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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Twelve — the generation, increase, and state of the flood

THIRD DISPUTATION. From what things and natural causes Noah's flood was made

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THIRD DISPUTATION. From what things and natural causes Noah's flood was made.

TERTIA DISPUTATIO. Ex quibus rebus et causis naturalibus factum sit diluvium Noëticum.

CUM Moses dixit hoc loco: Rupti sunt omnes fontes abyssi magnae, et cataractae caeli apertae sunt, et facta est pluvia super terram quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus, satis indicavit his verbis duas res naturales, aut solas aut principales, fuisse causas diluvii: alteram quidem, ruptionem fontium abyssi magnae; alteram vero, apertionem cataractarum caeli — ut altera quidem subter, vel in terra vel intra terram fuerit, altera vero supra, in ipso caelo fuerit, id est, vel in aëre, vel in astris, vel in utroque. Continuatio autem pluviae per quadraginta dies non fuit tertia causa diluvii a prioribus duabus diversa, sed fuit potius velut quidam effectus reserationis cataractarum caeli.
When Moses said in this place, “All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the cataracts of heaven were opened, and rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights,” he indicated sufficiently by these words that two natural things were either the sole or the principal causes of the flood: the one, the breaking-open of the fountains of the great deep; the other, the opening of the cataracts of heaven — so that the one was below (whether in the earth or within the earth), but the other above, in heaven itself, that is, either in the air, or in the stars, or in both. But the continuation of the rain for forty days was not a third cause of the flood distinct from the prior two, but was rather, as it were, a certain effect of the unbarring of the cataracts of heaven.1
PHILO in libro 2 de vita Mosis tres causas attingit Noëtici diluvii: unam, maris tumorem et ob id effusionem in terras; alteram, ingens fluminum omnium incrementum; tertiam, longam imbrium continuationem. Siquidem, inquit Philo, maria tumentia, fluviique aucti, torrentes simul et perennes, civitates cunctas in campestribus regionibus sitas inundaverunt et subverterunt; quae autem in editioribus locis habitabantur, continuati imbres, nec interdiu nec noctu intermissi, funditus subruerunt. Verum, ut hoc de causis effectricibus diluvii, quod Moses tanta brevitate perstrinxit, explicatius ac dilucidius expositum melius intelligatur, paulo altius repetita disputatione breviter commemorandum est quid ab Ethnicis philosophis de origine et generatione diluvii proditum sit.
Philo, in the second book On the Life of Moses, touches on three causes of Noah's flood: one, the swelling of the sea and, on that account, its overflowing onto the lands; the second, the huge increase of all the rivers; the third, the long continuation of rains. “For,” says Philo, “the swelling seas, and the increased rivers — torrents both seasonal and perennial — inundated and overturned all the cities situated in the level regions; but those that were inhabited in higher places, the continued rains, intermitted neither by day nor by night, utterly undermined.” But in order that this matter of the efficient causes of the flood — which Moses touched on with such brevity — may be better understood when set forth more explicitly and clearly, the discussion being taken up a little higher, it must be briefly recalled what was reported by the pagan philosophers about the origin and generation of a flood.2
SENECA libro tertio Naturalium quaestionum, capite 27 ac duobus sequentibus, multa disputat de causis efficientibus diluvium: Quaeritur, inquit, cum fatalis dies diluvii venerit, quemadmodum orbis terrarum undis obruatur. Utrum Oceani viribus fiat, et externum in nos pelagus exurgat; an crebri sine intermissione imbres et elisa aestate hyems pertinax immensam vim aquarum ruptis nubibus deiiciat; an flumina tellus largius fundat aperiatque fontes novos; an potius una non sit tanto malo causa, sed omnis ratio consentiat, simul imbres cadant et flumina increscant et maria sedibus suis excita percurrant, et omnia uno agmine ad exitium humani generis incumbant. Ita est: Nihil difficile est naturae, utique ubi in finem properat. Ad originem rerum parvae utitur viribus, dispensatque se incrementis fallentibus; subito ad ruinam toto impetu venit. Quicquid ex hoc statu et ordine rerum natura flexerit in exitium mortalium, satis est. Ergo cum advenerit illa necessitas temporis, multa simul fata causas movent: nec sine concussione mundi tanta mutatio erit.
