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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Seven — Cain and Abel

And he built a city, and called its name from the name of his son Henoch. Verse 17

LatineEnglish

And he built a city, and called its name from the name of his son Henoch. Verse 17.1

Et aedificavit civitatem, vocavitque nomen eius ex nomine filii sui Henoch. VERS. 17.

MAGNAM hic locus quaestionem habet, qui potuerit, aut quorsum voluerit Cain aedificare civitatem. Etenim tunc cum Cain genuit primogenitum suum Henoch, non erant in mundo nisi quinque homines, Adamum dico & Evam, Cainum & uxorem eius atque filium. Quinimo qui eam civitatem inhabitarent, non erant nisi tres: nam Cain a contubernio & societate parentum suorum longe discesserat.
This place has a great question: how Cain was able, or to what end he wished, to build a city. For then, when Cain begot his firstborn Henoch, there were not in the world but five men — I mean Adam and Eve, Cain and his wife and [their] son. Indeed, those who might inhabit that city were not but three: for Cain had departed far from the fellowship and society of his parents.2
SANCTUS Augustinus in lib. 15. de civitate Dei, cap. 8. hanc quaestionem dupliciter explicat. Primo respondet, Henoch non fuisse primogenitum Cain, sed ab eo genitum in senectute, ob idque praeter caeteros filios dilectum & charum, sicut erat Ioseph patri suo Iacob: in testimonium autem singularis amoris, quo hunc filium complectebatur Cain de nomine eius conditam a se civitatem Henochiam appellavit. Nec obstat quod in Scriptura per Henoch describatur successio & posteritas Cain: Illa enim deductio posteritatis Cain non est facta per primogenitos, sed per eos qui ordine principes illius civitatis fuere, vel per eos, qui in familia Cain omnium maxime illustres, & memorabiles extiterunt, vel denique has generationes recensere voluit Moses, quia in earum ultima occisus est Cain, & quidem a Lamech qui fuit ex stirpe Henoch. Deinde respondet Augustinus fuisse quidem Henoch primogenitum Cain (& hoc sentit Iosephus, & videtur probabilius) non tamen cum eum genuit Cain tunc aedificatam ab eo esse civitatem, sed multo post, scilicet iam sene ipso Cain, hoc est, quingentesimum vel sexcentesimum annum agente. Potuisse autem per quingentos annos (maxima naturae humanae in exordio mundi foecunditate) in tantum multiplicari sobolem Cain, ut ea non tantum civitati, sed etiam provinciae colendae & inhabitandae sufficeret, manifestum argumentum esse potest propagatio Hebraeorum ex uno Abrahamo paulo amplius quadringentos annos facta, ad 600. millia bellatorum, exceptis mulieribus, parvulis, senibus, & iis qui per illos retroactos 40. annos mortem obiere.
St Augustine (in book 15 of the City of God, ch. 8) explains this question in two ways. First he answers that Henoch was not Cain's firstborn, but begotten by him in old age, and for that reason beloved and dear beyond the other sons, as Joseph was to his father Jacob; and, in testimony of the singular love with which Cain embraced this son, he called the city founded by him 'Henochia' from his name. Nor does it stand in the way that in Scripture the succession and posterity of Cain is described through Henoch: for that deduction of Cain's posterity was made not through firstborns, but through those who were in order the leaders of that city, or through those who in Cain's family were the most illustrious and memorable of all; or, finally, Moses wished to review these generations because in the last of them Cain was killed, and indeed by Lamech, who was of the stock of Henoch. Then Augustine answers, secondly, that Henoch was indeed Cain's firstborn (and this Josephus thinks, and it seems more probable), yet that the city was not built by him then, when Cain begot him, but much later — namely when Cain himself was already old, that is, in his five-hundredth or six-hundredth year. And that through five hundred years (the greatest fecundity of human nature at the beginning of the world) Cain's offspring could be multiplied so much that it sufficed not only for a city but even for a province to be cultivated and inhabited, a manifest proof can be the propagation of the Hebrews from the one Abraham, made in a little more than four hundred years, to six hundred thousand warriors, excepting women, children, old men, and those who during those past forty years died.3

