LatineEnglish
TWELFTH DISPUTATION. Whether there could have been sufficient room in the Ark for taking in all the aforesaid animals and preserving them for one year.
DUODECIMA DISPUTATIO. An omnibus supradictis animalibus capiendis et per unum annum conservandis sufficiens in Arca locus esse potuerit.
SUPERIORIBUS quatuor disputationibus recensitae sunt a nobis, de quatuor generibus animalium terrestrium quae ingressa sunt in arcam, centum quinquaginta species: hoc est, reptilium triginta, quadrupedum Carnivororum quadraginta, Non Carnivororum et magni corporis quadraginta, denique neque Carnivororum neque magni corporis etiam quadraginta. Singulis autem praedictis speciebus unum par animalium, id est, marem et feminam, assignavimus. Et Reptilia quidem nihil facessunt negotii, quod pleraque aut perquam paululum loci occupabant in Arca, aut etiam nihil, cum in foraminibus et quasi cavernis in ipsis trabibus et materia lignea excavatis contineri potuerint. Carnivora autem redegimus ad mensuram quadraginta parium luporum; non carnivora et magni corporis ad mensuram quadraginta parium boum; et item non carnivora minori corpore [praedita] ad mensuram quadraginta parium ovium. Verum his addere insuper oportet alia viginti quinque paria mundorum animalium: siquidem iussit Deus ex qualibet specie mundorum animalium sumi septena, nos autem supra cuilibet speciei bina tantum tribuimus.
In the four foregoing disputations we have reviewed, of the four kinds of terrestrial animals that entered the ark, one hundred and fifty species: that is, thirty of reptiles, forty of carnivorous quadrupeds, forty of non-carnivorous and large-bodied, and finally forty of neither carnivorous nor large-bodied. And to each of the aforesaid species we assigned one pair of animals, that is, a male and a female. And the Reptiles indeed cause no trouble, because most occupied either very little room in the Ark, or even none, since they could be contained in holes and, as it were, caverns hollowed out in the very beams and timber. The Carnivores we reduced to the measure of forty pairs of wolves; the non-carnivorous and large-bodied to the measure of forty pairs of oxen; and likewise the non-carnivorous of smaller body to the measure of forty pairs of sheep. But to these it is necessary to add, besides, another twenty-five pairs of clean animals: for God commanded seven to be taken of each species of clean animals, whereas we above assigned only two to each species.1
SED quae sunt munda animalia? Hoc declaravit Deus in Deuteronomio, definiens mundum esse animal quod ruminat et ungulam habet divisam. Non satis erat habere alterutrum, sed utroque praeditum esse oportebat. Nam licet Camelus, lepus et Cherogryllus ruminent, tamen quia non dividunt ungulam; Sus vero licet ungulam divisam habeat, quia tamen non ruminat: haec omnia censebantur immun[da]…
But which are the clean animals? This God declared in Deuteronomy, defining a clean animal to be one which chews the cud and has a divided hoof. It was not enough to have one or the other, but it had to be endowed with both. For although the Camel, the hare, and the Cherogryllus (rock-badger) chew the cud, yet because they do not divide the hoof; and the Swine, though it has a divided hoof, yet because it does not chew the cud: all these were reckoned unclea[n]…2
…immunda. Quae autem animalia ruminent, breviter indicat Aristoteles extremo libro nono Historiae animalium: Animalia, inquit, quibus dentium ordo superior deest, in ruminando non minus delectantur quam edendo. Ruminantque quae superiore dentium ordine carent, ut boves, oves, caprae; ex feris nullum adhuc ruminare constat, praeterquam ea quae aliquando cum hominibus exigunt [vivunt], ut cervus — hunc enim ruminare planum est. Iacent potissimum cum ruminant omnia, et hybernis praecipue mensibus solent ruminare; septem fere mensibus hoc faciunt quae intra tecta alantur. Gregales levius minusque tempus ruminant, quoniam foris pascuntur. Sunt etiam ex dentatis utrinque nonnulla quae ruminant, ut mures Pontici, et piscis quem ab ea re Ruminalem quidam appellarunt. Haec Aristoteles.