Seneca, in the third book of the Natural Questions, chapter 27 and the two following, disputes much about the efficient causes of a flood: “It is asked,” he says, “when the fatal day of the flood shall come, in what manner the world is overwhelmed by the waters: whether it comes about by the strength of the Ocean, and the external sea rises up against us; or whether frequent rains without intermission, and a persistent winter with summer driven out, cast down an immense force of waters from broken clouds; or whether the earth pours forth its rivers more abundantly and opens new springs; or whether rather there is not one cause for so great an evil, but every principle conspires — at once the rains fall, and the rivers increase, and the seas, stirred from their seats, rush over, and all things press, in one column, to the destruction of the human race. So it is: Nothing is difficult for nature, especially when it hastens to its end. For the origin of things it uses small forces, and dispenses itself by imperceptible increments; suddenly it comes to ruin with its whole force. Whatever nature has turned aside from this state and order of things toward the destruction of mortals is enough. Therefore, when that necessity of time has come, many fates at once set causes in motion: nor will so great a change be without a shaking of the world.”3
Post haec autem Seneca copiose disserit de variis causis diluvii, quas in disputatione eius varie dispersas si quis colligere et ad certum aliquem numerum redigere studuerit, quinque praecipuas diluvii causas ab eo tradi comperiet. Prima causa est longinqua continuatio densissimorum imbrium. Primo enim immodici cadunt imbres, et sine ullis solibus triste nubilo caelum est, nebulaeque continuae ex humida spissaque caligine, nunquam exsiccantibus ventis. Postquam magis magisque nimbi ingruunt, et congestae saeculis tabuerunt nives, devolutus torrens altissimis montibus rapit silvas, et saxa revolutis remissa compagibus rotat; urbes, et implicitos trahit moenibus suis populos, ruinam an naufragium quaerantur incertos: adeo simul et quod opprimeret et quod mergeret venit.
After this, Seneca discourses copiously about the various causes of a flood, which, if anyone should endeavor to gather them — scattered variously in his discussion — and reduce them to some fixed number, he will find that five principal causes of a flood are handed down by him. The first cause is the long continuation of the densest rains. “For at first immoderate rains fall, and the sky is gloomy with cloud without any sunshine, and the mists are continuous from a moist and thick haze, the winds never drying it. After the storm-clouds press on more and more, and the snows heaped up for ages have melted, the torrent, rolling down from the highest mountains, sweeps away the woods, and rolls the rocks, loosened, their structures dissolved; it drags cities, and peoples entangled in their own walls, uncertain whether they seek ruin or shipwreck: so much at once came both what might crush and what might drown.”4
ALTERA causa est nimius fluminum auctus ex crebritate et densitate imbrium. Flumina enim plus nimio aucta et redundantia, relicto naturali alveo, superfluentia terras inundant et stagnant, et fit quod pulchre dixit Poëta: Exspatiata ruunt per apertos flumina campos. Tunc immensa ubique terrarum est aquae altitudo: tantum in summis montium iugis vada sunt. Illuc igitur cum liberis et coniugibus fugient homines, actis ante se gregibus, dirempto inter miseros commercio ac transitu, quoniam quicquid submissius est, id unda complevit. Editissimis quibusque adhaerebunt reliquiae generis humani, quibus ad extrema perductis hoc unum erit solatium, quod transibit in stuporem metus, nec dolor habebit locum. Quippe vim suam dolor perdit in eo qui ultra sensum mali miser est.
The second cause is the excessive increase of rivers from the frequency and density of rains. “For rivers, increased and overflowing more than enough, having left their natural channel, overflowing, inundate the lands and stagnate, and there happens what the Poet beautifully said: ‘The rivers, spread out, rush over the open fields’ (Ovid, Met. 1). Then everywhere on earth there is an immense depth of water: only on the highest ridges of the mountains are there shallows. Thither, then, will men flee with their children and wives, their flocks driven before them, all exchange and passage among the wretched being cut off, since whatever is lower the wave has filled. The remnants of the human race will cling to the highest points; and to these, brought to the extreme, this one consolation will remain — that fear will pass into stupor, and grief will have no place. For grief loses its force in him who is wretched beyond the sense of his evil.”5
TERTIA causa, supra modum tumescentis maris in terris effusio. Non enim potest torrentium aut imbrium aut fluminum iniuria fieri tam grande naufragium. Ubi instat illa pernicies, fluere assiduos imbres et non esse modum pluviis concesserim, et suppressis Aquilonibus nubes et imbres et amnes abundare. Verum cum per ista prolusum est, crescunt maria supra solitum, et fluctus ultra extremum tempestatis maximae vestigium mittunt. Deinde in miram altitudinem erigitur mare, et tuta illa hominum receptacula supergreditur. Nec id aquis arduum est, quoniam ab aequo terris fastigio ascendunt. Si quis enim excelsa perlibret, maria paria sunt. Sed quemadmodum campos intuentem, qua paulatim devexa sunt, fallunt, sic non intelligimus curvaturas maris, et videtur planum quicquid apparet; at illud aquae latus terris superius est. Ideoque ut effluat, non magna mole se tollet: dum satis est illi ut supra paria veniat leviter exurgere; nec a litore ubi inferius est, sed a medio, ubi ille cumulus est, defluet.