St Augustine's words, if the reader desires to know them, are thus: 'As for what is written, "Cain knew his wife, and, conceiving, she bore Henoch, and he was building a city in the name of his son Henoch," it is not indeed consequent that he be believed to have begotten this [Henoch as his] first son. For neither is this to be thought from the fact that he is said to have known his wife, as if he had then first mingled with her in intercourse. For also concerning the father of all, Adam himself, this was said not only then, when Cain was conceived, whom he seems to have had as firstborn, but also later the same Scripture...'4

S. Augustini verba, si ea cognoscere avet lector, sic habent: Quod scriptum est, cognovit Cain uxorem suam, & concipiens peperit Henoc, & erat aedificans civitatem in nomine filii sui Henoch, non est quidem consequens, ut istum primum filium genuisse credatur. Neque enim hoc ex eo putandum est, quia dictus est cognovisse uxorem suam, quasi tunc se illi primitus concumbendo miscuisset. Nam & de ipso patre omnium Adamo non tunc solum hoc dictum est, quando conceptus est Cain, quem primogenitum videtur habuisse, verum etiam posterius eadem Scriptura

'...the same Scripture says, "Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and called his name Seth" — whence it is understood that that Scripture is wont so to speak, though not always, when in it is read that the conceptions of men were made, [that it is] not only when the two sexes first mingled together. Nor is that a necessary argument, that we should reckon Henoch the firstborn to his father, because that city was named by his name. For it is not beside the point that, for some reason, though he had others too, the father loved him more than the rest. For neither was Judah the firstborn, from whom both Judaea was named, and the Jews. But even if that son was born first to the founder of that city, it is not therefore to be thought that the name was imposed on the city founded by the father then, when he was born, because a city could not then be constituted by one man — a city being nothing else than a multitude of men bound together by one bond of society; but when that man's family grew to such numerousness that it now had the quantity of a people, then it could indeed happen that he both constituted it, and imposed on the constituted city the name of his firstborn. For so long was the life of those men that, of those mentioned there — whose years are not passed over in silence — he who lived least before the flood reached seven hundred and fifty-three years. For more even passed nine hundred years, though no one reached a thousand. Who, therefore, would doubt that through the age of one man the human race could be so multiplied that there was material whence not one but very many cities could be constituted?' Thus Augustine.5

Scriptura, Cognovit, inquit, Adam uxorem suam, & concepit & peperit filium, & nominavit nomen illius Seth, Unde intelligitur ita solere illam Scripturam loqui, quamvis non semper, cum in ea legitur factos hominum fuisse conceptus non tamen solum cum primum sibi sexus uterque misceretur. Nec illud necessario argumento est, ut primogenitum patri existimemus Henoch quod eius nomine civitas illa nuncupata est. Non enim abs re est, ut propter aliquam causam, cum & alios haberet diligeret eum pater caeteris amplius. Neque enim & Iudas primogenitus fuit, a quo & Iudaea cognominata est, & Iudaei. Sed etiamsi conditori civitatis illius iste filius primus est natus, non ideo putandum est tunc a patre condita civitati nomen eius impositum, quando natus est, quia nec constitui tunc ab uno poterat civitas, quae nihil aliud est quam hominum multitudo uno societatis vinculo colligata: sed cum illius hominis familia tanta numerositate cresceret, ut haberet iam populi quantitatem, tunc potuit utique fieri, ut & constitueret, & nomen primogeniti sui constituta imponeret civitati. Tam longa quippe vita illorum hominum fuit, ut illic memoratorum, quorum & anni taciti non sunt, qui minimum vixit ante diluvium, ad septingentos quinquaginta tres annos perveniret. Nam plures nongentos annos etiam transierunt, quamvis nemo ad mille perveneret. Quis itaque dubitaverit, per unius hominis aetatem tantum multiplicari potuisse genus humanum, ut esset unde constitueretur non una, sed plurimae civitates? Sic Augustinus.

