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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Fifteen — the multiplication of mankind after the flood

{Jectan begot Elmodad, and Saleph, and Asamoth, Iare, Adoran, Uzal, Decla, Hebal, Abimael, Saba, Ophir, Heuila, and Iobab: all these are the sons of Jectan.}

LatineEnglish

{Jectan begot Elmodad, and Saleph, and Asamoth, Iare, Adoran, Uzal, Decla, Hebal, Abimael, Saba, Ophir, Heuila, and Iobab: all these are the sons of Jectan.}1

Iectan genuit Elmodad et Saleph, Asamoth, Iare, Adoran, Uzal, Decla, Hebal, Abimael, Saba, Ophir, Heuila, Iobab: omnes isti filii Iectan.

EARUM gentium, inquit Hieronymus (insistens vestigiis Iosephi), „posteriora nomina invenire non potui: sed usque in praesens, quia procul a nobis sunt, vel ita vocantur ut primum, vel quae immutata sunt ignorantur. Possederunt autem a Cophene fluvio omnem Indiae regionem quae vocatur Ieria.“ Sic Hieronymus. Fluminis porro Cophenis, quod nominatur hic a Hieronymo et Iosepho, meminit Eustathius interpres Dionysii Geographi, qui libellum de Situ orbis conscripsit, et quem (ut narrat Plinius) ad commentanda omnia in Orientem praemisit Augustus ituro in Armeniam ad Parthicas Arabicasque res maiore filio. Eustathius igitur amnem Cophen a Dionysio in descriptione Indiae positum ait vocari Cophenem ab Aristotele libro quinto de rebus gestis ab Alexandro. Strabo quidem certe Cophen eum nominat fluvium qui Choaspis aquas recipit, et post quem fluit Indus. „Post Cophen,“ inquit Strabo, „est Indus, postea Hydaspes, tum Acesines, deinde Hyarotis, postremo Hypanis, terminus qui fuit…“
Of those nations, says Jerome (following in the footsteps of Josephus), „I could not find the later names: but down to the present, because they are far from us, either they are called as at first, or those which have been changed are unknown. But they possessed, from the river Cophenes, all the region of India which is called Ieria.“ So far Jerome. Of the river Cophenes, moreover, which is here named by Jerome and Josephus, Eustathius makes mention, the interpreter of Dionysius the Geographer, who wrote a little book On the Situation of the World, and whom (as Pliny relates) Augustus sent ahead into the East to make notes on everything, when his elder son was about to go into Armenia for the Parthian and Arabian affairs. Eustathius, then, says that the river Cophen, set down by Dionysius in his description of India, is called Cophenes by Aristotle in the fifth book On the Deeds Done by Alexander. Strabo certainly names Cophen that river which receives the waters of the Choaspes, and after which flows the Indus. „After the Cophen,“ says Strabo, „is the Indus, then the Hydaspes, then the Acesines, then the Hyarotis, lastly the Hypanis, which was the boundary…“2
…terminus expeditionis Alexandri in India. Ita Strabo. Meminit quoque eiusdem fluminis Plinius libro 6 cap. 21. Supradictorum autem filiorum Iectan de tribus tantum in praesentia nonnihil dicendum est: de Saba, Ophir et Heuila.
…the boundary of Alexander's expedition into India. So Strabo. Pliny too makes mention of the same river in book 6, chapter 21. But of the aforesaid sons of Jectan, only of three need anything be said at present: of Saba, Ophir, and Heuila.3
AC, inter posteros Chus, ut paulo supra vidimus, duo eiusdem nominis, Saba dico et Heuila, commemorati sunt, verum hi diversas a superioribus familias constituerunt, longeque diversas terras insederunt: id quod non tacuit scriptura dicens liberos Iectan habitasse a Messa usque ad Sephar montem Orientalem. Nam Seba et Schaba posteri Chus progenuerunt Sabaeos ad utraque porrectos maria quibus Arabiae cinguntur latera. At Saba filius Iectan, et is praeterea Saba qui in filiis Abrahae ex Cetura natis numeratur 25 capite Geneseos, Sabaeos generarunt longe semotos: Saba quidem filius Abrahae Sabaeos Persis proximos, quos Dionysius de situ orbis his verbis commemorat: „Primum Sabaei, post hos sunt Pasargadae, prope vero hos sunt Tasci: has vero gentes constat Persidis esse populos.“ Huc igitur concessisse videtur Saba filius Abraham: namque eum cum ceteris fratribus Abrahae separasse a filio suo Isaac, et ad plagam orientalem emisisse narrat Moses 25 capite Geneseos. Ceterum Saba filius Iectan (de quo hic agitur) videtur processisse longius, et Sabaeos Indicos condidisse; sunt enim et in India Sabaei, quorum meminit in Descriptione Indiae Dionysius illo versu: „Horum medii habitant Sabaei et Taxili viri.“ Itaque varia Sabaeorum populorum fuisse genera mirum videri non debet, cum varia illarum familiarum et gentium capita in sacris litteris memorentur, et diversas eodem nomine gentes agnoscat etiam profana historia.
