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La cité de dieu

CHAPITRE XII.

DE L’OPINION DE CEUX QUI CROIENT QUE LES ANNÉES DES ANCIENS N’ÉTAIENT PAS AUSSI LONGUES QUE LES NÔTRES.

Il ne faut point écouter ceux qui prétendent que l’on comptait alors les années autrement qu’à cette heure, et qu’elles étaient si courtes qu’il en fallait dix pour en faire une des nôtres. C’est pour cette raison, disent-ils, que, quand l’Ecriture dit de quelqu’un qu’il vécut neuf cents ans, on doit entendre quatre-vingt-dix ans; car dix de leurs années en font une des nôtres, et dix des nôtres en font cent des leurs. Ainsi, à leur compte, Adam n’avait que vingt-trois ans quand il engendra Seth, et Seth vingt ans et six mois quand il engendra Enos. Selon cette opinion, les anciens divisaient une de nos années en dix parties, chacune valant pour eux une année et étant composée d’un senaire carré, parce que Dieu acheva ses ouvrages en six jours et se reposa le septièmes. Or, le senaire carré, ou six fois six, est de trente-six, qui, multipliés par dix, font trois cent soixante jours, c’est-à-dire douze mois lunaires. Quant aux cinq jours qui restaient pour accomplir l’année solaire, et aux six heures qui sont cause que tous les quatre ans nous avons une année bissextile, les anciens suppléaient de temps en temps quelques jours afin de compléter le nombre des années, et les Romains appelaient ces jours intercalaires. De même Enos, fils de Seth, n’avait que dix-neuf ans quand il engendra Caïnan¹; ce qui revient aux quatre-vingt-dix ans que lui donne l’Ecriture. Aussi, poursuivent-ils, nous ne voyons point, selon les Septante, qu’aucun homme ait engendré avant le déluge qu’il n’eût au moins cent soixante ans, c’est-à-dire seize ans, en comptant dix années pour une, parce que c’est l’âge destiné par la nature pour avoir des enfants. A l’appui de leur opinion, ils ajoutent que la plupart des historiens rapportent que l’année des Egyptiens² était de quatre mois, celle des Acarnaniens de six, et celle des Laviniens de treize. Pline le naturaliste³, à propos de quelques personnes que certaines histoires témoignent avoir vécu jusqu’à huit cents ans, pense que cette assertion tient à l’ignorance de ces temps-là; attendu, dit-il, que certains peuples ne faisaient leur année que d’un été et d’un hiver, et que les autres comptaient les quatre saisons de l’année pour quatre ans, comme les Arcadiens dont les années n’étaient que de trois mois. Il ajoute même que les Egyptiens, dont nous avons dit que les années n’étaient composées que de quatre mois, les réglaient quelquefois sur le cours de la lune, tellement que chez eux on vivait jusqu’à mille ans.

Telles sont les raisons sur lesquelles se fondent des critiques dont le dessein n’est pas d’ébranler l’autorité de l’Ecriture, mais plutôt de l’affermir en empêchant que ce qu’elle rapporte de la longue vie des premiers hommes ne paraisse incroyable. Il est aisé de montrer évidemment que tout cela est très-faux; mais, avant que de le faire, je suis bien aise de me servir d’une autre preuve pour réfuter cette opinion. Selon les Hébreux, Adam n’avait que cent trente ans lorsqu’il engendra son troisième fils⁴. Or, si ces cent trente ans ne reviennent qu’à treize des nôtres, il est certain qu’il n’en avait que onze ou peu davantage quand il eut le premier. Or, qui peut engendrer à cet âge-là selon la loi ordinaire de la nature? Mais, sans parler de lui, qui peut-être fut capable d’engendrer dès qu’il fut créé, car il n’est pas croyable qu’il ait été créé aussi petit que nos enfants lorsqu’ils viennent au monde, son fils, d’après les mêmes Hébreux, n’avait que cent cinq ans quand il engendra Enos⁵, et par conséquent il n’avait pas encore onze ans, selon nos adversaires. Que dirai-je de son fils Caïnan qui, suivant le texte hébreu, n’avait que soixante et dix ans quand il engendra Malaléhel⁶ ? Comment engendrer à sept ans, si soixante et dix ans d’alors n’en font réellement que sept de nos jours?