Horum simillima scribit idem in libro Quaestionum in Genesim, quaest. 1. Ludovicus Vives in commentariis suis in libros B. Augustini de Civitate Dei, super octavum caput lib. 15. tradit fuisse in Hispania memoria patrum suorum vicum pene centum domorum, cuius incolae omnes a quodam sene, qui adhuc vivebat, progenerati erant, ita ut propinquitatis nomen deesset, quo ille a minimis natu appellaretur.
Very similar things the same [Augustine] writes in the book of Questions on Genesis, question 1. Ludovicus Vives, in his commentaries on blessed Augustine's books on the City of God, on the eighth chapter of book 15, relates that there was in Spain, within the memory of his fathers, a village of nearly a hundred houses, whose inhabitants were all descended from a certain old man who was still living — so that the name of kinship was lacking by which he might be called by the youngest-born.6
ILLUD quoque animadversum est a B. Augustino in cap. 5. supradicti libri: Quemadmodum primae omnium mundi civitatis conditor fratricida fuit, ita fuisse fratricidam fundatorem eius civitatis, quae terreni imperii caput fuit, Romam dico, cuius conditor Romulus fratrem Remum occidit, & ut cecinit Lucanus, Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri. Ex hoc loco redarguere licet complures veterum de aeternitate, vel nimia vetustate civitatum errores. Primus error fuit Aristotelis & Chaldaeorum, omniumque arbitrantium fuisse mundum aeternum, & idcirco nullum fuisse primum aedificandarum civitatum exordium.
This too was noted by blessed Augustine in ch. 5 of the aforesaid book: that as the founder of the first city of all the world was a fratricide, so the founder of that city which was the head of earthly empire — Rome, I mean, whose founder Romulus killed his brother Remus — was a fratricide; and, as Lucan sang, 'The first walls were wet with a brother's blood.' From this place one may refute several errors of the ancients concerning the eternity, or excessive antiquity, of cities. The first error was that of Aristotle and the Chaldeans, and of all who thought the world was eternal, and therefore that there was no first beginning of the building of cities.7
Alter fuit error Poetarum: qui finxerunt in aureo saeculo, quo regnavit Saturnus, nullas fuisse urbes, sed postea aedificari coeptas regnante Iove, quem tamen post Noeticum diluvium fuisse constat. Tertius fuit error Aegyptiorum. Nam ut refert Plato in exordio Timaei, sacerdos quidam Aegyptius affirmavit Soloni, urbem Athenarum novem annorum millibus conditam esse ante Solonis aetatem, cum tamen ab exordio mundi usque ad aetatem Solonis, minus tribus annorum millibus & quingentis praeteriisse compertum sit.
The second error was that of the Poets, who feigned that in the golden age, in which Saturn reigned, there were no cities, but that they afterward began to be built under the reign of Jove — who, however, is agreed to have been after Noah's flood. The third was the error of the Egyptians. For, as Plato relates at the beginning of the Timaeus, a certain Egyptian priest affirmed to Solon that the city of Athens was founded nine thousand years before Solon's age — when yet, from the beginning of the world to the age of Solon, less than three thousand five hundred years is found to have passed.8
tus error Graecorum fuit; & aliorum quidam aientium primum omnium urbem fabricatam a Cecrope, & ob id primum Cecropiam, postea Acropolim dictam; aliorum vero dicentium, primam urbem fuisse Argos conditam a Phoronaeo. Verum & Cecrops propemodum aequalis fuit ipsius Mosis; & Phoronaei aetas in Iacob patriarchae aetatem plane competit. Quintus error, Aegyptiorum fuit falso iactantium, Diospolim hoc est, Thebas, fuisse antiquissimam, primamque omnium, quae in orbe fuere civitatem. At enim Mesrain nepos Noe, iam eversa turre Babel, factaque linguarum divisione, primus omnium terram Aegypti coluit, & gentis Aegyptiorum auctor fuit, atque conditor: quamobrem nomine eius Aegyptus ab Hebraeis [מצרים] Miseraim appellatur.
