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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Seven — Cain and Abel

QUESTION I. How many years passed from the creation of Adam to the flood

LatineEnglish

QUESTION I. How many years passed from the creation of Adam to the flood.1

QUAESTIO I. Quot anni fluxerint a creatione Adami usque ad diluvium.

A Creatione Adami usque ad diluvium, quod sexcentesimo anno vitae Noe contigit, numerantur secundum Hebraicam scripturam & nostram editionem vulgatam, anni mille sexcenti quinquaginta sex. Intercesserunt vero decem generationes. Haec autem annorum summa facile colligitur ex annis, quos Scriptura cap. 5. Gen. singulis generationibus assignat. Sed advertendum est hoc loco, id quod recte monet B. Augustinus, idemque multo ante ipsum monuerat Ioseph. lib. 1. Antiq. cap. 3. in colligendis harum generationum annis, eos tantum sumendos esse annos, quos natus erat pater, cum genuit filium, reliquos vero omnes, quos vixit post genitum filium, esse reiiciendos: Illos enim proprios esse patris, & a caeteris omnibus distinctos, hos autem communes esse patri cum filio, qui si in Chronologia patris ponerentur, cum necesse sit eos in filii chronologia recenseri, bis eosdem annos sumi & numerari oporteret. Ergo ex annis nongentis triginta quos vixit Adam, centum triginta duntaxat in hanc chronologiam asciscemus, eos nimirum quos natus erat quando genuit Seth: reliquos autem octingentos, quibus post Seth procreatum superstes fuit, missos faciemus, idemque servabimus in caeteris generationibus.
From the creation of Adam to the flood — which occurred in the six-hundredth year of Noah's life — are numbered, according to the Hebrew Scripture and our Vulgate edition, one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. And there intervened ten generations. This sum of years is easily gathered from the years which Scripture (Genesis ch. 5) assigns to each generation. But it must be noted here — which blessed Augustine rightly warns, and the same, long before him, Josephus had warned (book 1 of the Antiquities, ch. 3) — that, in gathering the years of these generations, only those years are to be taken which the father had lived when he begot the son, but all the rest, which he lived after the son was begotten, are to be rejected. For the former are proper to the father, and distinct from all the rest; but the latter are common to the father with the son, which, if they were placed in the father's chronology — since it is necessary that they be counted in the son's chronology — the same years would have to be taken and numbered twice. Therefore, from the nine hundred and thirty years which Adam lived, we will admit only a hundred and thirty into this chronology — namely those he had lived when he begot Seth; but the remaining eight hundred, in which he survived after Seth was procreated, we will pass over, and we will do the same in the other generations.2
VERUM series & ordo generationum ab Adamo usque ad diluvium, numerus item annorum, qui proprie cuique generationi convenit, ita se habet: Adam cum genuit Seth, erat annorum 130. Seth cum genuit Enos, erat annorum 105. Enos
But the series and order of the generations from Adam to the flood, and likewise the number of years which properly belongs to each generation, is as follows: Adam, when he begot Seth, was 130 years old. Seth, when he begot Enos, was 105 years old. Enos...3
Enos 90. Cainan 70. Malaleel 65. Iared 162. Henoch 65. Mathusalem 187. Lamech 182. Noe tempore diluvii 600. Summa 1656.
Enos, 90. Cainan, 70. Malaleel, 65. Jared, 162. Henoch, 65. Mathusalem, 187. Lamech, 182. Noe at the time of the flood, 600. Sum: 1,656.4
PORRO extremus cuiusque generationis annus, quo dicitur pater genuisse filium exempli causa, annus trigesimus centesimus quo Adam genuit Seth, tripliciter potest intelligi: vel ut is annus fuerit tantummodo inchoatus, & ut vulgo dicitur currens; vel ut fuerit iam completus, & praeterea menses aliquot sequentis anni continens: vel denique ut fuerit praecise completus, ita ut nihil ei defuerit aut supererit. Ac nos quidem omnes Ecclesiasticos chronographos secuti, ultimos singularum generationum annos hoc postremo modo accepimus, sicque summa illa quam posuimus mille sexcentorum quinquaginta sex annorum existit. Sin autem primo modo sumatur, evadet minor; si secundo modo, maior, sed ad summum, non plus quam novem annis & aliquot mensibus tota summa vel maior, vel minor potest existere.
Moreover, the last year of each generation, in which the father is said to have begotten the son — for example, the hundred-and-thirtieth year in which Adam begot Seth — can be understood in three ways: either that that year was only begun (and, as commonly said, 'running'); or that it was already completed and, besides, contained some months of the following year; or, finally, that it was precisely completed, so that nothing was lacking to it or left over. And we indeed, following all the ecclesiastical chronographers, have taken the last years of each generation in this last way, and so that sum results which we set down, of one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. But if it be taken in the first way, it will come out less; if in the second way, greater — but at most, the whole sum can be greater or less by not more than nine years and some months.5
POSSET etiam hoc loco dubitari, num forte ab Adamo usque ad diluvium plures quam decem sint generationes, & an fuerit aliqua generatio praetermissa. Etenim in enumeratione generationum quae sunt a diluvio usque ad ortum Abrahae, Scriptura Hebraica, & nostra editio vulgata generationem Cainam, quae est inter Arphaxat & Sale, intermiserunt; quam tamen interposuit translatio Septuaginta interpretum, & B. Lucas capite tertio sui Evangelii. Non enim est insolens in sacra Scriptura, cum numerantur generationes, intermitti aliquas, ut quae recensentur ad certum quendam numerum, nempe arcanum ac mysticum, referantur: quemadmodum Beatus Matthaeus ab Abraham usque ad Christum quadraginta duas tantum generationes recenset, quibus tamen plures fuisse constat. At enim, cum nec ex aliis Scripturae locis, nec ex translatione LXX. interpretum, nec ex traditione Ecclesiae, nec sanctorum Patrum scriptis aliquo modo coniici queat ullam ab Adamo usque ad diluvium intermissam esse generationem (iam enim id sanctae Ecclesiae aliqua via & ratione innotuisset) nulla profecto subest causa, cur id quisquam suspicari, aut in dubium vocare debeat.
It could also be doubted in this place whether perhaps from Adam to the flood there are more than ten generations, and whether some generation was passed over. For indeed, in the enumeration of the generations that are from the flood to the birth of Abraham, the Hebrew Scripture and our Vulgate edition omitted the generation of Cainan, which is between Arphaxad and Sale; which nevertheless the translation of the Seventy interpreters interposed, and blessed Luke in the third chapter of his Gospel. For it is not unusual in sacred Scripture, when generations are numbered, for some to be omitted, so that those that are counted may be referred to a certain — namely secret and mystical — number: just as blessed Matthew reckons only forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ, of which nevertheless it is agreed there were more. But indeed, since neither from other places of Scripture, nor from the translation of the LXX, nor from the tradition of the Church, nor from the writings of the holy Fathers, can it be conjectured in any way that any generation from Adam to the flood was omitted (for it would already have become known to the holy Church by some way and reason), there is certainly no cause why anyone should suspect it, or call it into doubt.6

