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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Seven — Cain and Abel

QUESTION III. On the seven causes of the so-long life which men lived before the flood

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QUESTION III. On the seven causes of the so-long life which men lived before the flood.1

QUAESTIO III. De septem causis tam longae vitae quam vixerunt homines ante diluvium.

SED enim quaeret aliquis, quaenam causae fuerint tam longaevae vitae eorum hominum qui fuerunt ante diluvium? Respondemus fuisse multas atque varias: de plurimis autem, septem in praesentia commemorasse satis erit. Prima fuit bonitas constitutionis & temperationis humani corporis, qua illi homines vigebant: tunc enim natura recens a Deo facta, integra erat, firma ad seipsam conservandam, fortis ad resistendum rebus contrariis, necdum tot morbis fracta & vitiata. Vigor igitur ille & robur naturalis constitutionis longo tempore permansit, nimirum usque ad diluvium, per quod cernimus vitam hominum insigni brevitate fuisse diminutam. Secunda causa fuit sobrietas & continentia in victu & potu: & omnis vitae moderatio: erat enim naturalis & simplex victus & potus: varietas autem, mixtura, & condi
But someone will ask: what were the causes of the so-long-lived life of those men who were before the flood? We answer that they were many and various; but of the very many, it will be enough to mention seven at present. The first was the goodness of the constitution and tempering of the human body, in which those men flourished; for then nature, recently made by God, was whole, firm to preserve itself, strong to resist contrary things, and not yet broken and vitiated by so many diseases. That vigor, therefore, and strength of the natural constitution remained a long time — namely, until the flood, through which we see that the life of men was diminished by a notable brevity. The second cause was sobriety and continence in food and drink, and all moderation of life; for the food and drink were natural and simple; but variety, mixture, and seasoning...2
condimenta ciborum, vitam debilitant atque minuunt, sicut docent Hippocrates & Plinius. Unde Horatius Poeta, — simul assis Miscueris elixa, simul conchilia turdis: Dulcia se in bilem vertent, stomachoque tumultum Lenta feret pituita. Et Ecclesiasticus, ca. 37. affirmat crapula multos periisse. Denique quotidiana demonstrat experientia, laute, & opipare, & large edentes & bibentes, esse brevis vitae. Tertia causa, fuit praestantia alimentorum ob eximiam bonitatem & feracitatem terrae ante diluvium, post quod terra nascentia multo sunt imbecilliora, & deteriora facta propter aquas salsas Oceani, quae inundantes terram, sterilem eam fecerunt: quamobrem loca quaedam sale seminari consueverunt, ut perpetuo sterilia nihil boni unquam ferant, sicut videre est in 9. cap. Iudicum. Atque huius rei argumentum est concessio carnium in esum humanum a Deo facta homini post diluvium. Quarta causa fuit, quod Adam perfecte noverat naturales vires & facultates herbarum, fructuum, metallorum, lapidum, aliarumque rerum, & quae res haberent vim & potentiam bene conservandi & longissime producendi vitam humanam, quibus rebus & usus est ipse, & uti docuit posteros suos usque ad diluvium. Vixit enim Adam, ut supra docuimus, usque ad quinquagesimum septimum annum Lamech patris Noe, qui non longius quam quinque annis a diluvio abfuit.
...the seasoning of foods weaken and diminish life, as Hippocrates and Pliny teach. Whence Horace the Poet: '— if at once you mix roast with boiled, at once shellfish with thrushes, the sweet things will turn themselves into bile, and the sluggish phlegm will bring a tumult to the stomach.' And Ecclesiasticus, ch. 37, affirms that many have perished by gluttony. Finally, daily experience shows that those who eat and drink elegantly, sumptuously, and largely are of short life. The third cause was the excellence of the foods, on account of the exceeding goodness and fertility of the earth before the flood — after which the things born of the earth are much weaker and made worse, on account of the salt waters of the Ocean, which, flooding the earth, made it sterile; wherefore certain places are wont to be sown with salt, so that, perpetually sterile, they may never bear anything good, as is to be seen in the ninth chapter of Judges. And an argument of this thing is the concession of flesh for human eating, made by God to man after the flood. The fourth cause was that Adam perfectly knew the natural forces and faculties of herbs, fruits, metals, stones, and other things, and which things had the force and power of well preserving and most-long prolonging human life; which things he himself used, and taught his descendants to use, up to the flood. For Adam lived, as we taught above, until the fifty-seventh year of Lamech, the father of Noe, who was not more than five years distant from the flood.3