The third cause is the overflowing onto the lands of the sea swelling beyond measure. “For so great a shipwreck cannot come about by the injury of torrents or rains or rivers. When that destruction is at hand, I would grant that assiduous rains flow and that there is no measure to the showers, and that, the north winds being suppressed, clouds and rains and rivers abound. But when there has been a prelude by these things, the seas grow beyond the usual, and the waves send their tracks beyond the utmost mark of the greatest storm. Then the sea is raised to a wondrous height, and goes over those safe receptacles of men. Nor is this difficult for the waters, since they ascend from a level equal to the lands. For if anyone surveys the heights, the seas are level [with them]. But just as, to one beholding the plains, the places which are gradually sloping deceive him, so we do not perceive the curvatures of the sea, and whatever appears seems level; yet that surface of the water is higher than the lands. And therefore, in order to flow forth, it will not raise itself with a great mass: while it is enough for it to rise slightly so that it comes above the level [of the land]; and it will flow down not from the shore, where it is lower, but from the middle, where that heap [of water] is.”6
QUARTA causa caelestis est, et in conventu et coitione omnium siderum quae vim habent imbriferam ac diluviferam posita est. Berosus sane, qui Belum interpretatus est, certum et conflagrationi orbis et diluvio tempus assignat, utriusque ad astra causam referens: Arsura enim terrena censet, quando omnia sydera, quae nunc diversos agunt cursus, in Cancrum convenient, sic sub eodem posita vestigio ut recta linea exire per orbes eorum possit; inundationem autem futuram, cum eadem siderum turba in Capricornum convenerit: illic Solstitium, hic bruma conficitur.
The fourth cause is celestial, and is placed in the meeting and conjunction of all the stars which have a rain-bringing and flood-bringing power. “Berosus indeed, who interpreted Belus, assigns a fixed time both to the conflagration of the world and to the flood, referring the cause of each to the stars: for he judges that earthly things will burn when all the stars, which now keep diverse courses, shall meet in Cancer, so placed under the same track that a straight line could pass out through their orbits; but that a flood is to come when the same throng of stars shall meet in Capricorn — there the [summer] Solstice, here the winter solstice is brought about.”7
QUINTA causa, resolutio terrae magna ex parte in aquam. Etenim maximam causam, ad se inundandam, terra ipsa praestabit, quam diximus esse mutabilem et solvi in humorem. Incipiet ergo terra putrescere, dehinc laxata ire in humorem, et assidua tabe defluere. Tunc exilient sub montibus flumina, ipsoque impetu quatient. Solum omne aquas reddet, summi scaturient montes; et quemadmodum in morbum transeunt sana, et ulceri vicina consentiunt, ita ut quaeque proxima terris fluentibus fuerint, eluentur, stillabunt, et deinde current, et hiante pluribus locis saxo, per fretum salient, et maria inter se component. Hactenus ex Seneca. Cuius disputationem propriis fere verbis eius commemoravimus, sed, ne longiores essemus, multis quae ad rem nostram minime pertinebant consulto amputatis et circumcisis.
The fifth cause is the dissolution of the earth, in great part, into water. “For the earth itself will furnish the greatest cause for its own inundation — the earth which we have said to be mutable and to be dissolved into moisture. The earth will therefore begin to putrefy, then, loosened, to go into moisture, and to flow down with a continual decay. Then the rivers will leap out beneath the mountains, and will shake them by their very force. All the soil will give back waters, the mountain-tops will gush; and just as healthy parts pass into disease, and the parts neighboring an ulcer sympathize, so whatever things shall have been nearest to the flowing lands will be washed away, will drip, and then will run, and, the rock gaping in many places, [the waters] will leap through the strait, and will join the seas among themselves.” Thus far from Seneca: whose discussion we have recalled almost in his own words — but, lest we be too long, with many things that did not pertain to our subject deliberately pruned and cut off.8
CETERUM in hac disputatione Senecae quaedam non sunt improbanda, nonnulla vero reiicienda sunt. Namque illae quinque causae effectrices diluvii quae traduntur a Seneca nequaquam contemnendae sunt, nec eas concurrisse ad efficiendum Noëticum diluvium a ratione fideque remotum est. Sed alia tria quae dixit Seneca nullo modo probanda sunt. Primum dixit diluvium ex solis causis naturalibus effici, et quidem necessaria quadam et immutabili lege naturae, a qua certum diluvio tempus fixum sit, quod ubi venerit, necesse sit fieri diluvium. Hoc falsum est. Etenim nec ulla necessitate, sed Dei tantum voluntate, nec solius naturae potentia, nec nisi supernaturali omnipotentia Dei diluvium potest effici, ut paulo infra ostendemus.
