Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XIV: De parilitate annorum, qui eisdem quibus nunc spatiis et in prioribus saeculis cucurrerunt.

Nunc iam uideamus quonam modo euidenter possit ostendi non tam breues, ut illi decem unus esset noster, sed tantae prolixitatis annos, quantae nunc habemus - quos utique circuitus conficit solis - , in illorum hominum uita prolixissima conputatos. sescentensimo nempe anno uitae Noe scriptum est factum esse diluuium. cur ergo ibi legitur: et aqua diluuii facta est super terram sescentensimo anno in uita Noe, secundi mensis, septima et uicensima mensis, si annus ille minimus, quales decem faciunt unum nostrum, triginta sex habebat dies? tantillus quippe annus, si antiquo more hoc nomen accepit, aut non habet menses, aut mensis eius est triduum, ut habeat duodecim menses. quomodo igitur hic dictum est: sescentensimo anno, secundi mensis, septima et uicensima mensis, nisi quia tales, quales nunc sunt, etiam tunc erant menses? nam quo pacto aliter uicensimo et septimo die secundi mensis diceretur coeptum esse diluuium? deinde postea in fine diluuii ita legitur: et sedit arca in mense septimo, septima et uicensima mensis, super montes Ararat. aqua autem minuebatur usque ad undecimum mensem; in undecimo autem mense prima die mensis paruerunt capita montium. si igitur tales menses erant, tales profecto et anni erant, quales nunc habemus. menses quippe illi triduani uiginti et septem dies habere non poterant. aut si pars tricensima tridui tunc appellabatur dies, ut omnia pro portione minuantur: ergo nec toto quadriduo nostro factum est illud tam grande diluuium, quod memoratur factum quadraginta diebus et noctibus. quis hanc absurditatem et uanitatem ferat? proinde remoueatur hic error, qui coniectura falsa ita uult adstruere scripturarum nostrarum fidem, ut alibi destruat. prorsus tantus etiam tunc dies fuit, quantus et nunc est, quem uiginti quattuor horae diurno curriculo nocturnoque determinant; tantus mensis, quantus et nunc est, quem luna coepta et finita concludit; tantus annus, quantus et nunc est, quem duodecim menses lunares additis propter cursum solarem quinque diebus et quadrante consummant, quanti anni sescentensimi uitae Noe secundus erat mensis eiusque mensis uicensimus et septimus dies, quando coepit esse diluuium, in quo dies quadraginta continuatae ingentes pluuiae memorantur, qui dies non binas ac paulo amplius horas habebant, sed uicenas et quaternas die noctuque transactas. ac per hoc tam magnos annos uixerunt illi antiqui usque amplius quam nongentos, quantos postea uixit Abraham centum septuaginta et post eum filius eius Isaac centum octoginta et filius eius Iacob prope centum quinquaginta, et quantos interposita aliquanta aetate Moyses centum uiginti, et quantos etiam nunc uiuunt homines septuaginta uel octoginta uel non multo amplius, de quibus dictum est: et amplius eis labor et dolor. illa uero numerorum uarietas, quae inter codices Hebraeos inuenitur et nostros, neque de hac antiquorum longaeuitate dissentit, et si quid habet ita diuersum, ut uerum esse utrumque non possit, rerum gestarum fides ab ea lingua repetenda est, ex qua interpretatum est quod habemus. quae facultas cum uolentibus ubique gentium praesto sit, non tamen uacat, quod septuaginta interpretes in plurimis, quae diuersa dicere uidentur, ex Hebraeis codicibus emendare ausus est nemo. non enim est illa diuersitas putata mendositas; nec ego ullo modo putandam existimo: sed ubi non est scriptoris error, aliquid eos diuino spiritu, ubi sensus esset consentaneus ueritati et praedicans ueritatem, non interpretantium munere, sed prophetantium libertate aliter dicere uoluisse credendum est. unde merito non solum Hebraeis, uerum etiam ipsis, cum adhibet testimonia de scripturis, uti apostolica inuenitur auctoritas. sed hinc me opportuniore loco, si deus adiuuerit, promisi diligentius locutorum; nunc quod instat expediam. non enim ambigendum est ab homine, qui ex primo homine primus est natus, quando tam diu uiuebant, potuisse constitui ciuitatem, sane terrenam, non illam, quae dicitur ciuitas dei, de qua ut scriberemus, laborem tanti huius operis in manus sumpsimus.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 14.--That the Years in Those Ancient Times Were of the Same Length as Our Own.

Let us now see how it can be plainly made out that in the enormously protracted lives of those men the years were not so short that ten of their years were equal to only one of ours, but were of as great length as our own, which are measured by the course of the sun. It is proved by this, that Scripture states that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year of Noah's life. But why in the same place is it also written, "The waters of the flood were upon the earth in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month," ¹ if that very brief year (of which it took ten to make one of ours) consisted of thirty-six days? For so scant a year, if the ancient usage dignified it with the name of year, either has not months, or this month must be three days, so that it may have twelve of them. How then was it here said, "In the six hundredth year, the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month," unless the months then were of the same length as the months now? For how else could it be said that the flood began on the twenty-seventh day of the second month? Then afterwards, at the end of the flood, it is thus written: "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the eleventh month: on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen." ² But if the months were such as we have, then so were the years. And certainly months of three days each could not have a twenty-seventh day. Or if every measure of time was diminished in proportion, and a thirtieth part of three days was then called a day, then that great deluge, which is recorded to have lasted forty days and forty nights, was really over in less than four of our days. Who can away with such foolishness and absurdity? Far be this error from us,--an error which seeks to build up our faith in the divine Scriptures on false conjecture only to demolish our faith at another point. It is plain that the day then was what it now is, a space of four-and-twenty hours, determined by the lapse of day and night; the month then equal to the month now, which is defined by the rise and completion of one moon; the year then equal to the year now, which is completed by twelve lunar months, with the addition of five days and a fourth to adjust it with the course of the sun. It was a year of this length which was reckoned the six hundredth of Noah's life, and in the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the flood began,--a flood which, as is recorded, was caused by heavy rains continuing for forty days, which days had not only two hours and a little more, but four-and-twenty hours, completing a night and a day. And consequently those antediluvians lived more than 900 years, which were years as long as those which afterwards Abraham lived 175 of, and after him his son Isaac 180, and his son Jacob nearly 150, and some time after, Moses 120, and men now seventy or eighty, or not much longer, of which years it is said, "their strength is labor and sorrow." ³

But that discrepancy of numbers which is found to exist between our own and the Hebrew text does not touch the longevity of the ancients; and if there is any diversity so great that both versions cannot be true, we must take our ideas of the real facts from that text out of which our own version has been translated. However, though any one who pleases has it in his power to correct this version, yet it is not unimportant to observe that no one has presumed to emend the Septuagint from the Hebrew text in the many places where they seem to disagree. For this difference has not been reckoned a falsification; and for my own part I am persuaded it ought not to be reckoned so. But where the difference is not a mere copyist's error, and where the sense is agreeable to truth and illustrative of truth, we must believe that the divine Spirit prompted them to give a varying version, not in their function of translators, but in the liberty of prophesying. And therefore we find that the apostles justly sanction the Septuagint, by quoting it as well as the Hebrew when they adduce proofs from the Scriptures. But as I have promised to treat this subject more carefully, if God help me, in a more fitting place, I will now go on with the matter in hand. For there can be no doubt that, the lives of men being so long, the first-born of the first man could have built a city,--a city, however, which was earthly, and not that which is called the city of God, to describe which we have taken in hand this great work.