Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>For they are by no means to be listened to who suppose\r\nthat in those times years were differently reckoned, and were\r\nso short that one of our years may be supposed to be equal\r\nto ten of theirs. So that they say, when we read or hear that\r\nsome man lived 900 years, we should understand ninety,—ten\r\nof those years making but one of ours, and ten of ours\r\nequalling 100 of theirs. Consequently, as they suppose,\r\nAdam was twenty-three years of age when he begat Seth, and\r\nSeth himself was twenty years and six months old when his\r\nson Enos was born, though the Scripture calls these months\r\n205 years. For, on the hypothesis of those whose opinion we\r\nare explaining, it was customary to divide one such year as\r\nwe have into ten parts, and to call each part a year. And\r\neach of these parts was composed of six days squared; because\r\nGod finished His works in six days, that He might rest the\r\nseventh. Of this I disputed according to my ability in the\r\neleventh book.<a id=\"FNanchor_170_170\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_170_170\">[170]</a> Now six squared, or six times six, gives\r\nthirty-six days; and this multiplied by ten amounts to 360\r\ndays, or twelve lunar months. As for the five remaining days\r\nwhich are needed to complete the solar year, and for the\r\nfourth part of a day, which requires that into every fourth or\r\nleap-year a day be added, the ancients added such days as the\r\nRomans used to call \"intercalary,\" in order to complete the\r\nnumber of the years. So that Enos, Seth's son, was nineteen\r\nyears old when his son Cainan was born, though Scripture\r\ncalls these years 190. And so through all the generations in\r\nwhich the ages of the antediluvians are given, we find in our\r\nversions that almost no one begat a son at the age of 100 or\r\nunder, or even at the age of 120 or thereabouts; but the\r\nyoungest fathers are recorded to have been 160 years old and\r\nupwards. And the reason of this, they say, is that no one\r\ncan beget children when he is ten years old, the age spoken\r\nof by those men as 100, but that sixteen is the age of puberty,\r\nand competent now to propagate offspring; and this is the age<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_69\">[Pg 69]</a></span>\r\ncalled by them 160. And that it may not be thought incredible\r\nthat in these days the year was differently computed\r\nfrom our own, they adduce what is recorded by several writers\r\nof history, that the Egyptians had a year of four months, the\r\nAcarnanians of six, and the Lavinians of thirteen months.<a id=\"FNanchor_171_171\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_171_171\">[171]</a>\r\nThe younger Pliny, after mentioning that some writers reported\r\nthat one man had lived 152 years, another ten more,\r\nothers 200, others 300, that some had even reached 500 and\r\n600, and a few 800 years of age, gave it as his opinion that\r\nall this must be ascribed to mistaken computation. For some,\r\nhe says, make summer and winter each a year; others make\r\neach season a year, like the Arcadians, whose years, he says,\r\nwere of three months. He added, too, that the Egyptians, of\r\nwhose little years of four months we have spoken already,\r\nsometimes terminated their year at the wane of each moon;\r\nso that with them there are produced lifetimes of 1000\r\nyears.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FIFTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-122"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"cbdab41dcc0586904219d6d8da11875b502c941519394b814901b396e397445c","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_170_170","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_170_170","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_170_170\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_170_170\"><span class=\"label\">[170]</span></a> C. <a class=\"pgexternal\" href=\"file:///public/vhost/g/gutenberg/html/files/45304/45304-h/45304-h.htm#chap118\" id=\"id-6568726623174307236\">8</a>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_170_170","text_sha256":"11e6521776ac1a78eb8e9550ba8bbc6575c0bec516a0c04ee6930f27c0f45e5e","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_170_170