they were in Paradise.'3
Ex interpretatione vocabuli Cain satis liquet, linguam, qua primi homines usi sunt, fuisse Hebraeam, ut in qua sola omnium linguarum, huiusmodi vocabulorum interpretationes locum habent. Simul & illud intelligitur, non recte libro undecimo de Praeparatione Evangelica, capite quarto, Eusebium vocem Cain interpretantem dixisse eo vocabulo significari invidiam, quod scilicet Cain fratris sui Abel ardens invidia eum occiderit. Illud autem, Possedi hominem per Deum, Iusiurandum esse putat Rupertus lib. tertio Commentariorum in Genesim, capite 34. sed non recte. Hebraice est [קניתי איש את יהוה, Kanithi isch eth Adonai], Deo vel Domino: sed ad explendam sententiam adiungi debet praepositio...
From the interpretation of the word Cain it is sufficiently clear that the language which the first men used was Hebrew, as being the only one of all languages in which such interpretations of these words have place. At the same time this too is understood, that Eusebius, in book eleven of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter four, interpreting the word Cain, did not rightly say that by that word is signified 'envy,' namely because Cain, burning with envy of his brother Abel, killed him. But as to 'I have gotten a man through God,' Rupert (in book 3 of his Commentaries on Genesis, chapter 34) thinks it is an oath; but not rightly. In Hebrew it is [קניתי איש את יהוה, Kanithi isch eth Adonai], 'to God' or 'to the Lord'; but to complete the sense the preposition ['through'] must be joined...4
sitio aliqua. Septuaginta Interpretes eosque secutus Interpres noster Latinus, addiderunt praepositionem Per, qua significatur, prolem illam datam fuisse Evae, potestate, munere, ac favore Dei. Similisque sententia est in paraphrasi Chaldaica, quae sic habet ad verbum: Acquisivi virum de coram Domino: quamquam huic lectioni nonnulli existimant hanc subesse sententiam: Acquisivi virum coram Domino, hoc est, qui nobis defunctis, Dominum Deum timeat, colat, & coram eo ambulet.
...some preposition. The Seventy Interpreters, and our Latin Interpreter following them, added the preposition 'Per' (through), by which it is signified that that offspring was given to Eve by the power, gift, and favor of God. And a similar meaning is in the Chaldaic paraphrase, which has thus word for word: 'I have acquired a man from before the Lord'; although some think this meaning underlies this reading: 'I have acquired a man before the Lord,' that is, one who, when we are dead, may fear and worship the Lord God, and walk before him.5
Sed nunquid Cain fuit primogenitus Adami? an potius alios ille procreavit liberos ante Cain, quos more suo tacuit Scriptura, quod nihil de illis memorabile prodendum esset? Verum proculdubio Cain primogenitus fuit: hoc enim narratio Mosis indicat, Evam cum primum a viro cognita est, peperisse Cain, Idemque demonstrat etymologia nominis Cain: eo nempe generato, dixit Eva, Possedi hominem per Deum: quod non utique dixisset, si alios filios ante Cain genuisset, in illos enim potius, quam in Cain id nominis conveniebat.
But was Cain the firstborn of Adam? or rather did he beget other children before Cain, whom in its manner Scripture passed over in silence, because nothing memorable was to be published about them? But without doubt Cain was the firstborn: for the narration of Moses indicates this, that Eve, when first she was known by the man, bore Cain; and the same is demonstrated by the etymology of the name Cain: for, he being begotten, Eve said, 'I have gotten a man through God' — which she would not have said if she had begotten other sons before Cain, for that name would rather fit them than Cain.6
Caeterum, illud fortasse aliquis de nobis quaerat, quanto tempore postquam primi homines Paradiso expulsi sunt, Cain & Abel generati fuerint. Auctor historiae scholasticae in historia libri Geneseos, cap. 25. refert memoriae proditum esse, Methodio Martyri, cum is propter fidei confessionem in carcere esset, huiusmodi quandam revelationem accidisse: Patefactum enim ei divinitus fuisse, primos homines cum eiecti sunt Paradiso, fuisse virgines, & postea per quindecim annos copula carnali abstinuisse: toto scilicet eo tempore lugentes peccatum a se commissum, & tot tantorumque bonorum, quibus donati fuerant a Deo, amissionem deplorantes: decimoquinto autem anno quam Paradiso exterminati fuerant, generasse primum filium Cain, & sororem eius nomine Calmanan: deinde quindecim annis post, id est, trigesimo anno quam primi homines expulsi fuerant Paradiso, generatum esse Abel & sororem eius Delboram: Anno praeterea centesimo & trigesimo Adami, Cain occidisse Abel, quem Adamus & Eva centum annis luxerunt: finitoque luctu, genuerunt pro eo alterum filium nomine Seth: hic enim, ut habet translatio Septuaginta interpretum, natus est, patre Adamo trigesimum & ducentesimum annum agente. Et haec quidem feruntur Methodio revelata.