Now, among the descendants of Chus, as we saw a little above, two of the same name — Saba, I mean, and Heuila — were mentioned; but these constituted families different from the former, and settled far different lands: which Scripture did not pass over in silence, saying that the children of Jectan dwelt from Messa as far as Sephar, the Eastern mountain. For Seba and Schaba, descendants of Chus, begot the Sabaeans extended to both the seas by which the sides of Arabia are girt. But Saba the son of Jectan, and besides him that Saba who is numbered among the sons of Abraham born of Cetura in the 25th chapter of Genesis, begot Sabaeans far removed: Saba the son of Abraham, the Sabaeans nearest the Persians, whom Dionysius in his ‘On the Situation of the World’ mentions in these words: „First the Sabaeans, after these are the Pasargadae, and near these are the Tasci: and these nations, it is agreed, are peoples of Persia.“ Hither, then, Saba the son of Abraham seems to have withdrawn: for Moses, in the 25th chapter of Genesis, relates that Abraham separated him, with his other brothers, from his son Isaac, and sent him out to the eastern region. But Saba the son of Jectan (of whom we here treat) seems to have advanced farther, and to have founded the Indian Sabaeans; for there are Sabaeans in India too, of whom Dionysius makes mention in his Description of India in that verse: „In the midst of these dwell the Sabaeans and the men of Taxila.“ And so that there were various races of Sabaean peoples ought not to seem strange, since various heads of those families and nations are recorded in the sacred letters, and profane history too recognizes diverse nations of the same name.4
SEQUUNTUR Ophir et Heuila, de quibus ita scribit S. Hieronymus in libro de locis Hebraicis: „Ophir, sicut est in Regnorum libro, est insula unde aurum afferebatur. Fuit autem unus de posteris Heber nomine Ophir, ex cuius stirpe venientes a fluvio Cophene usque ad regionem Indiae quae vocatur Ieria habitasse refert Iosephus: a quo puto et regionem vocabulum consecutam. Heuila porro est ubi aurum purissimum, quod Hebraice dicitur Zaab, gemmae pretiosissimae carbunculus smaragdusque nascuntur. Est autem regio ad Orientem vergens, quam circumit de Paradiso Phison egrediens, quem nostri mutato nomine Gangen vocant. Sed et unus de posteris Noe Heuila dictus est, quem in regione India habitasse refert Iosephus. Ismael quoque in solitudine Heuila habitasse scribitur, quam scriptura ait esse in deserto Sur contra faciem Aegypti, et inde tendere usque ad terram Assyriorum.“ Sic B. Hieronymus.