…unclean. But which animals chew the cud, Aristotle briefly indicates at the end of the ninth book of the History of Animals: “Animals,” he says, “which lack the upper row of teeth take no less delight in chewing the cud than in eating. And those chew the cud which lack the upper row of teeth, like oxen, sheep, goats; of wild beasts, none is yet known to chew the cud, except those which sometimes live with men, like the deer — for that this chews the cud is plain. They all especially lie down when they chew the cud, and chew the cud especially in the winter months; those that are kept under roofs do this for about seven months. The gregarious ones chew the cud more lightly and for a shorter time, since they feed outside. There are also some among those toothed on both sides which chew the cud, like the Pontic mice, and the fish which from this circumstance some have called the ‘Ruminal.’” This [says] Aristotle.3
Quae vero fuerint et quot mundorum animalium terrestrium species, nullus est ambigendi locus. Siquidem in Deuteronomii capite decimo quarto has Deus mundorum animalium terrestrium decem species definivit atque constituit: Bovem, Ovem, Capram, Cervum, Capream, Bubalum, Tragelaphum, Pygargum, Orygem et Camelopardalum. Ex harum decem unaquaque specie septena iussu Dei recepta sunt in arcam. Cum igitur nos supra singulis earum decem specierum bina tantum animalia tribuerimus, addere illis oportet insuper alia quinque: decies autem quinque sunt quinquaginta, id est, viginti quinque paria; quae adiuncta supradictis centum quinquaginta, numerum omnium animalium ingressorum in arcam efficiunt centum septuaginta quinque parium.
But which and how many were the species of clean terrestrial animals, there is no room for doubt. For in the fourteenth chapter of Deuteronomy God defined and established these ten species of clean terrestrial animals: the Ox, the Sheep, the Goat, the Deer, the Roe, the Bubalus, the Tragelaphus, the Pygargus, the Oryx, and the Camelopardalis. Of each one of these ten species, seven were received into the ark by God's command. Since, therefore, we above assigned only two animals to each of those ten species, it is necessary to add to them, besides, another five: and ten times five is fifty, that is, twenty-five pairs; which, joined to the aforesaid one hundred and fifty, make the number of all the animals that entered the ark one hundred and seventy-five pairs.4
Sed quo prolixius et liberalius agamus, cum numerum amplificemus et extendamus usque ad ducenta paria animalium: ex hoc numero si detrahantur triginta paria reptilium, quibus intra spatium Arcae aut nullo aut perexiguo loco (ut supradictum est) opus fuit, totum interius spatium Arcae pertinens ad habitationem animalium capax esse debuit centum et sexaginta parium animalium — hoc est, verbi gratia, quinquaginta parium luporum, sexaginta parium boum, et sexaginta parium ovium: haec enim posita sunt a nobis pro omnibus carnivoris, et pro non carnivoris magni corporis, et pro non carnivoris minori corpore praeditis.