...The fourth error was that of the Greeks; and of others, some saying that the first city of all was built by Cecrops, and for that reason first called Cecropia, later Acropolis; but others saying that the first city was Argos, founded by Phoroneus. But Cecrops was almost contemporary with Moses himself; and the age of Phoroneus plainly coincides with the age of the patriarch Jacob. The fifth error was that of the Egyptians, falsely boasting that Diospolis — that is, Thebes — was the most ancient, and the first of all the cities which were in the world. But indeed Mizraim, grandson of Noah, when the tower of Babel had already been overthrown, and the division of tongues made, first of all cultivated the land of Egypt, and was the author and founder of the Egyptian nation; wherefore Egypt is called by the Hebrews by his name, [מצרים] 'Miseraim.'9
PRIMA igitur orbis terrarum civitas, Henochia fuit a Cain extructa. Berosus Annianus, hoc est, spurius & fictitius, in libro suo de Temporibus prodidit, Henochiam civitatem esse conditam circa Libanum montem, qui est ad Orientem comparatione regionis Damascenae: fuisseque amplissimam urbem, & habitationem gigantum. His addit Annianus, suo etiam tempore illius civitatis dirutae cerni in monte Libano maxima & ingentis molis fundamenta, & vulgo ab incolis illius regionis nominari civitatem Cain, atque id se ex mercatoribus & peregrinis qui in Libano & Damasco versati erant, accepisse.
The first city of the world, therefore, was Henochia, built by Cain. Berosus Annianus — that is, the spurious and fictitious [Berosus] — in his book On Times, related that the city Henochia was founded near Mount Lebanon, which is to the East in comparison with the region of Damascus; and that it was a very large city, and a habitation of giants. To these Annianus adds that even in his own time the foundations of that ruined city, of the greatest and most enormous mass, are seen on Mount Lebanon; and that the city is commonly called 'Cain' by the inhabitants of that region; and that he had received this from merchants and travelers who had been in Lebanon and Damascus.10
SED quae ratio impulit Cain ad aedificandam civitatem? An quoniam tutior & securior esset? perpetuo enim sibi mortem timebat; quemadmodum Adam inter densas paradisi arbores sese voluit abscondere, ita Cain muris se inclusit. An potius ut cuncta ipsius familia unum in locum congregata, coalesceret in unum populum cuius ipse caput & dominus esset? An quod impunius late praedari, & aliena bona diripere, & tyrannidem exercere posset? Nam ut supra, auctore Iosepho, diximus, primus omnium Cain facultates domesticas per vim & rapinas augere conatus est, & accitis latrociniorum & flagitiorum sociis, magister illis, & dux ad maleficia extitit.
But what reason impelled Cain to build a city? Was it that he might be safer and more secure? — for he perpetually feared death for himself; as Adam wished to hide himself among the dense trees of Paradise, so Cain enclosed himself with walls. Or rather, that his whole family, gathered into one place, might coalesce into one people, of which he himself would be head and lord? Or that he might plunder far and wide more unpunished, and seize others' goods, and exercise tyranny? For, as we said above on Josephus's authority, Cain first of all tried to increase his domestic resources by force and rapine, and, having summoned companions of robbery and wickedness, stood forth as their master and leader to crimes.11
