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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Seven — Cain and Abel

And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son to his own image and likeness, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he begot Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the time that Adam lived came to nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. Verses 3, 4, and 5

LatineEnglish

And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son to his own image and likeness, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he begot Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the time that Adam lived came to nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. Verses 3, 4, and 5.1

Vixit autem Adam centum triginta annis, & genuit filium ad imaginem & similitudinem suam, vocavitque nomen eius Seth. Et facti sunt dies Adam postquam genuit Seth, octingenti anni, & genuit filios & filias. Et factum est omne tempus quod vixit Adam, anni nongenti triginta, & mortuus est. VERS. 3. 4. & 5.

RECENSENTUR decem generationes ab Adam usque ad diluvium quae comprehendunt annos mille sexcentos quinquagintasex, tempus videlicet transactum a creatione Adae usque ad diluvium. Quanquam secundum translationem LXX. Interpretum ab Adamo usque ad diluvium & a diluvio usque ad Abrahamum multo plures anni numerentur, quam sunt in Scriptura Hebraica, & in nostra versione Latina. Verum de hac varietate supputationum infra disputabimus. Nunc illud est notandum, in hac serie generationum tres inveniri longioris vitae, quam fuerit Adam, nempe Iared, qui vixit nongentos sexagintaduos annos; & Noe qui fuit nongentorum & quinquaginta annorum; & super omnes Mathusalem, qui vitam produxit usque ad nongentesimum sexagesimum nonum annum.
Ten generations are enumerated from Adam to the flood, which comprise one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years — namely, the time that passed from the creation of Adam to the flood. Although, according to the translation of the LXX interpreters, from Adam to the flood, and from the flood to Abraham, many more years are numbered than there are in the Hebrew Scripture and in our Latin version. But of this variety of computations we will dispute below. Now this is to be noted: that in this series of generations three are found of longer life than Adam was — namely Jared, who lived nine hundred and sixty-two years; and Noe, who was of nine hundred and fifty years; and above all Mathusalem, who prolonged his life to the nine hundred and sixty-ninth year.2
VERUM si consideretur aetas, qua creatus fuit Adam, nimirum perfecta
But if the age be considered in which Adam was created — namely, a perfect [adult one]...3
perfecta & idonea ad generandum, apparebit longiori tempore vixisse Adam quam Mathusalem. Nam cum aetas virilis hominum viventium centum annos sit aetas triginta annorum, consentaneum est, aetatem virilem hominum viventium ferme ad mille annos, fuisse ad minus sexaginta annorum. Neminem enim reperies in hac prima aetate Mundi & in hac serie generationum, qui non post sexagesimum annum generasse memoretur: nam qui citissime generarunt, sexaginta quinque annorum erat. Si igitur Adam creatus est in aetate sexaginta annorum, & post eam vixit nongentos & triginta annos: tota eius vita vere aestimari, & censeri debet nongentorum nonaginta annorum. Et sane congruit hoc rationi, ut primus vir, Dei manibus formatus, longiorem vitam egerit, quam quivis alius mortalium.
...perfect and fit for generating, it will appear that Adam lived a longer time than Mathusalem. For since the manly age of men who live a hundred years is the age of thirty years, it is consonant that the manly age of men who live nearly a thousand years was at least sixty years. For you will find no one in this first age of the world, and in this series of generations, who is not recorded to have begotten after the sixtieth year; for those who begot most quickly were sixty-five years old. If, therefore, Adam was created at the age of sixty years, and after that lived nine hundred and thirty years, his whole life ought truly to be estimated and reckoned at nine hundred and ninety years. And this indeed fits reason: that the first man, formed by the hands of God, led a longer life than any other mortal.4
OBIIT Adam annis septingentis viginti sex ante diluvium, & ante raptum Henoch annis quinquaginta septem: pervenit autem usque ad quinquagesimum sextum annum Lamech patris Noe. Mathusalem autem obiit initio anni, quo evenit diluvium, ante quod quinque annis excessit e vita Lamech. Itaque Adam vidit octo suas generationes. Et quia, secundum Iosephum, corruptio generis humani, propter quam Deus immisit diluvium, evenit septima generatione, eam quoque vidit Adam; ob quam, & ob futurum generis humani excidium per diluvium haud dubie ipsi Adamo praemonstratum, credendum est magno in moerore & dolore extremam vitam ipsum egisse.
Adam died seven hundred and twenty-six years before the flood, and fifty-seven years before the rapture of Henoch; but he reached to the fifty-sixth year of Lamech, the father of Noe. Mathusalem died at the beginning of the year in which the flood occurred, before which Lamech had departed from life by five years. And so Adam saw eight of his generations. And because, according to Josephus, the corruption of the human race, on account of which God sent the flood, occurred in the seventh generation, Adam saw that too; on account of which, and on account of the future destruction of the human race by the flood — doubtless foreshown to Adam himself — it must be believed that he passed his last life in great grief and sorrow.5

Translator’s notes

  1. The sub-lemma repeated for commentary: Genesis 5:3-5 (marginal 'VERS. 3. 4. & 5.'), Adam's begetting of Seth and his death at 930. ↩
  2. Commentary on Gen 5 begins: ten generations from Adam to the flood = 1,656 years (Hebrew/Vulgate reckoning; the LXX gives many more years — a chronology discrepancy to be treated later). Three lived longer than Adam (930): Jared (962), Noah (950), and above all Methuselah (969). ↩
  3. Pererius begins the argument that Adam, created already at a mature (adult) age, effectively lived longest of all. Catchword 'perfe-' (perfecta; continues on the next page). ↩
  4. Pererius's argument that Adam effectively lived longest: since maturity for those living ~100 years is ~30, for those living ~1,000 years it would be ~60 (indeed none in the genealogy begot before the 60th year; the quickest, Malaleel and Enoch, at 65). So Adam, created already ~60 years old and then living 930 more, had an effective life of ~990 years — fittingly the longest of all, as the first man formed by God's hands. Marginal gloss: 'Longissimam omnium mortalium vitam quodammodo vixisse Adamum.' Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM' number '766'; true printed page 776. ↩
  5. Adam's chronology: died 726 years before the flood, 57 years before Henoch's translation; reached the 56th year of Lamech (Noah's father). Methuselah died at the start of the flood-year; Lamech died five years before that. Adam saw eight of his generations; and since (per Josephus) the race's corruption came in the seventh generation, Adam saw it too — and, foreknowing the coming flood, passed his final years in great grief. Marginal glosses: 'Quando Adam obiit'; 'Iosephus lib. 1. Antiquitatum.' ↩