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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Fifteen — the multiplication of mankind after the flood

{These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Cham, and Iaphet.}

LatineEnglish

{These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Cham, and Iaphet.}1

Hae sunt generationes filiorum Noë, Sem, Cham et Iaphet.

CUM his verbis iungi possunt illa superioris capitis: Tres isti filii sunt Noë, et ab his disseminatum est omne genus hominum super universam terram. Extrema item illa verba huius capitis decimi: Eae sunt familiae filiorum Noë iuxta populos et nationes suas, ab his divisae sunt gentes in terra post diluvium. Vult enim Moses ostendere hoc capite quemadmodum, in exordio mundi, ex uno genus omne hominum propagatum est usque ad diluvium: sic post diluvium, quasi novo rursus Mundi principio, ex tribus filiis Noë omnem terram habitatoribus et cultoribus esse completam; et quaecunque ad id usque temporis (quo tempore Moses hanc historiam scribebat) fuerat erantque gentes ac nationes, inde omnes primam traxisse originem.
With these words can be joined those of the preceding chapter: “These three are the sons of Noah, and from them was all mankind disseminated over the whole earth.” Likewise those last words of this tenth chapter: “These are the families of the sons of Noah according to their peoples and nations; from these were the nations divided on the earth after the flood.” For Moses wishes to show in this chapter that, as at the beginning of the world the whole race of men was propagated from one [man] up to the flood, so after the flood — as if from a new beginning of the World again — from the three sons of Noah the whole earth was filled with inhabitants and cultivators; and that whatever peoples and nations there had been and were up to that time at which Moses wrote this history, all drew their first origin thence.2
IOSEPHUS scribit tres partes orbis a trium Noë filiorum posteris ita partite ac distincte esse occupatas, ut Iaphetani (sic deinceps appellabo Iapheti posteros, brevitatis causa, ut Cham posteros Chamaeos et Sem Semaeos) in Asia sedes tenuerint a Tauro et Amano montibus usque ad Tanaim fluvium, quo disterminatur Europa ab Asia; in Europa vero hinc usque ad Gaditanum fretum; Chamaei vero Syriam et regiones Amano Libanoque montibus adhaerentes obtinuerunt, usque ad mare atque Oceanum ditionis terminos proferendo; Semaei ab Euphrate, propagandae ditionis initio facto, Asiam usque ad Indicum Oceanum incoluerint.
Josephus writes that the three parts of the world were so distributively and distinctly occupied by the posterity of Noah's three sons, that the Iaphetani (so henceforth I will call the posterity of Iaphet, for brevity, as the posterity of Cham, Chamaei, and of Sem, Semaei) held seats in Asia from the Taurus and Amanus mountains up to the river Tanais, by which Europe is divided from Asia; and in Europe from here up to the Strait of Cadiz; but the Chamaei obtained Syria and the regions adhering to the Amanus and Lebanon mountains, extending the bounds of their dominion up to the sea and the Ocean; the Semaei, the beginning of propagating their dominion being made from the Euphrates, inhabited Asia up to the Indian Ocean.3
EPIPHANIUS in Anchorato scribit Noë iusiurandum a filiis suis exegisse, ut cultum veri Dei retinerent et inter se concordiam ac benevolentiam custodirent; cumque is mundi heres a Deo constitutus esset, mundum quasi hereditariam possessionem filiis suis distribuit, iactis sortibus, ut quisque eam partem terrae quae sorte obtigisset habitandam et colendam susciperet: et Sem quidem sedes magna ex parte obtigisse in Asia, Cham in Aegypto et Africa, Iapheto in Europa.
Epiphanius, in the Anchoratus, writes that Noah exacted an oath from his sons, that they should retain the worship of the true God and keep concord and benevolence among themselves; and since he had been constituted heir of the world by God, he distributed the world to his sons as a hereditary possession, lots being cast, so that each should undertake to inhabit and cultivate that part of the earth which had fallen to him by lot: and that Sem indeed obtained seats for the most part in Asia, Cham in Egypt and Africa, Iaphet in Europe.4
His addo quae prodidit Berosus Annianus, vel potius ipse [Annius]…
To these I add what Berosus Annianus — or rather [Annius] himself…5
…Annius in Commentariis Berosi: auctore Philone, Noë (quem alii Ianum appellarunt) una cum tribus filiis multisque coloniis Pontum venisse, et ratibus circumlustrasse omne mare Mediterraneum, et primo filio Sem ostendisse littus omne Asiaticum a Tanai per Bosphorum usque ad Nilum; Cham vero demonstrasse littus Africae a Nilo usque ad Oceanum Gaditanum; denique Iaphet omne littus Europae a Gadibus usque Tanain: et omnibus provinciis circa littus dimisisse primas colonias; qua in re consumpto decennio, revertisse in Scythiam, unde, novis aliis assumptis colonis, devectum esse in Italiam, et per Tiberim vectum tenuisse ad laevum latus Hetruriam, primasque in Vaticanum et Ianiculum exposuisse colonos. Atque id firmat Annius auctoritate Catonis, a quo sunt haec prodita in libro de Originibus: quorum librorum fragmenta quaedam (nescio unde eruta) concinnavit Annius et evulgavit. Verum haec, quia nulla gravi ratione vel probati scriptoris auctoritate firmantur, equidem haud maiorem fabulis poetarum fidem mereri puto.
…Annius in the Commentaries on Berosus: that, on the authority of Philo, Noah (whom others called Janus), together with his three sons and many colonies, came to the Pontus, and with rafts surveyed all round the whole Mediterranean sea, and showed to his first son Sem all the Asiatic shore from the Tanais through the Bosphorus up to the Nile; to Cham he showed the shore of Africa from the Nile up to the Strait of Cadiz; finally to Iaphet all the shore of Europe from Cadiz up to the Tanais: and he sent out first colonies to all the provinces around the shore; in which matter a decade being spent, he returned to Scythia, whence, other new colonists being taken on, he was carried down into Italy, and, conveyed up the Tiber, held to the left side Etruria, and set out the first colonists on the Vatican and the Janiculum. And Annius confirms this by the authority of Cato, by whom these things are handed down in the book On Origins: of which books certain fragments (dug up I know not whence) Annius patched together and published. But these things, because they are confirmed by no grave reason or by the authority of an approved writer, I for my part think merit no greater credence than the fables of the poets.6