PLATO in Protagora, causam cur homines se civitatibus extructis sepserint, & incluserint, fuisse censet; ut sese adversus ferarum rabiem tutari ac defendere possent. Verumtamen Aristoteles primo libro Politicorum, exordia urbium a natura hominis reperit, affirmans hominem esse politicum animal, multo magis sociabile quam apes, grues, & quodvis aliud gregale animal. Quoniam igitur homines simul vivere & societatem, atque communionem rerum inter se habere, & ratio docuit, & experientia confirmavit cum ad usus humanae vitae commodius, tum ad omne genus voluptatum esse iucundius, ea maxime causa ad condendas urbes primum homines adduxit. Idem Aristoteles eo ordine tradit ventum esse ad aedificationem civitatum; ut primo in privatis domibus habitaverint homines: ex his deinde pagi extiterint: ex pagis aedificatae sint civitates. An hoc ordine in
Plato, in the Protagoras, thinks the cause why men fenced and enclosed themselves in built cities was that they might protect and defend themselves against the fury of wild beasts. But Aristotle, in the first book of the Politics, finds the beginnings of cities from the nature of man, affirming that man is a political animal, much more sociable than bees, cranes, and any other gregarious animal. Since, therefore, both reason taught and experience confirmed that for men to live together and to have society and communion of things among themselves is both more convenient for the uses of human life and more pleasant for every kind of pleasures, that cause chiefly first led men to found cities. The same Aristotle relates that men came to the building of cities in this order: that first men dwelt in private houses; then from these villages arose; from villages cities were built. Whether in this order in...12
exordio mundi ventum sit ad aedificationem primae civitatis, incertum est. ILLUD porro lectorem hoc loco advertere cupio, quam sint improbi homines solertes, prudentes, diligentes, ac solliciti ad omnia, quae ad praesentis vitae utilitates, voluptates, honoresque pertinent, vel invenienda, vel amplificanda, vel consummanda, vel sibi quoquo modo comparanda, abiecto prorsus amore curaque rerum coelestium & aeternarum, & his rebus quae ad animi sui medicinam & salutem conducunt pro nihilo habitis: denique nullo respectu, nullaque cogitatione futurae vitae, omnia illorum consilia, vota, conatus, labores ad sola huius mundi bona acquirenda, augenda, tuenda, potiundaque spectare & conferri, nihilque post hanc vitam aut mali timere, aut boni sperare. Ecce tibi, primus omnium Cain urbem aedificavit; & ex posteris eius Lamech primus libidinis causa complures uxores duxit: cuius tres filii, varias invenere artes, quibus ea quae ad cultum humanae vitae conferunt, abundantius & commodius suppeterent hominibus. Horum enim unus pastoritiam artem, alter musicam, tertius fabrilem, quae in tractando aere ferroque versatur, multis & magnis inventis utilitatibus valde adiuvit & ornavit.
...whether at the beginning of the world it was come to the building of the first city in this order, is uncertain. Moreover, I desire the reader in this place to notice how skillful, prudent, diligent, and solicitous wicked men are toward all things which pertain to the utilities, pleasures, and honors of the present life — whether to be found out, amplified, completed, or in any way procured for themselves — with the love and care of heavenly and eternal things utterly cast off, and those things which conduce to the medicine and salvation of their soul held for nothing; finally, with no regard and no thought of the future life, all their counsels, vows, efforts, and labors look and are directed to the sole acquiring, augmenting, guarding, and possessing of this world's goods, and they fear no evil nor hope for any good after this life. Behold: Cain first of all built a city; and of his descendants Lamech first, for the sake of lust, took several wives; whose three sons invented various arts, by which the things that conduce to the culture of human life might be supplied more abundantly and conveniently to men. For of these, one greatly aided and adorned the pastoral art, another music, the third the smith's art (which is occupied in working bronze and iron), with many and great useful inventions.13