There follow Ophir and Heuila, of whom Saint Jerome writes thus in the book On the Hebrew Places: „Ophir, as it is in the book of Kings, is an island whence gold was brought. There was, moreover, one of the descendants of Heber by the name of Ophir, from whose stock those coming from the river Cophene as far as the region of India which is called Ieria dwelt, as Josephus relates: from whom I think the region too got its name. Heuila, moreover, is where there is the purest gold, which in Hebrew is called Zaab, and where the most precious gems, the carbuncle and the emerald, are born. It is a region inclining toward the East, which the Phison, going out from Paradise, encircles — which our people, the name being changed, call the Ganges. But one also of the descendants of Noah was called Heuila, whom Josephus relates to have dwelt in the region of India. Ismael too is written to have dwelt in the wilderness of Heuila, which Scripture says is in the desert of Sur over against the face of Egypt, and to stretch thence as far as the land of the Assyrians.“ So far Blessed Jerome.5
AB Ophir autem, quod devehebatur aurum, defecatissimum purissimumque et prae ceteris pretiosum ac probatum habebatur, cum tale esset quale est quod Latini appellant obrizum, etiam hoc ab Ophir, ut quidam putant, nominatum, quasi dicas Ophirizum. Plinius tamen obrizum vocari scribit aurum quod igne etiam atque…
But the gold which was carried off from Ophir was held to be the most refined and purest and, beyond the rest, precious and approved, since it was such as that which the Latins call ‘obrizum’ — this too, as some think, named from Ophir, as if you should say ‘Ophirizum.’ Pliny, however, writes that gold is called ‘obrizum’ which, by fire again and again…6
…etiam purificatum simili colore rubet ut ignis. Isidorus vero dictum putat Obrizum, quia obradiet splendore suo propter coloris praestantiam. Latinus interpres in libro Iob cap. 28 aurum Ophir interpretatus est aurum obrizum. Huius et auri et regionis Ophir illustris mentio fit in tertio libro Regum capite 9 et 10 et 1 Paralipomenon capite 29. Iosephus libro octavo Antiquitatum, secutus Septuaginta Interpretes, Ophir appellavit Sophiram, ratus esse Chersonesum seu peninsulam Indiae auriferam. At constat esse insulam, et ut fertur propinquam continenti, ubi est celebris hoc tempore urbs et regnum vulgo dictum Malacha. Scriptores nostrae aetatis quidam putant esse quam hodie appellant Zeffalam vel Zamatram; alii esse Peruanam regionem in novo orbe occidentali optimi auri fertilissimam; nonnulli Taprobanam miris laudibus a veteribus celebratam. Verum sitne Ophir aliqua istarum, vel alia quaepiam in Oceano Indico aut Aethiopico, cum nec sit instituti operis nec facultatis nostrae, aliis Geographiae, praesertim autem regionum hoc saeculo repertarum peritioribus, liquido iudicandum et decernendum relinquo. Nos plura de Ophir et de Heuila disputavimus tum in lib. 12 Commentariorum nostrorum in Danielem super illa verba cap. 10, „Ecce vir vestitus lineis, et renes eius accincti auro obrizo,“ tum etiam in priori tomo Commentariorum in Genes. lib. 3, ubi disputavimus de primo Paradisi flumine quod Moses appellat Phison.
…purified, glows with a color like fire. But Isidore thinks it is called ‘Obrizum’ because it shines forth (obradiet) with its own splendor, on account of the excellence of its color. The Latin translator in the book of Job, chapter 28, rendered the gold of Ophir as ‘gold obrizum.’ Of this both gold and region of Ophir illustrious mention is made in the third book of Kings, chapter 9 and 10, and in 1 Paralipomenon, chapter 29. Josephus, in the eighth book of the Antiquities, following the Septuagint translators, called Ophir ‘Sophira,’ thinking it to be the Chersonese or gold-bearing peninsula of India. But it is agreed to be an island, and, as is said, near the continent, where there is at this time a famous city and kingdom commonly called Malacca. Some writers of our age think it is the one they today call Zeffala or Sumatra; others, that it is the Peruvian region in the new western world, most fertile in the best gold; some, Taprobana, celebrated by the ancients with wondrous praises. But whether Ophir be any of these, or some other in the Indian or Aethiopic Ocean, since it is neither of the work undertaken nor in our power, I leave to others more skilled in geography — and especially of the regions discovered in this age — to judge and decide clearly. We have disputed more about Ophir and Heuila both in book 12 of our Commentaries on Daniel, on those words of chapter 10, ‘Behold a man clothed in linen, and his loins girded with obrizum gold,’ and also in the prior volume of the Commentaries on Genesis, book 3, where we disputed about the first river of Paradise which Moses calls Phison.7
TOSTATUS hoc loco scribit Ophir fuisse terram affluentem auro, in qua montes erant auriferi, ubi in superficie montium auri plurimum e cavernis terrae a feris erutum ibidem a leonibus et gryphis custodiretur; cuius historiae Rabanum super libros Regum citat auctorem; idemque significat Isidorus libro 14 Etymologiarum cap. 8. Verum regionem in qua gryphes seu gryphi auri custodes atque propugnatores esse memorantur, in Scythia collocat Pomponius Mela lib. 1 ca. 1 et Solinus capite 19. „In Scythia,“ inquit Solinus, „terrae sunt locupletes, inhabitabiles tamen. Nam cum auro et gemmis affluant, gryphes tenent universa, alites ferocissimae et ultra omnem rabiem saevientes; quarum immanitate obsistente advenis, accessus difficilis et rarus est. Quippe visos discerpunt, velut geniti ad plectendam avaritiae temeritatem. Arimaspi cum his dimicant.“ Plinius quoque (unde mutuatus videtur Solinus) libro 7 capite 2 in Scythia numerat Arimaspos uno oculo in fronte media insignes: „quibus assidue bellum est circa metalla cum gryphis, ferarum volucri genere, quale vulgo traditur, eruente ex cuniculis aurum mira cupiditate: et feris custodientibus et Arimaspis rapientibus; idque multi sed maxime illustres Herodotus et Aristeas Proconnesius prodiderunt.“ Sic Plinius.