QUINTA causa fuit: quia in illa prima aetate, (Deo qui mundum & omnia quae in eo sunt condidit, & ab exordio eius usque ad finem perpetuo regit ita disponente,) super regionem illam, in qua homines illi habitabant fuere valde benigni, propitii, atque salutares aspectus syderum, coelestesque defluxus atque effectus: hi autem proprie non proveniunt nec fiunt secundum generalem motum coelorum, hic enim quotidie integre absoluteque conficitur: nec secundum motum proprium planetarum, quippe qui brevi tempore peraguntur, tardissimus enim omnium planetarum Saturnus triginta annis circulum suum absolvit: sed secundum motum proprium octavae sphaerae, vel ut placuit aliis nonae: unde secundum causas naturales potissimum mors & vita dependere putantur: eius autem motus tanta est tarditas, ut centum annis unus tantummodo gradus conficiatur: quare in tota prima aetate quae fuit mille sexcentorum quinquaginta sex annorum: aspectus syderum secundum istum motum variatus est per sex & decem gradus cum dimidio superque duo minuta. Et ex hoc motu provenire solent mirabiles quaedam mutationes in hoc mundo inferiori: ut quod pars aliqua terrae inundetur mari, & pars maris inundetur aquis, & terra quae erat habitabilis & fertilis, fiat inhabitabilis & sterilis, aut contra.
The fifth cause was: that in that first age (God, who founded the world and all things that are in it, and from its beginning to its end perpetually rules it, so disposing) — over that region in which those men dwelt, the aspects of the stars were very benign, propitious, and salutary, and [likewise] the celestial influxes and effects. These, however, do not properly come nor happen according to the general motion of the heavens (for this is daily completed wholly and absolutely); nor according to the proper motion of the planets (which are traversed in a short time, for Saturn, the slowest of all the planets, completes his circle in thirty years); but according to the proper motion of the eighth sphere — or, as it pleased others, the ninth — on which, according to natural causes, death and life are thought chiefly to depend. And of this [sphere's] motion the slowness is so great that in a hundred years only one degree is completed; wherefore in the whole first age, which was of one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, the aspect of the stars, according to that motion, was varied through sixteen and a half degrees and over that two minutes. And from this motion certain wonderful changes are wont to come in this lower world: as that some part of the land is flooded by the sea, and part of the sea [is turned to land], and land that was habitable and fertile becomes uninhabitable and sterile, or the contrary.4
Sexta causa fuit, ut per longam vitam illorum hominum posset admodum multiplicari genus humanum, quod in exordio mundi necessarium erat. Septima causa fuit, ut diu viventes homines possent
The sixth cause was, that through the long life of those men the human race could be greatly multiplied, which at the beginning of the world was necessary. The seventh cause was, that men living long could...5
possent reperire artes & scientias ad necessitates utilitatesque vitae humanae, & ad perfectionem intellectus humani plurimum conferentes, quae tamen non nisi longissimi temporis experimentis & observationibus reperiri possunt. Recte enim dictum est ab Aristotele, Tempus esse & inventorem & promotorem artium ac scientiarum. Praesertim autem longinquitas vitae necessaria erat ad inventionem Astronomiae & Geometriae, quarum disciplinarum certitudinem assequi non poterant, auctore Iosepho, cap. 3. libri primi de Antiquitatibus, si minus sexcentis annis vixissent, ex tot enim magnus annus constat.
...could discover the arts and sciences conferring greatly to the necessities and utilities of human life, and to the perfection of the human intellect — which, nevertheless, can be found only by the experiments and observations of a very long time. For it was rightly said by Aristotle that Time is both the inventor and the promoter of the arts and sciences. But especially the length of life was necessary for the invention of Astronomy and Geometry, whose certitude they could not attain (Josephus being the author, ch. 3 of the first book on the Antiquities) if they had lived less than six hundred years — for of that many the Great Year consists.6
CUR Iosephus magnum annum definiat sexcentis annis, nescire me fateor: quanquam non me fugit de spatio & magnitudine magni anni varias fuisse veterum sententias, quas tractat Macrobius super somnium Scipionis, & Lilius Giraldus in libro de annis & mensibus. Videtur autem pro sententia Iosephi facere, quod docet Plinius, cap. 2. lib. 10. scribens de Phoenice, quam tradit vivere annos sexcentos sexaginta. Et subdit: Cum huius alitis vita magni conversionem anni fieri prodit Manilius, iterumque significationes tempestatum & syderum easdem reverti. Hoc autem circa meridiem incipere, quo die signum Arietis Sol intraverit.
Why Josephus defines the Great Year as six hundred years, I confess I do not know — although it does not escape me that of the space and magnitude of the Great Year the ancients had various opinions, which Macrobius treats on the Dream of Scipio, and Lilius Giraldus in the book on years and months. But it seems to make for Josephus's opinion what Pliny teaches (ch. 2, book 10), writing about the Phoenix, which he hands down to live six hundred and sixty years. And he subjoins: 'Manilius reports that with the life of this bird the completion of the Great Year takes place, and that the same significations of seasons and stars return; and that this begins around midday, on the day on which the Sun enters the sign of Aries.'7