Translator’s notes

  1. Quaestio I: the total number of years from Adam to the flood. ↩
  2. Answer: 1,656 years from Adam to the flood (in the 600th year of Noah), across ten generations (Hebrew and Vulgate). The method (per Augustine, City of God 16.10, and earlier Josephus, Antiq. 1.3): count only each father's years up to begetting the next patriarch (Adam's 130, not his 930), since the later years belong jointly to father and son and would be double-counted. Marginal gloss: 'Observatio in Chronologia. B. August. libro 16 de Civit. Dei. cap. 10.' ↩
  3. The chronological table begins (each father's age at begetting the next): Adam 130, Seth 105, Enos... (continued next page). Catchword 'Enos'. ↩
  4. The chronological table concluded (each patriarch's age at begetting the next, or Noah's age at the flood): Enos 90, Cainan 70, Malaleel 65, Jared 162, Henoch 65, Methuselah 187, Lamech 182, Noah 600 — plus Adam's 130 and Seth's 105 from the previous page, totaling 1,656 years. Odd-side running head 'IN GENESIM, LIB. VII.' number '775'; true printed page 785. ↩
  5. A precision caveat: the 'begetting-year' of each father can be read three ways — barely begun ('current'), already completed (plus some months), or precisely completed. Pererius follows the ecclesiastical chronographers (precisely completed), giving 1,656; the other readings shift the total, but by at most ~9 years and some months. Marginal gloss: 'Observatio Chronologica.' ↩
  6. A further doubt: were more than ten generations (one omitted) between Adam and the flood? There is a precedent — the Hebrew/Vulgate omit Cainan (between Arphaxad and Shelah), whom the LXX and Luke 3:36 include; and Scripture does omit generations for a mystical number (Matthew's 42 from Abraham to Christ, though there were more). But since no Scripture, nor the LXX, nor Church tradition, nor the Fathers suggests any generation was omitted before the flood (else the Church would know), there is no cause to doubt it. Page footer signature 'GGGG'; catchword 'QUAE' (Quaestio II begins on the next page). ↩