But in this discussion of Seneca, some things are not to be disapproved, but some are to be rejected. For those five efficient causes of a flood which are handed down by Seneca are by no means to be despised, nor is it removed from reason and faith that they concurred to bring about Noah's flood. But three other things which Seneca said are in no way to be approved. First, he said that a flood is brought about from natural causes alone, and indeed by a certain necessary and immutable law of nature, by which a fixed time is set for a flood, which, when it comes, the flood must necessarily occur. This is false. For a flood can be brought about by no necessity, but only by the will of God; nor by the power of nature alone, nor except by the supernatural omnipotence of God, as we shall show a little below.9
Ait praeterea non modo futurum aliquando diluvium, sed antehac saepius esse factum, et saepius posthac futurum. Suorum enim Stoicorum disciplinam secutus, opinatur Seneca mundum saepenumero oriri et interire, longissimis tamen temporum intervallis, et interire quidem alternis vicibus vel incendio vel diluvio. Sed hoc non tantum divinae Scripturae contrarium est, neganti plus uno diluvio aut fuisse aut futurum unquam, verum etiam duorum Philosophiae Principum, Platonis et Aristotelis, doctrinae ac decretis plane adversatur. Illud denique falsum est, ab eodem Seneca eo ipso loco proditum, diluvio omnia animalia omnesque homines penitus deleri, eademque renascente mundo per solas causas naturales regenerari. Non enim fert natura ut perfecta animalia, praesertim autem homines, alia ratione quam ex causis efficientibus eiusdem speciei suique similibus parentibus naturaliter procreari queant. Quocirca si diluvio perirent omnia, non possent naturaliter iterum regenerari. Verum dimittamus Senecam.
He says, besides, not only that a flood will at some time occur, but that it has often occurred before this, and will often occur hereafter. For, following the teaching of his Stoics, Seneca thinks that the world frequently arises and perishes — yet at very long intervals of time — and perishes indeed by alternating turns, either by conflagration or by flood. But this is not only contrary to divine Scripture, which denies that there has been, or ever will be, more than one flood, but also plainly opposes the doctrine and decrees of the two Princes of Philosophy, Plato and Aristotle. Finally, that is false which is reported by the same Seneca in that very place: that by a flood all animals and all men are utterly destroyed, and, the world being reborn, are regenerated by natural causes alone. For nature does not allow that perfect animals — but especially men — can be naturally procreated in any other way than from efficient causes of the same species and from parents like themselves. Wherefore, if all things should perish in a flood, they could not be naturally regenerated again. But let us dismiss Seneca.10
OVIDIUS libro primo Metamorphoseos, etsi nominatim enarrat diluvium Deucalionis, quod non fuit generale totius orbis, sed in una tantum regione Graeciae quae appellatur Thessalia contigit, ipse tamen descripsit diluvium illud perinde ac si generalis fuisset eluvio aquarum, omnem terrarum orbem, excepto Parnasso monte, inundans et obruens. Eius vero diluvii duas principes causas apertis verbis fuisse indicat: immensam vim imbrium, et immoderata fluminum et terrestrium aquarum incrementa. His videtur adiungere tertiam causam, maris supra modum intumescentis effusionem in terras. Et has quidem causas exposuit illis versibus: Poena placet diversa: genus mortale sub undis / perdere, et ex omni nimbos demittere caelo.