Translator’s notes

  1. Gen 10:1 (lemma). Margin: v. 1. ↩
  2. Comment on v.1: this chapter shows how, as one man peopled the pre-flood world, the three sons of Noah peopled the post-flood world. Margin: Gen. 9. ↩
  3. §4. Josephus's partition of the world: Japheth (Asia from Taurus/Amanus to the Tanais, and Europe to Cadiz); Cham (Syria to the Ocean); Shem (from the Euphrates to the Indian Ocean). Margin: “Josephus partitions the earth among the three sons of Noah.” ↩
  4. §5. Epiphanius: Noah, having exacted an oath of true worship and concord, divided the world by lot — Shem chiefly Asia, Cham Egypt and Africa, Japheth Europe. Margin: “Epiphanius holds Noah, casting lots, assigned each son the part of the earth that fell to him.” ↩
  5. §6. Begins the (spurious) Berosus/Annius account of Noah's voyages. Continues on p. 400. ↩
  6. §6 (cont.). Berosus/Annius: Noah (= Janus) circumnavigated the Mediterranean, assigning his sons the shores of Asia, Africa, Europe, then settled colonists on the Vatican and Janiculum — Pererius rates it no better than the poets' fables. Margins: “How Noah surveyed the world and filled it with inhabitants, according to Berosus Annianus”; Berosus Annianus. ↩