LatineEnglish
FIRST DISPUTATION. Why it was called an ark, and not a ship.1
PRIMA DISPUTATIO. Cur appellata fuerit arca, et non navis.
Vocabulum illud Arcae formam operis demonstrat. Sed cur appellata est Arca Hebraice (Tebah) et non potius navis? Nimirum similior illa fuit arcae quam navis, tum figura tum usu: namque navis ima parte restringitur...
That word ‘ark’ shows the form of the work. But why was it called an ‘ark’ (in Hebrew Tebah), and not rather a ‘ship’? Doubtless it was more like an ark than a ship, both in shape and in use: for a ship is narrowed at the lower part…2
...et coangustatur, suprema vero parte aperta et ampla est; Arca vero Noë utrinque, et superne et inferne, clausa et lata erat. Nam quia arcere debebat non modo inferiores aquas quibus supernatabat, sed etiam superiores e caelo per quadraginta continuos dies incredibili copia et impetu praecipitatas, idcirco eam omni ex parte clausam et bene munitam esse necesse fuit. Quo autem capax esset tot tantorumque animalium quae per unum annum in ea commorari debebant, propterea oportuit eam usquequaque latam esse. Praeterea navis habet figuram habilem idoneamque usui cuius gratia est facta, ut scilicet remis et ventis arteque humana per aquas moveatur et regatur; illa vero arca Noë non hominum sed Dei motione et rectione agebatur. Audi Chrysostomum: An non, inquit, arcam hinc et illinc moveri et non submergi a tanta aquarum vi, cum nullus esset gubernator, superna erat gratia? Non enim dicere potes quod fuerit ad modum navis, ut arte quadam illius iter dirigi potuerit. Arca erat undequaque clausa et munita, et propter praeceptum Conditoris non solum eam laedere non potuit aquarum impetus, sed sublimior illis facta, inhabitantes admodum securos fecerit. Quando enim Deus operatur aliquid, noli humana ratione exquirere quae fiunt; transcendunt enim mentem nostram, et non potest humana cogitatio attingere et comprehendere eorum quae a Deo condita sunt rationem. Proinde par est nos audientes quod Deus imperavit obedire et credere iis quae ab illo dicuntur; nam cum conditor sit naturae, omnia componit et transformat prout sibi videtur. Sic Chrysostomus. Et Augustinus libro 15 De Civitate Dei cap. 27 ait fabricatam esse arcam Noë non curvis sed rectis lineis longe lateque porrectam, quam nullus in mare mitteret conatus hominum, sed unda levaret cum venisset naturali ordine ponderum, quamque magis divina providentia quam humana prudentia natantem gubernaret, ne incurreret alicubi naufragium. Hactenus ex Augustino. Habebat item illa usum arcae, quae deservit abscondendis et servandis rebus; unde Varro dixit arcam Latine dictam esse quod a rebus quas in se conditas et clausas habet fures arceat. Similiter etiam arca Noë ab hominibus et animalibus quae intra se continebat et contegebat diluvii aquas arcebat.
…and contracted, but at its upper part is open and ample; whereas the ark of Noah was, on both sides — both above and below — closed and broad. For because it had to keep off not only the lower waters on which it floated, but also the upper ones poured down from heaven for forty continuous days with incredible abundance and force, it was therefore necessary that it be on every side closed and well fortified. And that it might be capacious enough for the many and great animals which had to dwell in it for one year, it was therefore needful that it be broad throughout. Moreover, a ship has a figure handy and fit for the use for which it is made — namely, that it be moved and steered through the waters by oars and winds and human art; but that ark of Noah was driven not by the moving and steering of men, but of God. Hear Chrysostom: ‘Was it not by supernal grace that the ark was moved this way and that, and not sunk by so great a force of waters, when there was no steersman? For you cannot say that it was after the manner of a ship, so that its course could be directed by some art of his. The ark was on every side closed and fortified, and, by the precept of the Creator, not only could the force of the waters not harm it, but, made higher than they, it rendered its inhabitants quite secure. For when God works anything, do not by human reason seek out the things that are done; for they transcend our mind, and human thought cannot attain and comprehend the reason of the things founded by God. Therefore it is fitting that we, hearing what God commanded, obey and believe the things said by him; for, since he is the founder of nature, he composes and transforms all things as seems good to him.’ Thus Chrysostom. And Augustine, in book 15 of The City of God, ch. 27, says that the ark of Noah was built not with curved but with straight lines, stretched out far and wide, which no effort of men would launch into the sea, but the wave would lift when it came, by the natural order of weights, and which the divine providence rather than human prudence would steer as it floated, lest it anywhere suffer shipwreck. Thus far from Augustine. It had, likewise, the use of an ‘ark,’ which serves for the hiding and keeping of things; whence Varro said that an ark (arca) is so called in Latin because it ‘keeps off’ (arceat) thieves from the things it holds stored and shut up within it. Similarly the ark of Noah kept off the waters of the Flood from the men and animals which it held and covered within itself.3
Ratem quoque illam qua Deucalionem cum uxore Pyrrha dicitur diluvium evasisse — fictum et proditum est a Poetis — reperio appellatam esse ab Ethnicis Arcam; haud dubie, ut alia multa illius Diluvii, sic et hoc de Arca, Poetis ex Mosis historia mutuatis. Lucianus in Timone seu Misanthropo, de diluvio Deucalionis scribens, navigium quo ille evasit appellat arculam, Graece kibōtion: Tantum, inquit, momento temporis sub Deucalione naufragium contigit ut, demersis in profundo cunctis, vix unica superstes arcula fuerit ad Lycoream appulsa. Adron Teius eandem vocat larnaka, id est arcam. Et quoniam ea ad Parnassum montem appulsa est, propter eam causam, auctore Stephano, is mons antiquitus Larnassus dicebatur, postea vero priori littera mutata nominatus est Parnassus. Simili vocabulo eam ratem Deucalionis no-...
The raft, too, on which Deucalion with his wife Pyrrha is said to have escaped the flood (a thing feigned and set forth by the Poets), I find was called by the heathen an ‘Ark’; doubtless, as many other things of that Flood, so this about the Ark too, the Poets borrowed from the history of Moses. Lucian, in the Timon or Misanthrope, writing of the flood of Deucalion, calls the vessel by which he escaped a ‘little ark,’ in Greek kibōtion: ‘So suddenly,’ he says, ‘did the shipwreck happen under Deucalion that, all being sunk in the deep, scarcely a single little ark survived and was driven ashore at Lycorea.’ Adron of Teos calls the same a larnax, that is, an ark. And because it was driven ashore at Mount Parnassus, for that cause (on the authority of Stephanus) that mountain was anciently called Larnassus, but afterward, the first letter being changed, was named Parnassus. By a similar word the Scholiast of Homer na-…4
...minat Scholiastes Homeri, ad hunc modum scribens: Iuppiter multam pluviam e caelo effundens, multas partes Graeciae adeo inundavit ut multi homines perirent, paucis exceptis qui in proximos montes confugerunt. Deucalion vero in Arca (en tē larnaki) per mare navigans, in novem dies totidemque noctes Parnassum appulit, ibique pluviis cessantibus, arca egressus, Iovi Phyxio sacrificavit.
…names the raft of Deucalion, writing in this manner: ‘Jupiter, pouring much rain from heaven, so flooded many parts of Greece that many men perished, a few excepted who fled to the nearest mountains. But Deucalion, sailing through the sea in an Ark (en tē larnaki), in nine days and as many nights came to land at Parnassus, and there, the rains ceasing, having gone out of the ark, sacrificed to Jupiter Phyxius (the Protector of fugitives).’5
Translator’s notes
- Heading of the First Disputation of Book X. ↩
- §3 (continues on p. 187): why ‘ark’ (Hebrew Tebah), not ‘ship’ — it was more like an ark in shape and use. ↩
- §3 (continued from p. 186): the ark closed top and bottom (to keep out the waters above and below), and broad (for the animals); unlike a ship, it was steered by God, not by human art. Margins: Augustine (City of God 15.27); Varro. ↩
- §5 (continues on p. 188): the raft on which Deucalion escaped the flood is called an ‘ark’ by the heathen (the poets borrowing from Moses); Lucian, Adron of Teos, Stephanus on Parnassus. Margins: ‘The raft on which Deucalion is said to have escaped the flood was called by the heathen an Ark’; Lucian; Adron of Teos; Stephanus, On Cities; Iliad 1. ↩
- §5 (continued from p. 187): the Homeric Scholiast on Deucalion’s ‘ark’ (larnax) and the nine-days’ voyage to Parnassus. ↩