Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Why, then, is so small a number of Cain's generations\r\nregistered, if it was proper to trace them to the deluge, and\r\nif there was no such delay of the date of puberty as to preclude\r\nthe hope of offspring for a hundred or more years? For\r\nif the author of this book had not in view some one to whom\r\nhe might rigidly trace the series of generations, as he designed\r\nin those which sprang from Seth's seed to descend to Noah,\r\nand thence to start again by a rigid order, what need was\r\nthere of omitting the first-born sons for the sake of descending<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_86\">[Pg 86]</a></span>\r\nto Lamech, in whose sons that line terminates,—that is\r\nto say, in the eighth generation from Adam, or the seventh\r\nfrom Cain,—as if from this point he had wished to pass on to\r\nanother series, by which he might reach either the Israelitish\r\npeople, among whom the earthly Jerusalem presented a prophetic\r\nfigure of the heavenly city, or to Jesus Christ, \"according\r\nto the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_194_194\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_194_194\">[194]</a> the\r\nMaker and Ruler of the heavenly city? What, I say, was the\r\nneed of this, seeing that the whole of Cain's posterity were\r\ndestroyed in the deluge? From this it is manifest that they\r\nare the first-born sons who are registered in this genealogy.\r\nWhy, then, are there so few of them? Their numbers in the\r\nperiod before the deluge must have been greater, if the date\r\nof puberty bore no proportion to their longevity, and they had\r\nchildren before they were a hundred years old. For supposing\r\nthey were on an average thirty years old when they began to\r\nbeget children, then, as there are eight generations, including\r\nAdam and Lamech's children, 8 times 30 gives 240 years;\r\ndid they then produce no more children in all the rest of the\r\ntime before the deluge? With what intention, then, did he\r\nwho wrote this record make no mention of subsequent generations?\r\nFor from Adam to the deluge there are reckoned,\r\naccording to our copies of Scripture, 2262 years,<a id=\"FNanchor_195_195\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_195_195\">[195]</a> and according\r\nto the Hebrew text, 1656 years. Supposing, then, the\r\nsmaller number to be the true one, and subtracting from\r\n1656 years 240, is it credible that during the remaining\r\n1400 and odd years until the deluge the posterity of Cain\r\nbegat no children?</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FIFTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-147"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"43f122914b0eec159ef4336d939db575e81ac08c1dc2809b9354dc3158818279","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_195_195","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_195_195","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_195_195\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_195_195\"><span class=\"label\">[195]</span></a> Eusebius, Jerome, Bede, and others, who follow the Septuagint, reckon\r\nonly 2242 years, which Vives explains by supposing Augustine to have made a\r\ncopyist's error.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_195_195","text_sha256":"51478250dea43d24395f60637b5f0809f2dcafc8ff64a075c589cf2b5a975dae","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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