But someone of us might perhaps ask, how long after the first men were expelled from Paradise, Cain and Abel were begotten. The author of the Scholastic History, in the history of the book of Genesis, chapter 25, relates that it was handed down to memory that to Methodius the Martyr, when he was in prison for the confession of the faith, a certain revelation of this kind happened: For it was divinely disclosed to him that the first men, when they were cast out of Paradise, were virgins, and afterward for fifteen years abstained from carnal union — during all that time mourning the sin committed by them, and deploring the loss of so many and so great goods with which they had been endowed by God; but in the fifteenth year after they had been exterminated from Paradise, they begot the first son Cain, and his sister by name Calmana; then fifteen years after, that is, in the thirtieth year after the first men were expelled from Paradise, Abel and his sister Delbora were begotten; moreover, in the hundred and thirtieth year of Adam, Cain killed Abel, whom Adam and Eve mourned for a hundred years; and, the mourning finished, they begot in his place another son by name Seth — for he, as the translation of the Seventy Interpreters has it, was born when his father Adam was in his two hundred and thirtieth year. And these things indeed are reported as revealed to Methodius.7
Verum haec legentem, atque cogitantem, magna subit indignatio, tam ineruditum & futile commentum sanctissimo viro & Martyri, sub specioso revelationis obtentu esse affictum. Est vero probandum, primos illos homines cum matura aetate, & ad generandum idonea creati essent, eisque praecepisset illud Deus, Crescite & multiplicamini, atque ipsi naturali prolis desiderio tenerentur, necnon & post peccatum vis libidinis & concupiscentiae carnalis acrior in illis & ardentior fuisset, expectasse illos quindecim annos, ut operam liberis darent? Neque vero, vacare generationi prolis, eorum proposito, atque instituto...
But great indignation comes upon one reading and considering these things — that so unlearned and futile a fabrication should be foisted upon a most holy man and Martyr, under the specious pretext of revelation. Is it indeed to be approved that those first men — when they were created of mature age and fit for generating, and when God had commanded them 'Increase and multiply,' and they themselves were held by the natural desire of offspring, and moreover after sin the force of lust and carnal concupiscence had been sharper and more ardent in them — should have waited fifteen years to give attention to children? Nor indeed did devoting themselves to the generation of offspring conflict with their purpose and institution...8
instituto poenitentiam agendi adversabatur, cum res esset honesta, & a Deo praecepta, & in exordio mundi ad propagationem humani generis pernecessaria. Illud autem quantam habet probabilitatem, inter generationem Cain & Abel interfluxisse quindecim annos? cum ex narratione Mosis existimari possit, Abel secundum fuisse filium Adami, & statim natum post Cain. Nisi quis putet, Evam edito Cain, fuisse per quindecim annos infoecundam, quod desipientis est hominis opinari. Etenim primis hominibus maximam Deus tribuit foecunditatem: hoc nempe paucitas illa hominum, & ad conservationem humanae speciei, multiplicatio generis humani id temporis exigebat.
...their institution of doing penance — since the thing was honorable, commanded by God, and at the beginning of the world most necessary for the propagation of the human race. But what probability does it have, that fifteen years intervened between the generation of Cain and Abel? — when from the narration of Moses it may be reckoned that Abel was the second son of Adam, and born immediately after Cain. Unless anyone should think that Eve, having brought forth Cain, was barren for fifteen years, which is the mark of a foolish man to suppose. For to the first men God attributed the greatest fecundity: namely, that scarcity of men, and the multiplication of the human race, demanded it at that time for the conservation of the human species.9
Quod autem dicitur, Adamum filii sui Abel mortem centum annis luxisse, totoque eo tempore a carnali copula sese abstinuisse, quis inducat in animum credere? Neque enim Adam, cum vir esset prudentissimus, tandiu mortuum filium lugeret, nec ob eam causam tamdiu a generatione prolis abhorreret: quin, propter mortem Abel, vehementius cuperet alterum filium pro eo gignere. Id quod non obscure indicavit ipse, cum procreato Seth dixit, Posuit mihi Deus semen aliud pro Abel quem occidit Cain. Falsitas quoque eius traditionis convincitur ea ratione, quod in ea dicitur Seth natum esse anno ducentesimo & trigesimo aetatis Adami: cum Hebraica Scriptura, & Latina versio vulgata habeant eum centesimo & trigesimo anno Adami esse generatum. Licet enim in translatione Septuaginta interpretum sit, Adamum fuisse ducentorum & triginta annorum cum genuit Seth: eam tamen translationem in eo numero annorum, atque in nonnullis aliis consequentibus numeris esse aliorum vitio, & culpa depravatam & corruptam, infra ostendemus.
