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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Seven — Cain and Abel

QUESTION II. Whether the years, which Scripture narrates that men lived before the flood, were equal to ours

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QUESTION II. Whether the years, which Scripture narrates that men lived before the flood, were equal to ours.1

QUAESTIO II. Utrum anni, quos vixisse homines ante diluvium narrat Scriptura, fuerint pares nostris.

EXISTIMARUNT quidam, cum Scriptura narrat homines primae aetatis ad nongentos annos vixisse, non esse intelligendum tales fuisse annos illos, quales sunt nostri, sed fuisse paulo plus quam menstruos, hoc est, triginta sex die
Some have thought that, when Scripture narrates that the men of the first age lived to nine hundred years, it is not to be understood that those years were such as ours are, but that they were a little more than monthly — that is, of thirty-six days...2
rum, qui est numerus quadratus, efficitur enim is numerus ex numero senario sexies ducto. Itaque unus de nostris annis, denos continet illorum annorum: etsi anni illi dividerentur in duodecim menses, cuilibet mensi non nisi tres dies assignarentur. Sed hoc quam sit non falsum modo, sed etiam ipsi Scripturae aperte contrarium, facile vel per se quilibet potest intelligere. Si enim hanc rationem annorum sequamur, efficietur Cainam & Henoch: cum essent sex annorum cum dimidio, genuisse filios, genuisse enim eos cum essent sexagintaquinque annorum, tradit Scriptura. Si igitur decem ex illis annis unum de nostris efficerent, necessario efficeretur illos, cum nondum septennes essent, genuisse filios. Deinde cum nemo illorum hominum attigerit millesimum annum, si tales fuissent anni quales isti volunt, nemo hominum illius aetatis pervenisset ad nonagesimum septimum annum, cum tamen hodieque non pauci centum annos supergressi inveniantur. Ad haec Scriptura ait, Abrahamum plenum vel saturum dierum in bona senectute obiisse, natum annos centum septuagintaquinque, qui secundum istos efficiunt annos duntaxat 17. cum dimidio. Quis non rideat talem senectutem? Postremo, infra cap. 7. in eo uno anno, quo duravit diluvium, fit mentio primi, secundi, septimi, & decimi mensis. Et ne quis posset fingere menses illos fuisse trium duntaxat dierum, memorantur ibi 17. dies mensis secundi, 27. mensis septimi, & mensis secundi dies 7. & 20. Quinimo, si dies quos memorat Moses in descriptione diluvii per unum illum annum sexcentesimum vitae Noe recenseantur, reperientur ad trecentos sexaginta. Ergo anni illi 900. & c. quos vixisse memorantur homines illius aetatis, non fuere menstrui, vel trimestres, aut semestres, sed pares fuere nostratibus.
...days, which is a square number, for that number is produced from the number six multiplied six times. And so one of our years contains ten of those years: even if those years were divided into twelve months, to each month only three days would be assigned. But how this is not only false but even openly contrary to Scripture itself, anyone can easily understand of himself. For if we follow this reckoning of years, it will result that Cainan and Henoch, when they were six and a half years old, begot sons — for Scripture hands down that they begot them when they were sixty-five years old. If, therefore, ten of those years made one of ours, it would necessarily result that they begot sons when they were not yet seven years old. Then, since none of those men reached the thousandth year, if the years had been such as these people wish, no man of that age would have reached the ninety-seventh year — whereas even today not a few are found who have passed a hundred years. Besides, Scripture says that Abraham died, full or sated of days, in a good old age, having lived a hundred and seventy-five years, which according to these people make only seventeen and a half years. Who would not laugh at such an old age? Finally, below in ch. 7, in that one year in which the flood lasted, mention is made of the first, second, seventh, and tenth month. And lest anyone could pretend those months were only of three days, there are mentioned there the 17th day of the second month, the 27th of the seventh month, and of the second month the 7th and 20th days. Indeed, if the days which Moses mentions in the description of the flood, through that one six-hundredth year of Noah's life, be counted, they will be found to amount to three hundred and sixty. Therefore those years of 900 and more, which the men of that age are recorded to have lived, were not monthly, or three-month, or six-month years, but were equal to ours.3

Translator’s notes

  1. Quaestio II: whether the antediluvian 'years' of Scripture were true solar years (like ours) or shorter periods. ↩
  2. Quaestio II begins: some held that the antediluvian 'years' were not solar years but roughly lunar months — 'a little more than monthly,' about 36 days each (so that 900 such 'years' would be far fewer solar years). Page footer signature 'FFFF'; catchword 'rum' (dierum; continues on the next page). ↩
  3. Pererius refutes the 'short-year' theory (that antediluvian 'years' were ~36-day lunar months, so ten = one of ours): (1) then Cainan and Enoch, who begot at 65, would have begotten at 6½ years; (2) then none would have reached even 97 years, though people today pass 100; (3) Abraham's 175 years would be only 17½ (absurd for 'a good old age'); (4) the flood-year (Gen 7-8) names the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 10th months and days like the 17th and 27th — proving real ~360-day, 12-month years. So the antediluvian years were true years, equal to ours. Marginal glosses: 'Opinio affirmantium annos quos hic memorat Moses, fuisse menstruos, certe longe minores nostris, confutatur'; 'Genes. 25.' Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM' number '768'; true printed page 778. ↩