Translator’s notes

  1. Quaestio III of the disputation: the seven causes of the antediluvians' longevity. ↩
  2. The seven causes begin. (1) The good constitution and temperament of the body: nature, freshly made by God, was whole and disease-free, and this vigor lasted until the flood (after which lifespans sharply shortened). (2) Sobriety and a simple, natural diet — whereas variety, mixture, and seasoning [shorten life, continued next page]. Marginal glosses: 'Prima causa longae vitae, bonitas constitutionis'; 'Secunda sobrietas.' Catchword 'condi' (condimentum; continues on the next page). ↩
  3. Continues the causes: (2) sobriety — seasoning and gluttony shorten life (Hippocrates, Pliny; Horace Sat. 2.2; Ecclus 37:34; and daily experience of the sumptuous). (3) The excellence of pre-flood food, from the earth's great fertility — ruined afterward by the flood's salt ocean-waters (hence barren places 'sown with salt,' Judg 9:45); a sign of this is that God allowed meat-eating only after the flood (Gen 9:3). (4) Adam's perfect knowledge of the life-prolonging virtues of herbs, fruits, metals, and stones, which he taught his descendants down to near the flood (Adam living to Lamech's 57th year). Marginal glosses: 'Horat. lib. 2. Saty. 2.'; 'Tertia, alimentorum praestantia'; 'Quarta, scientia virium herbarum & aliarum rerum. Genes. 9.' Odd-side running head 'IN GENESIM, LIB. VII.' number '769'; true printed page 779. ↩
  4. (5) Favorable astral influences: over the antediluvians' region the star-aspects and celestial influxes were benign — not from the general daily motion, nor the swift planetary motions (Saturn, the slowest, circles in 30 years), but from the very slow proper motion of the eighth (or ninth) sphere, on which life and death are thought chiefly to depend (only 1 degree per 100 years, so ~16½ degrees over the 1,656-year first age). From this slow motion come great terrestrial changes (land flooded by sea and vice versa; fertile land turned barren, or the reverse). Marginal gloss: 'Quinta, syderum influentia.' ↩
  5. (6) Long life so the human race could multiply greatly, as was needful at the world's beginning. (7) So that long-lived men could [discover the arts and sciences — continued next page]. Marginal glosses: 'Sexta, generis humani multiplicatio'; 'Septima, artium inventio.' Page footer signature 'FFFF 2'; catchword 'possent' (continues on the next page). ↩
  6. (7, continued) Long life was needed to discover the arts and sciences (found only by long experiment and observation) — as Aristotle says, 'Time is the inventor and promoter of the arts.' Especially astronomy and geometry required it: per Josephus (Antiq. 1.3), their certainty could not be reached unless men lived at least 600 years — the span of the 'Great Year.' Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM' number '770'; true printed page 780. ↩
  7. On the 'Great Year': why Josephus makes it 600 years, Pererius does not know — the ancients gave various figures (Macrobius on the Dream of Scipio; Lilius Giraldus). Pliny (NH 10.2) supports Josephus: the Phoenix lives 660 years, and (per Manilius) with its life the Great Year is completed and the same seasonal/stellar configurations return, beginning at midday on the day the Sun enters Aries. Marginal gloss: 'De magno anno.' ↩