But that Cain's descendants were like Cain in outrages and crimes, Josephus confirms, writing that, while Adam was still alive, Cain's most wicked offspring emerged: 'for,' says Josephus, 'each later one becomes worse, and not only imitates the vices of his predecessors, but far surpasses them with new crimes newly invented, sparing neither wars nor robberies; but if any abstained from murders, they lived their life greedily and proudly.'14

Similes autem Caino flagitiis & maleficiis fuisse eius posteros, confirmat Iosephus scribens, superstite etiam tunc Adamo Caini sobolem sceleratissimam evasisse: dum inquit Iosephus posterior quisque fit deterior, nec solum imitatur priorum vitia, sed novis insuper inventis sceleribus longe superat, nec a bellis, neque latrociniis temperando: si qui autem a caedibus abstinebant, avare & superbe vitam suam vivebant.

VERUM, quae paulo supra diximus de ingeniis & studiis improborum hominum nihil de coelestibus, aeternisque bonis cogitantium, sed terrenis duntaxat cupiditatibus servientium, & praesentis vitae bona, caduca sane & brevi peritura, toto pectore & aviditate consectantium, haec, inquam, quae supra cursim attigimus, quo iucundiora lectori accidant, Gregorianae orationis suavitate condienda sunt.
But the things which we said a little above about the talents and pursuits of wicked men, who think nothing of heavenly and eternal goods, but serve only earthly desires, and pursue with their whole heart and greed the goods of the present life (fleeting indeed and soon to perish) — these things, I say, which we touched cursorily above, that they may fall more pleasantly on the reader, are to be seasoned with the sweetness of Gregorian speech.15

Treating this place, therefore, Gregory (in book 16 of the Morals, ch. 6, on those words of Job which are in ch. 22, 'Who were taken away before their time, and a flood overthrew their foundation') writes in this manner: 'The iniquitous, while they neglect to pass over in heart to the eternal, and do not perceive all present things to be fleeting, fix their mind in the love of the present life, and as if of a long dwelling construct for themselves a foundation in it: because in earthly things they are solidified through desire. So Cain is described as the first to have built a city on the earth; who, namely, is openly shown to be a pilgrim, because he himself placed a foundation on the earth, being estranged from the solidity of the eternal fatherland. For a pilgrim from the highest things placed his foundation in the lowest, who set the station of his heart in earthly delight. Whence also in his stock, Henoch — who is interpreted "dedication" — is born first. But in the progeny of the elect, Henoch is recorded to have been the seventh: because, namely, the reprobate, in this life, which comes first, dedicate themselves by building; but the elect await the dedication of their building at the end of time, that is, in the seventh age. For you may see very many think only of temporal things, seek honors, gape after ambitious things, and seek nothing after this life. What, therefore,'16

Huc igitur locum tractans Greg. in lib. 16. Moral. cap. 6. super illis verbis Iob quae sunt in ca. 22. Qui sublati sunt ante tempus suum, & fluvius subvertit fundamentum eorum, hoc modo scribit, Iniqui dum corde transire ad aeterna negligunt, & cuncta praesentia fugitiva esse non intuentur, mentem in amore praesentis vitae figunt, & quasi longae habitationis in ea sibi fundamentum construunt: quia in terrenis rebus per desiderium solidantur. Sic primus in terra Cain civitatem construxisse describitur; qui videlicet peregrinus aperte monstratur, quia ipse in terra fundamentum posuit, qui a soliditate aeternae patriae alienus fuit. Peregrinus quippe a summis, fundamentum in infimis posuit, qui stationem cordis in terrena delectatione collocavit. Unde & in eius stirpe, Henoch, qui dedicatio interpretatur, primus nascitur. In electorum vero progenie Henoch 7. fuisse memoratur: quia videlicet reprobi in hac vita, quae ante est, semetipsos aedificando dedicant; electi vero aedificationis suae dedicationem in fine temporis, id est, in 7. tempore expectant. Videas namque plurimos temporalia sola cogitare, honores quaerere, ambiendis rebus inhiare, nihil post hanc vitam requirere. Quid itaque

'...do these [reprobate] do, unless they dedicate themselves in the first generation? You may see the elect seek nothing of present glory, willingly bear want, patiently endure the world's evils, that they may be crowned at the end. To the elect, therefore, Henoch is born in the seventh generation, because they seek the dedication of their joy in the final glory of the resurrection. And because by the daily lapse of time the very mortality of the present life runs down, and destroys the dedication of the reprobate by taking away those same reprobate: rightly is it said of the iniquitous, "And a flood overthrew their foundation" — that is, the very course of mortality subverted in them the state of [their] perverse construction.' Thus Gregory.17

itaque isti, nisi, in prima se generatione dedicant? Videas electos nil praesentis gloriae quaerere, libenter inopiam sustinere, mala mundi aequanimiter perpeti ut possint in fine coronari. Electis ergo Henoch in septima generatione nascitur, quia sui dedicationem gaudii, in extrema resurrectionis gloria requirunt. Et quia quotidiano temporis lapsu ipsa praesentis vita mortalitas decurrit, atque reproborum dedicationem, eosdem reprobos subtrahendo, destruit: recte de iniquis dicitur, Et fluvius, subvertit fundamentum eorum, id est, ipse cursus mortalitatis, statum in eis subruit perversa constructionis. Haec Gregorius.