Tostatus in this place writes that Ophir was a land abounding in gold, in which there were gold-bearing mountains, where on the surface of the mountains very much gold, dug out of the caverns of the earth by wild beasts, was there guarded by lions and griffins; for which story he cites Rabanus on the books of Kings as author; and Isidore signifies the same in book 14 of the Etymologies, chapter 8. But the region in which the griffins, or gryphi, are recorded to be the guardians and defenders of gold, Pomponius Mela in book 1, chapter 1, and Solinus in chapter 19 place in Scythia. „In Scythia,“ says Solinus, „the lands are rich, yet uninhabitable. For though they abound in gold and gems, the griffins hold them all — most ferocious birds, raging beyond all madness; by whose savagery opposing strangers, access is difficult and rare. For they tear in pieces those they see, as if born to punish the rashness of avarice. The Arimaspi fight with these.“ Pliny too (whence Solinus seems to have borrowed) in book 7, chapter 2, counts among the Scythians the Arimaspi, marked by one eye in the middle of the forehead: „who have continual war about the metals with the griffins, a winged kind of beasts, such as is commonly reported, digging gold out of burrows with wondrous greed — the beasts guarding it and the Arimaspi snatching it; and this many, but most especially the illustrious Herodotus and Aristeas of Proconnesus, have related.“ So Pliny.8
DICUNTUR autem Gryphi esse animalia quadrupedia pennata: alis quidem et facie aquilarum similia; ceterum Leonum habent omnia. Sed haec de Gryphis tradita et vulgo credita Plinius censet fabulosa esse. „Pegasos,“ inquit, „equino capite volucres, et Gryphos aurita aduncitate rostri fabulosos reor: illos in Scythia, hos in Aethiopia.“ Sic ille: ubi mendose legi „illos in Scythia, hos in Aethiopia,“ et potius contra legi debere „illos in Aethiopia, hos in Scythia,“ ex his quae paulo ante produximus ex Mela, Solino et ipsomet Plinio manifestum lectori esse potest.