Ovid, in the first book of the Metamorphoses, although he expressly narrates the flood of Deucalion — which was not general over the whole world, but happened in only one region of Greece called Thessaly — nevertheless described that flood just as if it had been a general inundation of waters, flooding and overwhelming the whole world except Mount Parnassus. And he indicates in plain words that that flood had two chief causes: the immense force of rains, and the immoderate increases of rivers and of terrestrial waters. To these he seems to add a third cause: the overflowing onto the lands of the sea swelling beyond measure. And these causes he set forth in those verses: “A different penalty pleases [him]: to destroy the mortal race beneath the waves, and to send down storm-clouds from all the sky.”11
FIT fragor, et densi funduntur ab aethere nimbi. / Nuntia Iunonis, varios induta colores, / concipit Iris aquas, alimentaque nubibus affert. / Sternuntur segetes, et deplorata colonis / vota iacent, longique perit labor irritus anni. / Nec caelo contenta suo est Iovis ira, sed illum / caeruleus frater iuvat auxiliaribus undis. / Convocat hic amnes; qui postquam tecta tyranni / intravere sui: Non est hortamine longo / nunc, ait, utendum; vires effundite vestras: / sic opus est. Aperite domos, ac mole remota / fluminibus vestris totas immittite habenas.
“There comes a crash, and the dense storm-clouds pour from the upper air. Iris, the messenger of Juno, clothed in varied colors, draws up waters and brings nourishment to the clouds. The crops are laid low, and the prayers lamented by the farmers lie [ruined], and the vain labor of a long year perishes. Nor is the wrath of Jove content with its own heaven, but his sea-blue brother [Neptune] aids him with auxiliary waves. He calls together the rivers; who, after they had entered the halls of their tyrant [Neptune]: ‘There is no need now,’ he says, ‘of long exhortation; pour forth your strength: so it must be. Open your homes, and, the barrier removed, give your rivers all the reins.’”12
Iusserat: hi redeunt, ac fontibus ora relaxant, / et defrenato volvuntur in aequora cursu. / Ipse tridente suo terram percussit, at illa / intremuit, motuque vias patefecit aquarum. / Exspatiata ruunt per apertos flumina campos, / cumque satis arbusta simul pecudesque virosque / tectaque cumque suis rapiunt penetralia sacris. / Si qua domus mansit, potuitque resistere tanto / indeiecta malo, culmen tamen altior huius / unda tegit, pressaeque latent sub gurgite turres. / Iamque mare et tellus nullum discrimen habebant: / omnia pontus erant; deerant quoque litora ponto.
“He had commanded: these return, and loosen the mouths of their springs, and roll into the seas with unbridled course. He himself [Neptune] struck the earth with his trident, and it trembled, and by its movement laid open the ways of the waters. The rivers, spread out, rush over the open fields, and sweep away — together with the crops — the orchards and flocks and men, and the houses and the inner shrines with their sacred things. If any house remained, and, not cast down, could resist so great an evil, yet a higher wave covers its roof, and the towers, overwhelmed, lie hidden under the flood. And now the sea and the land had no distinction: all was sea; the sea, too, lacked shores.”13
HAEC ab Ethnicis de causis diluvii prodita sunt. Verum nos ea de re verba Mosis expendamus.
These things were reported by the pagans concerning the causes of the flood. But let us [now] weigh the words of Moses on the matter.14

Translator’s notes

  1. §9. Margin: Gen. ch. 7, v. 12. ↩
  2. §10. Margins: “Philo makes three causes of the flood”; “What the pagans thought of the causes of the flood.” ↩
  3. §11. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. bk. 3, ch. 27ff. Margin: Seneca. Continues on p. 295. ↩
  4. §11 (cont.). Seneca's first cause: prolonged torrential rain. Margin: “Five causes of the flood according to Seneca.” ↩
  5. Seneca's second cause: rivers overflowing. Margin: Ovid, Metamorphoses bk. 1. ↩
  6. Seneca's third cause: the sea overtopping the land. ↩
  7. Seneca's fourth cause: the conjunction of all the planets (Berosus on the world's burning in Cancer, its flooding in Capricorn). ↩
  8. Seneca's fifth cause: the earth itself dissolving into water. ↩
  9. §12. Pererius examines Seneca: the five physical causes are acceptable, but three claims are rejected. Margin: “Seneca's opinion on the causes of the flood is examined.” ↩
  10. Pererius rejects the Stoic eternal-recurrence (alternating conflagration/flood) and the natural regeneration of all life. Margin: “The error of the Stoics about the origin of the world.” ↩
  11. §13. Ovid (Met. 1) on the flood of Deucalion. Margins: “What Ovid wrote of the causes of the flood”; “The first cause of the flood, from rains.” Continues on p. 297. ↩
  12. Ovid, Met. 1 (the rains and Neptune summoning the rivers). ↩
  13. Ovid, Met. 1 (the rivers unleashed; sea and land merge). Margins: “The second cause of the flood, from the increase of terrestrial waters”; “He signifies the overflowing of the sea onto the lands.” ↩
  14. Transition from the pagan accounts to the exegesis of Moses' words. ↩