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The City of God

Chapter 11.--Of Methuselah's Age, Which Seems to Extend Fourteen Years Beyond the Deluge.

From this discrepancy between the Hebrew books and our own arises the well-known question as to the age of Methuselah; ¹ for it is computed that he lived for fourteen years after the deluge, though Scripture relates that of all who were then upon the earth only the eight souls in the ark escaped destruction by the flood, and of these Methuselah was not one. For, according to our books, Methuselah, before he begat the son whom he called Lamech, lived 167 years; then Lamech himself, before his son Noah was born, lived 188 years, which together make 355 years. Add to these the age of Noah at the date of the deluge, 600 years, and this gives a total of 955 from the birth of Methuselah to the year of the flood. Now all the years of the life of Methuselah are computed to be 969; for when he had lived 167 years, and had begotten his son Lamech, he then lived after this 802 years, which makes a total, as we said, of 969 years. From this, if we deduct 955 years from the birth of Methuselah to the flood, there remains fourteen years, which he is supposed to have lived after the flood. And therefore some suppose that, though he was not on earth (in which it is agreed that every living thing which could not naturally live in water perished), he was for a time with his father, who had been translated, and that he lived there till the flood had passed away. This hypothesis they adopt, that they may not cast a slight on the trustworthiness of versions which the Church has received into a position of high authority, ² and because they believe that the Jewish mss. rather than our own are in error. For they do not admit that this is a mistake of the translators, but maintain that there is a falsified statement in the original, from which, through the Greek, the Scripture has been translated into our own tongue. They say that it is not credible that the seventy translators, who simultaneously and unanimously produced one rendering, could have erred, or, in a case in which no interest of theirs was involved, could have falsified their translation; but that the Jews, envying us our translation of their Law and Prophets, have made alterations in their texts so as to undermine the authority of ours. This opinion or suspicion let each man adopt according to his own judgment. Certain it is that Methuselah did not survive the flood, but died in the very year it occurred, if the numbers given in the Hebrew mss. are true. My own opinion regarding the seventy translators I will, with God's help, state more carefully in its own place, when I have come down (following the order which this work requires) to that period in which their translation was executed. ³ For the present question, it is enough that, according to our versions, the men of that age had lives so long as to make it quite possible that, during the lifetime of the first-born of the two sole parents then on earth, the human race multiplied sufficiently to form a community.

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La cité de dieu

CHAPITRE XI.

IL FAUT, D’APRÈS L’AGE DE MATHUSALEM, QU’IL AIT ENCORE VÉCU QUATORZE ANS ÀPRÈ5 LE DÉLUGE.

Cette diversité entre les livres hébreux et les nôtres a fait mettre en question si Mathusalem a vécu quatorze ans après le déluge¹, tandis que l’Ecriture ne parle que de huit personnes qui turent sauvées par le moyen de l’arche², entre lesquelles elle ne compte point Mathusalem. Selon les Septante, Mathusalem avait soixante-sept ans lorsqu’il engendra Lamech, et Lamech cent quatre-vingt-huit ans avant d’engendrer Noé, ce qui fait ensemble trois cent cinquante-cinq ans; ajoutez-y les six cents ans de Noé avant le déluge³, cela fait neuf cent cinquante-cinq ans depuis la naissance de Mathusalem jusqu’au déluge. Or, Mathusalem vécut en tout neuf cent soixante et neuf ans, cent soixante et sept avant que d’engendrer Lamech, et huit cent deux ans depuis⁴ par conséquent, il vécut quatorze ans après le déluge, qui n’arriva que la neuf cent cinquante-cinquième année de la vie de Mathusalem. De là vient que quelques-uns aiment mieux dire qu’il vécut quelque temps avec son père Enoch, que Dieu avait ravi hors du monde, que de demeurer d’accord qu’il y ait faute dans la version des Septante, à qui l’Eglise donne tant d’autorité; et en conséquence ils prétendent que l’erreur est plutôt du côté des exemplaires hébreux. Ils allèguent, à l’appui de leur sentiment, qu’il n’est pas croyable que les Septante, qui se sont rencontrés mot pour mot dans leur version, aient pu se tromper ou voulu mentir sur un point qui n’était pour eux d’aucun intérêt, et qu’il est bien plus probable que les Juifs, jaloux de ce que la loi et les Prophètes sont venus à nous par le moyen de cette version, ont altéré leurs exemplaires afin de diminuer l’autorité des nôtres. Chacun peut croire là-dessus ce qui lui plaira ; toujours est-il certain que Mathusalem ne vécut point après le déluge, mais qu’il mourut la même année, si la chronologie des Hébreux est véritable. Pour les Septante, j’en dirai ce que j’en pense, lorsque je parlerai du temps auquel ils ont écrit⁵. Il suffit, en ce qui touche la difficulté présente, que, selon les uns et les autres, les hommes d’alors aient vécu assez longtemps pour qu’il en soit né durant la vie de Caïn un nombre capable de constituer une ville. ⁶