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The City of God

Chapter 10.--Of the Different Computation of the Ages of the Antediluvians, Given by the Hebrew Manuscripts and by Our Own. ¹

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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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput X: De differentia, qua inter Hebraeos et nostros codices uidentur annorum numeri dissonare.

Quocirca etsi inter Hebraeos et nostros codices de ipso numero annorum nonnulla uidetur esse distantia, quod ignoro qua ratione sit factum: non tamen tanta est, ut illos homines tam longaeuos fuisse dissentiant. nam ipse homo primus Adam, antequam gigneret filium, qui est appellatus Seth, ducentos triginta uixisse annos reperitur in codicibus nostris, in Hebraeis autem centum triginta perhibetur; sed posteaquam eum genuit, septingentos uixisse legitur in nostris, octingentos uero in illis; atque ita in utrisque uniuersitatis summa concordat. ac deinde per consequentes generationes antequam gignatur, qui gigni commemoratur, minus uixisse apud Hebraeos pater eius inuenitur centum annos; sed posteaquam est genitus idem ipse, centum minus quam in Hebraeis inueniuntur in nostris; atque ita et hinc et inde numeri uniuersitas consonat. in sexta autem generatione nusquam utrique codices discrepant. in septima uero, ubi ille qui natus est Enoch non mortuus, sed quod deo placuerit translatus esse narratur, eadem dissonantia est, quae in superioribus quinque de centum annis antequam gigneret eum, qui ibi commemoratus est, filium, atque in summa similis consonantia. uixit enim annos, antequam transferretur, secundum utrosque codices trecentos sexaginta quinque. octaua generatio habet quidem nonnullam diuersitatem, sed minorem ac dissimilem ceteris. Mathusalem quippe, quem genuit Enoch, antequam gigneret eum, qui in ipso ordine sequitur, secundum Hebraeos non centum minus, sed uiginti amplius uixit annos; qui rursus in nostris, posteaquam eum genuit, reperiuntur additi, et in utrisque sibi summa uniuersi numeri occurrit. in sola nona generatione, id est in annis Lamech, filii Mathusalae, patris autem Noe, summa uniuersitatis discrepat, sed non plurimum. uiginti enim et quattuor annos plus uixisse in Hebraeis quam in nostris codicibus inuenitur. namque antequam gigneret filium, qui uocatus est Noe, sex minus habet in Hebraeis quam in nostris; postea uero quam eum genuit, triginta amplius in eisdem quam in nostris. unde sex illis detractis restant uiginti quattuor, ut dictum est.