Translator’s notes

  1. The lemma Genesis 4:17b (marginal 'VERS. 17.'): Cain builds a city and names it after his son Henoch. ↩
  2. The great question: how or why Cain built a city, when at Henoch's birth there were only five people in the world (Adam, Eve, Cain, his wife, their son) — and only three to inhabit the city, since Cain had gone far from his parents. Marginal gloss: 'Quomodo, aut quorsum Cain, cum tres, vel summum quinque tunc in mundo essent homines, civitatem aedificaverit.' ↩
  3. Augustine (City of God 15.8), two answers: (1) Henoch was NOT the firstborn but a late-born, specially beloved son (like Joseph to Jacob), for whom Cain named the city 'Henochia' — the genealogy runs through Henoch not as firstborn but as leaders/notables of the city, or because Cain was killed in its last generation by Lamech (of Henoch's line). (2) Henoch WAS the firstborn (so Josephus, more probably), but the city was built much later, when Cain was ~500-600 years old; in 500 years of that early fecundity, Cain's offspring could fill a whole province — as the Hebrews multiplied from Abraham to 600,000 warriors (besides women, children, elderly) in ~400 years. Marginal gloss: 'Iosephus lib. 1. Antiquitatum.' ↩
  4. Augustine's words verbatim (City of God 15.8): that 'Cain knew his wife and she bore Henoch, and he was building a city' does not prove Henoch the firstborn; 'knew his wife' need not mean the first intercourse — for even of Adam this idiom was used not only at Cain's conception (his apparent firstborn) but also later in the same Scripture... Marginal gloss: 'Augustini verba.' Catchword 'Scriptura' (continues on the next page). ↩
  5. Augustine continues: 'knew his wife' is a general idiom (used also of Seth's conception, Gen 4:25), not implying first intercourse or a firstborn; naming a city after Henoch no more proves primogeniture than Judah (not the firstborn) proves it for Judaea/the Jews. And even a firstborn could not found a city at birth (a city being a 'multitude bound by society'); only when his family grew into a people. Given the vast lifespans before the flood (the shortest was 753 years, many over 900, none reaching 1000), one man's lifetime sufficed to multiply the race enough for many cities. 'Thus Augustine.' Marginal gloss: 'Civitas quid.' Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM' number '750'; true printed page 760. ↩
  6. Augustine writes similarly in Quaestiones in Genesim q.1. Ludovicus Vives (Juan Luis Vives, commenting on City of God 15.8) reports a Spanish village of nearly 100 houses, all descended from one still-living old man — so numerous that no kinship-term remained for the youngest to call him by. (An analogue for how one long-lived man could populate a city.) ↩
  7. Augustine (City of God 15.5): as the first city's founder (Cain) was a fratricide, so was the founder of Rome, the head of earthly empire — Romulus killed Remus (Lucan, Pharsalia 1.95, 'The first walls were wet with a brother's blood'). Pererius then begins refuting five ancient errors on the eternity/antiquity of cities. FIRST error: Aristotle and the Chaldeans (the world eternal, so no first beginning of cities). Marginal glosses: 'Ut Cain primae civitatis conditor fratricida fuit, sic fuit Romul. conditor Romae'; 'Lucanus lib. 1. Pharsaliae'; 'Refelluntur quinque veterum errores circa vetustatem civitatum.' ↩
  8. SECOND error: the Poets (the golden age of Saturn had no cities; they began under Jove — who came after Noah's flood). THIRD error: the Egyptians — the priest in Plato's Timaeus told Solon that Athens was founded 9,000 years before him, though fewer than 3,500 years passed from creation to Solon. Marginal gloss: 'Mendacium Aegyptiorum apud Platonem de vetustate Athenarum.' ↩
  9. FOURTH error: the Greeks (first city built by Cecrops — Cecropia/Acropolis — or Argos by Phoroneus; but Cecrops was ~contemporary with Moses, Phoroneus with Jacob). FIFTH error: the Egyptians (Thebes/Diospolis as the oldest, first city) — but Mizraim, grandson of Noah, founded the Egyptian nation only after Babel and the division of tongues. GLYPH verified: מצרים (Mitsraim / 'Miseraim' = Egypt), so named by the Hebrews after Mizraim. Marginal glosses: 'Error Graecorum'; 'Error Aegyptiorum de antiquitate Thebarum.' Odd-side running head 'IN GENESIM, LIB. VII.' number '751'; true printed page 761. ↩
