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Theophilus to Autolycus

Chapter XIX.--Accurate Account of the Deluge.

And neither does he make out that there was a second flood: on the contrary, he said that never again would there be a flood of water on the world; as neither indeed has there been, nor ever shall be. And he says that eight human beings were preserved in the ark, in that which had been prepared by God's direction, not by Deucalion, but by Noah; which Hebrew word means in English ¹ "rest," as we have elsewhere shown that Noah, when he announced to the men then alive that there was a flood coming, prophesied to them, saying, Come thither, God calls you to repentance. On this account he was fitly called Deucalion. ² And this Noah had three sons (as we mentioned in the second book), whose names were Shem, and Ham, and Japhet; and these had three wives, one wife each; each man and his wife. This man some have surnamed Eunuchus. All the eight persons, therefore, who were found in the ark were preserved. And Moses showed that the flood lasted forty days and forty nights, torrents pouring from heaven, and from the fountains of the deep breaking up, so that the water overtopped every high hill 15

cubits. And thus the race of all the men that then were was destroyed, and those only who were protected in the ark were saved; and these, we have already said, were eight. And of the ark, the remains are to this day to be seen in the Arabian mountains. This, then, is in sum the history of the deluge.

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À Autolyque

XIX.

Non seulement il dit qu'il n'y a eu qu'un déluge, mais il déclare qu'il n'y en aura plus jamais ; comme, en effet, il n'y en a pas eu depuis, de même il n'y en aura point dans la suite. Il nous apprend encore que huit personnes seulement furent sauvées dans l'arche construite d'après l'ordre de Dieu, non point par Deucalion, mais par Noé, dont le nom eu hébreu signifie repos. Nous avons démontré, dans un autre livre, que Noé annonça le déluge aux hommes de son temps, et qu'il les invita à se repentir, lorsqu'il leur dit : "Venez, Dieu vous appelle à la pénitence" ; de là lui est venu le nom de Deucalion. Noé avait trois fils, comme nous l'avons déjà dit dans le second livre, Sem, Cham et Japhet, qui avaient chacun leur femme, ce qui fait six ; en comprenant le père et là mère, nous avons les huit personnes qui entrèrent dans l'arche, et qui échappèrent à la mort. Moïse dit ensuite que le déluge dura quarante jours et quarante nuits, que les cataractes du ciel s'ouvrirent et que les sources de l'abîme se débordèrent, en sorte que l'eau s'élevait de quinze coudées au-dessus des plus hautes montagnes. Ainsi périt le genre humain, si l'on en excepte les huit personnes qui furent sauvées dans l'arche, dont on montre encore les restes sur les montagnes d'Arabie. Voilà en abrégé l'histoire du déluge.