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The City of God

Chapter 12.--Of the Opinion of Those Who Do Not Believe that in These Primitive Times Men Lived So Long as is Stated.

For they are by no means to be listened to who suppose that in those times years were differently reckoned, and were so short that one of our years may be supposed to be equal to ten of theirs. So that they say, when we read or hear that some man lived 900 years, we should understand ninety, ten of those years making but one of ours, and ten of ours equalling 100 of theirs. Consequently, as they suppose, Adam was twenty-three years of age when he begat Seth, and Seth himself was twenty years and six months old when his son Enos was born, though the Scripture calls these months 205 years. For, on the hypothesis of those whose opinion we are explaining, it was customary to divide one such year as we have into ten parts, and to call each part a year. And each of these parts was composed of six days squared; because God finished His works in six days, that He might rest the seventh. Of this I disputed according to my ability in the eleventh book. ¹ Now six squared, or six times six, gives thirty-six days; and this multiplied by ten amounts to 360 days, or twelve lunar months. As for the five remaining days which are needed to complete the solar year, and for the fourth part of a day, which requires that into every fourth or leap-year a day be added, the ancients added such days as the Romans used to call "intercalary," in order to complete the number of the years. So that Enos, Seth's son, was nineteen years old when his son Cainan was born, though Scripture calls these years 190. And so through all the generations in which the ages of the antediluvians are given, we find in our versions that almost no one begat a son at the age of 100 or under, or even at the age of 120 or thereabouts; but the youngest fathers are recorded to have been 160 years old and upwards. And the reason of this, they say, is that no one can beget children when he is ten years old, the age spoken of by those men as 100, but that sixteen is the age of puberty, and competent now to propagate offspring; and this is the age called by them 160. And that it may not be thought incredible that in these days the year was differently computed from our own, they adduce what is recorded by several writers of history, that the Egyptians had a year of four months, the Acarnanians of six, and the Lavinians of thirteen months. ² The younger Pliny, after mentioning that some writers reported that one man had lived 152 years, another ten more, others 200, others 300, that some had even reached 500 and 600, and a few 800 years of age, gave it as his opinion that all this must be ascribed to mistaken computation. For some, he says, make summer and winter each a year; others make each season a year, like the Arcadians, whose years, he says, were of three months. He added, too, that the Egyptians, of whose little years of four months we have spoken already, sometimes terminated their year at the wane of each moon; so that with them there are produced lifetimes of 1000 years.

By these plausible arguments certain persons, with no desire to weaken the credit of this sacred history, but rather to facilitate belief in it by removing the difficulty of such incredible longevity, have been themselves persuaded, and think they act wisely in persuading others, that in these days the year was so brief that ten of their years equal but one of ours, while ten of ours equal 100 of theirs. But there is the plainest evidence to show that this is quite false. Before producing this evidence, however, it seems right to mention a conjecture which is yet more plausible. From the Hebrew manuscripts we could at once refute this confident statement; for in them Adam is found to have lived not 230 but 130 years before he begat his third son. If, then, this mean thirteen years by our ordinary computation, then he must have begotten his first son when he was only twelve or thereabouts. Who can at this age beget children according to the ordinary and familiar course of nature? But not to mention him, since it is possible he may have been able to beget his like as soon as he was created,--for it is not credible that he was created so little as our infants are,--not to mention him, his son was not 205 years old when he begot Enos, as our versions have it, but 105, and consequently, according to this idea, was not eleven years old. But what shall I say of his son Cainan, who, though by our version 170 years old, was by the Hebrew text seventy when he beget Mahalaleel? If seventy years in those times meant only seven of our years, what man of seven years old begets children?