But, to act more amply and liberally, let us amplify and extend the number even up to two hundred pairs of animals: from this number, if there be subtracted thirty pairs of reptiles, which needed either no room or very little within the space of the Ark (as was said above), then the whole interior space of the Ark pertaining to the habitation of animals must have been capable of one hundred and sixty pairs of animals — that is, for example, fifty pairs of wolves, sixty pairs of oxen, and sixty pairs of sheep: for these we have set down for all the carnivores, and for the non-carnivorous of large body, and for the non-carnivorous endowed with smaller body.5
SEQUITUR deinceps ut ostendamus horum omnium animalium abunde capacem fuisse Arcam. Supra, lib. 10, in ea parte Arcae quam habitationi animalium destinavimus, trecentas mansiones dimensi sumus: quarum quaelibet alta erat octo vel novem cubitis, longa sex, totidemque lata — quo nimirum loco paucissima sunt animalia quorum par unum ampliorem desideret, quamplurima vero longe minori contineri possunt. Assignando igitur supradictis centum septuaginta paribus animalium totidem mansiones, supererunt centum triginta mansiones, de quibus sumere licet quantumcumque opus fuerit, si vel plures supradictis inveniantur species animalium, vel pluribus laxiora spatia assignare oporteat. Tantum igitur abest ut animalibus quae ingressa sunt in Arcam continendis defuerit in Arca locus, ut multus etiam locus in ea superfu[erit]…
It follows next that we should show that the Ark was abundantly capacious of all these animals. Above, in book 10, in that part of the Ark which we destined for the habitation of animals, we measured out three hundred dwellings: each of which was eight or nine cubits high, six long, and as many wide — in which place, indeed, there are very few animals one pair of which would require a larger [space], but very many can be contained in a far smaller one. Assigning, therefore, to the aforesaid one hundred and seventy pairs of animals as many dwellings, there will remain one hundred and thirty dwellings, from which one may take however much shall be needed, whether more species of animals than the aforesaid be found, or it be necessary to assign roomier spaces to several. So far, therefore, is it from being the case that room was lacking in the Ark for containing the animals that entered it, that much room even remained over in it…6
…superfuerit. VERUM hic usu venit, quod etiam contingit multis numerum stellarum suspicientibus easque confuse ac sine artificio ullo Astronomico contemplantibus. Videntur enim primo aspectu innumerabiles, et incredibile accidit quod a Mathematicis proditum est: stellas visu insignes non plures duabus et viginti milleque in caelo esse. Si quis tamen hunc stellarum numerum a Mathematicis traditum in globo aliquo depictum habeat, et singulas earum stellarum distincte ac proprie comparet cum iis quae cernuntur in caelo, nullam plane reperiet in caelo visu notabilem quam in globo expressam non habeat; quin etiam minimas in globo notatas aegre in caelo visu discernet — quemadmodum a nobis disputatum est priori tomo nostrorum Commentariorum in Genesim, in libro 2, quaest. 8.
…remained over. But here happens what also befalls many who look up at the number of the stars, and contemplate them confusedly and without any Astronomical skill. For at first sight they seem innumerable, and it [seems] incredible — what has been reported by the Mathematicians — that the stars notable to sight are not more than one thousand and twenty-two in the heaven. Yet if anyone has this number of stars handed down by the Mathematicians depicted on some globe, and compares each of those stars distinctly and properly with those that are discerned in the heaven, he will find plainly no [star] notable to sight in the heaven which he does not have expressed on the globe; nay, even the smallest ones marked on the globe he will scarcely discern by sight in the heaven — as was disputed by us in the former volume of our Commentaries on Genesis, in book 2, question 8.7
Similiter accidit multis circa Arcam Noë, quae — non bene cognitam eius capacitatem, nec animalium quae in eam sunt ingressa species certo digestas ordine certoque aliquo numero comprehensas habentibus — tot tantorumque animalium minime capax fuisse videtur: cum tamen manifesta ratione demonstratum sit eam fuisse non eorum modo animalium, verum etiam longe plurium satis superque capacem.
Similarly it happens to many concerning the Ark of Noah, which — to those who have neither well understood its capacity, nor [grasped] the species of animals that entered it, arranged in a fixed order and comprehended in some fixed number — seems to have been by no means capacious of so many and so great animals: although, nevertheless, it has been demonstrated by manifest reasoning that it was more than sufficiently capacious not only of those animals, but even of far more.8
Translator’s notes
- §100. The tally: 150 species (4 classes × ~40) + the extra clean animals. Margins: Gen. 6 & 7. ↩
- §101. The Deuteronomic definition of clean animals. Margins: “Which animals were formerly clean”; Deut. 14. Continues on p. 279. ↩
- Aristotle on which animals chew the cud. Margin: Aristotle. ↩
- The ten clean species (Deut. 14); the tally reaches 175 pairs. ↩
- Rounding generously to 200 pairs (160 needing room). ↩
- §102. The capacity proof: 300 dwellings vs. 170 pairs ⇒ 130 to spare. Margin: “That the Ark of Noah was capacious of all the animals said to be received into it.” Continues on p. 280. ↩
- The astronomical analogy: the stars seem countless but number 1,022; likewise the Ark's beasts seem too many but are countable. ↩
- Conclusion of §102. ↩