But as to what is said, that Adam mourned the death of his son Abel for a hundred years, and during all that time abstained from carnal union — who would bring himself to believe it? For neither would Adam, being a most prudent man, mourn his dead son so long, nor for that cause so long shrink from the generation of offspring; nay, on account of the death of Abel, he would more vehemently desire to beget another son in his place. Which he himself not obscurely indicated, when, Seth being procreated, he said, 'God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.' The falsity of that tradition is also convicted by this reason, that in it Seth is said to have been born in the two hundred and thirtieth year of Adam's age — whereas the Hebrew Scripture and the Latin Vulgate version have him begotten in the hundred and thirtieth year of Adam. For although in the translation of the Seventy Interpreters it is [said] that Adam was two hundred and thirty years old when he begot Seth, yet that translation, in that number of years, and in some other following numbers, is by the fault and blame of others depraved and corrupted, as we shall show below.10
Translator’s notes
- Lemma repeated at the head of the commentary: Genesis 4:1 (marginal 'CAP. 4. VERS. 1.'). Running head '717'; true printed page 727. ↩
- The Hebrew tongue is rightly 'holy' — it names carnal union chastely as 'knowing' (more decorously than the Latin 'dare operam liberis' or the Greek 'communicare mulieri'). Pererius passes over Lyra's and Oleaster's trivial explanations of why it is called 'knowing.' Marginal gloss: 'Honestas & sanctitas linguae Hebraeae.' ↩
- The first men were virgins in Paradise (their first union came after the expulsion; they were there only a short time before sin — Jerome, Adversus Iovinianum: 'Marriage fills the earth, virginity Paradise'). Not that generation was not destined for Paradise, but they kept virginity there — a shadow of the saints' eternal virginity. Objection: God said 'Increase and multiply' — answered: that affirmative command binds always but not for every moment (Augustine: they awaited the mandate to generate, not given in Paradise). Marginal glosses: 'Primos homines fuisse in Paradiso virgines'; 'Hiero. lib. 1. adv. Iovin.'; 'Cur primi homines in Paradiso simul commixti non fuerint.' ↩
- From the etymology of 'Cain' the first language is shown to be Hebrew (only Hebrew supports such name-etymologies). Eusebius (Praeparatio Evangelica 11.4) wrongly derived 'Cain' from 'envy.' Rupert (Comm. in Gen. 3.34) wrongly takes 'Possedi hominem per Deum' as an oath. HEBREW GLYPH verified by magnification (Gen 4:1b, given in the right margin with transliteration): קניתי איש את יהוה (Kanithi isch eth Adonai — qaniti ish eth-YHWH, 'I have gotten a man with the LORD'; the legible words are קניתי 'I have gotten,' איש 'a man,' את, and the divine name), transliterated in the margin 'Kanithi isch eth-Adonai'; Pererius glosses the last word 'Deo vel Domino' ('to God or to the Lord'). Marginal glosses: 'Prima omnium linguarum, Hebraea'; 'Verba Hebraica sunt' + the phrase. Catchword: 'sitio' (praepositio; continues on the next page). ↩
- The LXX and the Vulgate added the preposition 'per' ('through' God) — the offspring given by God's power, gift, and favor. The Chaldaic paraphrase: 'I have acquired a man from before the Lord'; some take it as 'one who, when we are dead, may fear and worship God, and walk before him.' Running head '718'; true printed page 728. ↩
- Was Cain the firstborn? Yes, without doubt — Moses's narrative (Eve bore Cain at her first union), and the etymology ('Possedi hominem,' which would fit an earlier son if there were one). Marginal gloss: 'Utrum Cain fuerit primogenitus Adami.' ↩
- How long after the expulsion were Cain and Abel begotten? Peter Comestor (Historia Scholastica, on Genesis, ch. 25) reports a 'revelation' to Methodius the Martyr in prison: the first men, virgins at their expulsion, abstained fifteen years in mourning; begot Cain and his sister Calmana in the 15th year, Abel and his sister Delbora in the 30th; Cain killed Abel in Adam's 130th year; Adam and Eve mourned a hundred years, then begot Seth (born, per the LXX, when Adam was 230). Marginal gloss: 'Quanto tempore post eiectionem primorum hominum e Paradiso, Cain & Abel generati fuerint.' ↩
- Pererius indignantly rejects the Methodius tradition as an unlearned, futile fabrication foisted on the martyr under pretext of revelation: is it credible that the first men — mature, fit for generation, commanded 'Increase and multiply,' held by natural desire, and after sin with sharper lust — waited fifteen years to have children? Marginal gloss: 'Commentitia revelatio falso afficta Methodio martyri refellitur.' Catchword: 'instituto' (continues on the next page). ↩
- Refuting the 15-year interval: generation did not conflict with penance (it was honorable, commanded, necessary). Abel was the second son, born immediately after Cain; Eve was not barren fifteen years (a foolish supposition); God gave the first men the greatest fecundity, which the scarcity of men demanded. Running head '719'; true printed page 729. ↩
- Refuting the 100-year mourning and abstinence: incredible — the prudent Adam would not mourn so long nor shrink from generation; rather, he desired another son (Gen 4:25, 'God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel'). The tradition's falsity is also shown by its dating Seth's birth to Adam's 230th year, whereas the Hebrew and Vulgate give the 130th; the LXX's '230' is a corrupted number (to be shown below). Marginal glosses: 'Genes. 4.'; 'Septuaginta interpretum versio corrupta.' ↩