LatineEnglish
PREFACE.
PRAEFATIO.
HISTORIAM diluvii Noëtici tam subtiliter et distincte atque enucleate exposuit Moses, ut nihil fere ad eam rem pertinens et dignum cognitu, etiam a curioso lectore, requiri possit, quod non ab eo vel expressum sit vel indicatum, vel non ex his quae ab eo prodita sunt facile coniici et comprehendi queat. Declaravit enim Moses quando inceptum sit diluvium, quo modo factum, quibus ex causis profectum, quam late patens quamque super terram elatum in sublime, quantum damni et exitii importaverit, quanto tempore terram aquis obrutam tenuerit, quando diminui et qua ex causa coeperit, quo primum in loco et quanto tempore ab initio diluvii arca consederit, quemadmodum Noë diminutionem et cessationem diluvii exploraverit atque perspexerit, quando finitum sit dilu[vium]…
Moses has set forth the history of Noah's flood so subtly and distinctly and clearly that scarcely anything pertaining to that matter and worthy of knowledge could be sought, even by a curious reader, which has not been either expressed or indicated by him, or cannot easily be conjectured and understood from the things reported by him. For Moses declared when the flood began, in what manner it came about, from what causes it proceeded, how widely it extended and how high it was raised above the earth, how much damage and destruction it brought, for how long it held the earth overwhelmed with waters, when and from what cause it began to diminish, in what place first and after how long from the beginning of the flood the ark settled, how Noah explored and observed the diminution and cessation of the flood, when the flood end[ed]…1
…diluvium, et Noë cum suis atque cum animalibus arca egressus [sit]; quemadmodum Deo gratissimum offerens Noë sacrificium, laetissimis ab eo promissis recreatus sit atque confirmatus.
…the flood, and [when] Noah with his family and with the animals went out of the ark; how Noah, offering a sacrifice most pleasing to God, was refreshed and confirmed by the most joyful promises [given] by him.2
COEPTUM est fieri diluvium anno sexcentesimo vitae Noë, mense secundo, decimo septimo die mensis. Causae diluvii praeter Deum fuere: ruptio omnium fontium abyssi magnae, et reseratio cataractarum caeli, et quadraginta dierum atque noctium continua densissimaque pluvia. Amplitudo diluvii tanta fuit ut omnem terrarum orbem operiret; altitudo vero tanta ut celsissimos terrae montes quindecim cubitis transcenderet. Obtinuit porro diluvium terram, prius quam diminui coeperit, centum quinquaginta diebus. Exinde coepit diminui diluvium, partim immisso vento siccante et urente, partim clausis fontibus abyssi caelique cataractis et prohibita pluvia. Arca requievit super montes Armeniae mense septimo et decimo septimo die mensis; cacumina montium apparuerunt primo die mensis decimi.
The flood began in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month. The causes of the flood, besides God, were: the breaking-open of all the fountains of the great deep, and the unbarring of the floodgates of heaven, and the continuous and most dense rain of forty days and nights. The breadth of the flood was so great that it covered the whole world; and the height so great that it surpassed the highest mountains of the earth by fifteen cubits. The flood, moreover, held the earth, before it began to diminish, for one hundred and fifty days. Thereafter the flood began to diminish — partly by a drying and burning wind sent upon it, partly by the closing of the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven, and the rain being checked. The ark rested upon the mountains of Armenia in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month; the tops of the mountains appeared on the first day of the tenth month.3
Ad explorandam autem cessationem diluvii emisit Noë corvum et bis columbam, quae secundo reversa, ferensque ramum oleae virentibus frondibus, significavit cessasse diluvium. Anno sexcentesimo primo, primo mense, die prima mensis, terra exsiccata est; et mense secundo ac vigesimo septimo die eius mensis penitus arefacta est terra, et Noë egressus est cum familia sua et cum animalibus. Qui, quam primum aedificato altari, de cunctis pecoribus et volucribus mundis holocaustum obtulit acceptissimum Deo, a quo promissum accepit nunquam deinceps vastatam et perditam iri diluvio universam terram. Atque haec est summa narrationis Mosaicae, in qua consummantur duo capita libri Geneseos, septimum et octavum, quae sunt a nobis hoc duodecimo et hunc proxime sequenti decimo tertio libro explananda. In septimo capite describitur initium et incrementum diluvii; in octavo, diminutio et cessatio eius.
And to explore the cessation of the flood, Noah sent out a raven, and twice a dove — which, returning the second time and bearing a branch of olive with green leaves, signified that the flood had ceased. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the earth was dried; and in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of that month, the earth was utterly dried up, and Noah went out with his family and with the animals. He, an altar being built as soon as possible, offered from all the clean cattle and birds a holocaust most acceptable to God, from whom he received the promise that never thereafter would the whole earth be laid waste and destroyed by a flood. And this is the sum of the Mosaic narrative, in which two chapters of the book of Genesis are comprised — the seventh and the eighth — which are to be explained by us in this twelfth and in the next following thirteenth book. In the seventh chapter is described the beginning and increase of the flood; in the eighth, its diminution and cessation.4
Translator’s notes
- Preface to Liber XII: praise of the completeness of Moses' narrative. Continues on p. 288. ↩
- Conclusion of the Preface's summary of the narrative's contents. ↩
- §1. A connected summary of the flood's chronology (the Preface's narrative). Margin: “Of what matters of the Flood Moses treats.” ↩
- Conclusion of the Preface: the plan of Books 12–13 (Genesis 7 and 8). ↩