{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Some one, then, will say, Is it to be believed that a man\r\nwho intended to beget children, and had no intention of continence,\r\nabstained from sexual intercourse a hundred years and\r\nmore, or even, according to the Hebrew version, only a little\r\nless, say eighty, seventy, or sixty years; or, if he did not\r\nabstain, was unable to beget offspring? This question admits\r\nof two solutions. For either puberty was so much later as the\r\nwhole life was longer, or, which seems to me more likely, it\r\nis not the first-born sons that are here mentioned, but those\r\nwhose names were required to fill up the series until Noah\r\nwas reached, from whom again we see that the succession is\r\ncontinued to Abraham, and after him down to that point of\r\ntime until which it was needful to mark by pedigree the\r\ncourse of the most glorious city, which sojourns as a stranger\r\nin this world, and seeks the heavenly country. That which\r\nis undeniable is that Cain was the first who was born of man\r\nand woman. For had he not been the first who was added\r\nby birth to the two unborn persons, Adam could not have said\r\nwhat he is recorded to have said, \"I have gotten a man by<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_76\">[Pg 76]</a></span>\r\nthe Lord.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_176_176\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_176_176\">[176]</a> He was followed by Abel, whom the elder\r\nbrother slew, and who was the first to show, by a kind of\r\nforeshadowing of the sojourning city of God, what iniquitous\r\npersecutions that city would suffer at the hands of wicked\r\nand, as it were, earth-born men, who love their earthly origin,\r\nand delight in the earthly happiness of the earthly city. But\r\nhow old Adam was when he begat these sons does not appear.\r\nAfter this the generations diverge, the one branch deriving\r\nfrom Cain, the other from him whom Adam begot in the room\r\nof Abel slain by his brother, and whom he called Seth, saying,\r\nas it is written, \"For God hath raised me up another seed for\r\nAbel whom Cain slew.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_177_177\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_177_177\">[177]</a> These two series of generations\r\naccordingly, the one of Cain, the other of Seth, represent the\r\ntwo cities in their distinctive ranks, the one the heavenly city,\r\nwhich sojourns on earth, the other the earthly, which gapes\r\nafter earthly joys, and grovels in them as if they were the\r\nonly joys. But though eight generations, including Adam, are\r\nregistered before the flood, no man of Cain's line has his age\r\nrecorded at which the son who succeeded him was begotten.\r\nFor the Spirit of God refused to mark the times before the\r\nflood in the generations of the earthly city, but preferred to do\r\nso in the heavenly line, as if it were more worthy of being\r\nremembered. Further, when Seth was born, the age of his\r\nfather is mentioned; but already he had begotten other sons,\r\nand who will presume to say that Cain and Abel were the\r\nonly ones previously begotten? For it does not follow that\r\nthey alone had been begotten of Adam, because they alone\r\nwere named in order to continue the series of generations\r\nwhich it was desirable to mention. For though the names of\r\nall the rest are buried in silence, yet it is said that Adam\r\nbegot sons and daughters; and who that cares to be free from\r\nthe charge of temerity will dare to say how many his offspring\r\nnumbered? It was possible enough that Adam was divinely\r\nprompted to say, after Seth was born, \"For God hath raised\r\nup to me another seed for Abel,\" because that son was to be\r\ncapable of representing Abel's holiness, not because he was born\r\nfirst after him in point of time. Then because it is written,\r\n\"And Seth lived 205 years,\" or, according to the Hebrew reading,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_77\">[Pg 77]</a></span>\r\n\"105 years, and begat Enos,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_178_178\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_178_178\">[178]</a> who but a rash man could\r\naffirm that this was his first-born? Will any man do so to\r\nexcite our wonder, and cause us to inquire how for so many\r\nyears he remained free from sexual intercourse, though without\r\nany purpose of continuing so, or how, if he did not abstain, he\r\nyet had no children? Will any man do so when it is written\r\nof him, \"And he begat sons and daughters, and all the days\r\nof Seth were 912 years, and he died?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_179_179\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_179_179\">[179]</a> And similarly regarding\r\nthose whose years are afterwards mentioned, it is not\r\ndisguised that they begat sons and daughters.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FIFTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-132"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"a6751094cc89ac74fa45d5fd960cd82519ed65c574e1bcafef79a1a2a3f16340","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"GEN","chapter":5,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gen. v. 6","verse":6,"verse_end":6}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_178_178","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_178_178","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_178_178\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_178_178\"><span class=\"label\">[178]</span></a> Gen. v. 6.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_178_178","text_sha256":"068478b13ed3fe9c703d84bf121c3937d6ff89511ad9353e769624908b2e01a2","verified":false,"work_id":null}