  10. So the world's first city was Henochia, built by Cain. The (pseudo-)Berosus 'Annianus' (the spurious Berosus of Annius of Viterbo), On Times, claimed Henochia was founded near Mount Lebanon (east of Damascus), a huge city and a dwelling of giants; and that its enormous ruined foundations were still visible on Lebanon in his day, the locals calling the city 'Cain' — reported to him by merchants and travelers from Lebanon and Damascus. (Pererius flags Berosus Annianus as spurious/fictitious.) Marginal gloss: 'Ubi condita fuerit, secundum Berosum Annianum, civitas Henochia.' ↩
  11. Why Cain built a city — three possible motives: (1) safety/security, from perpetual fear of death (as Adam hid among Paradise's trees, Cain walled himself in); (2) to gather his family into one people under himself as head and lord; (3) to plunder and tyrannize more freely — for (per Josephus, cited earlier) Cain amassed wealth by force and rapine and led bands of robbers in crime. Marginal gloss: 'Cur Cain aedificaverit civitatem.' ↩
  12. On the origin of cities: Plato (Protagoras) — men enclosed themselves in cities to defend against wild beasts. Aristotle (Politics 1) — cities arise from man's nature as a 'political animal,' more sociable than bees or cranes; reason and experience show communal life is more convenient and pleasant, which chiefly led men to found cities. Aristotle's order: private houses → villages → cities. Marginal gloss: 'De prima causa aedificandi urbes, secundum Platonem, & Aristotelem.' Page footer signature 'DDDD'; catchword 'exor' (continues on the next page). ↩
  13. A moral lesson: wicked men are keen and diligent about all that serves the present life's utility, pleasure, and honor, but cast off the love of heavenly/eternal things and give no thought to the future life. So the Cainites: Cain built the first city; Lamech was the first polygamist (out of lust); his three sons invented the arts of herding, music, and metalworking (Jabal, Jubal, Tubalcain — Gen 4:20-22). Marginal gloss: 'Morale documentum.' Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM' number '752'; true printed page 762. ↩
  14. Josephus (Antiquities 1) confirms that Cain's line grew ever more wicked (even while Adam still lived): each generation worse than the last, adding new crimes, sparing neither war nor robbery; and those who abstained from murder lived greedily and proudly. Marginal gloss: 'Iosephus lib. 1. Antiquit.' ↩
  15. Transition: what Pererius said about the wicked's earthly pursuits he will now 'season' with Gregory's eloquence. ↩
  16. Gregory (Moralia 16.6, on Job 22:16, 'taken away before their time, a flood overthrew their foundation'): the wicked, neglecting the eternal, fix their hearts in the present life as if a long dwelling. So Cain, the first city-builder, is shown a 'pilgrim' estranged from the eternal fatherland — placing his foundation in the lowest, his heart in earthly delight. Hence in his line Henoch ('dedication') is born FIRST (the reprobate dedicate themselves now, in this prior life), whereas the Sethite Enoch is the SEVENTH (the elect await their dedication at the end, in the seventh age). Marginal gloss: 'Praeclara Gregorii sententia.' Catchword 'itaque' (continues on the next page). ↩
  17. Gregory concludes: the reprobate dedicate themselves in the 'first generation' (now); the elect seek no present glory, bear want, and endure evils to be crowned at the end — so their Henoch is the seventh (the resurrection glory). And the 'flood' that 'overthrew their foundation' (Job 22:16) is the very course of mortality, sweeping away the reprobate and their earthly building. 'Thus Gregory.' (Marginal variants noted: 'retributionis' for 'resurrectionis'; 'mutabilitatis' for 'mortalitatis.') Odd-side running head 'IN GENESIM, LIB. VII.' number '753'; true printed page 763. ↩