Chapter 10.—Of the Different
Computation of the Ages of the Antediluvians, Given by the Hebrew
Manuscripts and by Our Own.
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Wherefore, although there is a
discrepancy for which I cannot account between our manuscripts and
the Hebrew, in the very number of years assigned to the
antediluvians, yet the discrepancy is not so great that they do not
agree about their longevity. For the very first man, Adam, before
he begot his son Seth, is in our manuscripts found to have lived
230 years, but in the Hebrew
mss
. 130.
But after he begot Seth, our copies read that he lived 700 years,
while the Hebrew give 800. And thus, when the two periods are
taken together, the sum agrees. And so throughout the succeeding
generations, the period before the father begets a son is always
made shorter by 100 years in the Hebrew, but the period after his
son is begotten is longer by 100 years in the Hebrew than in our
copies. And thus, taking the two periods together, the result is
the same in both. And in the sixth generation there is no
discrepancy at all. In the seventh, however, of which Enoch is
the representative, who is recorded to have been translated without
death because he pleased God, there is the same discrepancy as in
the first five generations, 100 years more being ascribed to him by
our
mss
. before he begat a son. But
still the result agrees; for according to both documents he lived
before he was translated 365 years. In the eighth generation the
discrepancy is less than in the others, and of a different kind.
For Methuselah, whom Enoch begat, lived, before he begat his
successor, not 100 years less, but 100 years more, according to the
Hebrew reading; and in our
mss
.
again these years are added to the period after he begat his son;
so that in this case also the sum-total is the same. And it is
only in the ninth generation, that is, in the age of Lamech,
Methuselah’s son and Noah’s father, that there is a discrepancy
in the sum total; and even in this case it is slight. For the
Hebrew
mss
. represent him as living
twenty-four years more than ours assign to him. For before he
begat his son, who was called Noah, six years fewer are given to
him by the Hebrew
mss.
than by ours; but
after he begat this son, they give him thirty years more than ours;
so that, deducting the former six, there remains, as we said, a
surplus of twenty-four.
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Our own
Mss.
, of which Augustin here speaks, were the Latin versions
of the Septuagint used by the Church before Jerome’s was
received; the “Hebrew
Mss.
” were the
versions made from the Hebrew text. Compare
De Doct.
Christ
. ii. 15 et seqq.