Griffins, moreover, are said to be four-footed winged animals: in their wings and face indeed like eagles, but in all the rest they have the properties of lions. But these things handed down about the griffins and commonly believed Pliny judges to be fabulous. „I reckon fabulous,“ he says, „the Pegasi, winged with a horse's head, and the griffins with eared hookedness of beak: the former in Scythia, the latter in Aethiopia.“ So he: where it is read by an error ‘the former in Scythia, the latter in Aethiopia,’ and ought rather to be read the contrary, ‘the former in Aethiopia, the latter in Scythia,’ as may be manifest to the reader from those things we produced a little before from Mela, Solinus, and Pliny himself.9

Translator’s notes

  1. Gen 10:26–29 (verse lemma). ↩
  2. §150. Gen 10:26–29 (Jectan's thirteen sons). Jerome (after Josephus): the later names cannot be found — they are too distant, keeping old names or changed beyond knowledge; they held from the river Cophenes all the region of India called Ieria. The river Cophenes: noted by Eustathius (commentator on Dionysius the Geographer, whom Augustus sent east for his elder son's Parthian/Arabian campaign — Pliny bk. 6 ch. 27), called ‘Cophenes’ by Aristotle (bk. 5, On the Deeds of Alexander); Strabo names it the Cophen that takes the Choaspes' waters, before the Indus (Indus, Hydaspes, Acesines, Hyarotis, Hypanis — continues to next batch). Margins: Jerome, Hebrew Questions; Cophenes; Eustathius; Dionysius the Geographer; Pliny bk. 6 ch. 27; Aristotle; Strabo. ↩
  3. §150 (concl.). The Hypanis was the limit of Alexander's Indian campaign (Strabo; Pliny bk. 6 ch. 21). Of Jectan's sons, only three call for comment: Saba, Ophir, and Heuila. ↩
  4. §151. Saba: distinguishing the Sabaean nations. Seba/Schaba (of Chus) begot the Arabian Sabaeans by both seas; Saba son of Abraham (by Cetura, Gen 25, sent east) begot Sabaeans near the Persians (Dionysius: Sabaei, Pasargadae, Tasci); Saba son of Jectan (here) founded the Indian Sabaeans (Dionysius's Description of India: ‘the Sabaeans and the men of Taxila’). So the same name covering diverse nations is unsurprising — Scripture and profane history both attest it. Margin: Dionysius. ↩
  5. §152. Ophir and Heuila (Jerome, On Hebrew Places): Ophir = a gold-bearing island (1 Kgs), a descendant of Heber, who held from the Cophene to India ‘Ieria’ (Josephus); Heuila = a region of purest gold (Heb. Zaab) and gems (carbuncle, emerald), eastward, encircled by the Phison/Ganges (Gen 2) — also a descendant of Noah, in India (Josephus); and the wilderness of Heuila where Ismael dwelt (the desert of Sur facing Egypt to Assyria). Margins: Ophir & Heuila; Jerome; 1 Kgs 9; Josephus; Gen 2. ↩
  6. §153. The gold of Ophir was the purest and most precious, like the Latin ‘obrizum’ — which some derive from Ophir (‘Ophirizum’). Pliny gives a different account (continues p. 465). Margins: the gold of Ophir & obrizum; Pliny bk. 33 ch. 3. ↩
  7. §153 (concl.). Isidore derives ‘obrizum’ from ‘obradiet’ (shines forth); the Vulgate renders Ophir-gold ‘obrizum’ (Job 28); Ophir famed in 1 Kgs 9–10, 1 Chron 29. Josephus (Antiquities bk. 8, after the LXX) calls it ‘Sophira,’ a gold-bearing peninsula of India; but it is an island near the continent (the famous Malacca). Modern writers variously identify it as Zeffala/Sumatra, Peru in the new world, or Taprobana — Pererius leaves the identification to geographers (treated more in his Daniel comm. bk. 12 on Dan 10, and Genesis vol. 1 bk. 3 on the Phison). Margins: Isidore; Josephus; Gen 2. ↩
  8. §154. Tostatus: Ophir a gold-rich land where mountain gold (dug up by beasts) was guarded by lions and griffins (citing Rabanus on Kings; Isidore, Etymologies bk. 14 ch. 8). But the gold-guarding griffins are placed in Scythia by Mela (bk. 1 ch. 1) and Solinus (ch. 19, on the rich but uninhabitable Scythian lands, the savage griffins, and the Arimaspi who fight them); Pliny (bk. 7 ch. 2) likewise — the one-eyed Arimaspi warring with the griffins over gold (per Herodotus and Aristeas of Proconnesus). Margins: Tostatus; Rabanus; Isidore; griffins, guardians and defenders of gold; Mela; Solinus; Pliny; Pliny bk. 10 ch. 49. ↩
  9. §155. Griffins are described as four-footed winged animals, eagle-winged and -faced but otherwise lions. But Pliny judges this fabulous (‘the Pegasi with a horse's head, and the griffins with eared hooked beak, I reckon fabulous — the former in Scythia, the latter in Aethiopia’). Pererius notes the text is corrupt: it should read the reverse (Pegasi in Aethiopia, griffins in Scythia), per Mela, Solinus, and Pliny himself. Margin: griffins and Pegasus, fabulous animals. ↩