Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 15.--Whether It is Credible that the Men of the Primitive Age Abstained from Sexual Intercourse Until that Date at Which It is Recorded that They Begat Children.

Some one, then, will say, Is it to be believed that a man who intended to beget children, and had no intention of continence, abstained from sexual intercourse a hundred years and more, or even, according to the Hebrew version, only a little less, say eighty, seventy, or sixty years; or, if he did not abstain, was unable to beget offspring? This question admits of two solutions. For either puberty was so much later as the whole life was longer, or, which seems to me more likely, it is not the first-born sons that are here mentioned, but those whose names were required to fill up the series until Noah was reached, from whom again we see that the succession is continued to Abraham, and after him down to that point of time until which it was needful to mark by pedigree the course of the most glorious city, which sojourns as a stranger in this world, and seeks the heavenly country. That which is undeniable is that Cain was the first who was born of man and woman. For had he not been the first who was added by birth to the two unborn persons, Adam could not have said what he is recorded to have said, "I have gotten a man by the Lord." ¹ He was followed by Abel, whom the elder brother slew, and who was the first to show by a kind of foreshadowing of the sojourning city of God, what iniquitous persecutions that city would suffer at the hands of wicked and, as it were, earth-born men, who love their earthly origin, and delight in the earthly happiness of the earthly city. But how old Adam was when he begat these sons does not appear. After this the generations diverge, the one branch deriving from Cain, the other from him whom Adam begot in the room of Abel slain by his brother, and whom he called Seth, saying, as it is written, "For God hath raised me up another seed for Abel whom Cain slew." ² These two series of generations accordingly, the one of Cain, the other of Seth, represent the two cities in their distinctive ranks, the one the heavenly city, which sojourns on earth, the other the earthly, which gapes after earthly joys, and grovels in them as if they were the only joys. But though eight generations, including Adam, are registered before the flood, no man of Cain's line has his age recorded at which the son who succeeded him was begotten. For the Spirit of God refused to mark the times before the flood in the generations of the earthly city, but preferred to do so in the heavenly line, as if it were more worthy of being remembered. Further, when Seth was born, the age of his father is mentioned; but already he had begotten other sons, and who will presume to say that Cain and Abel were the only ones previously begotten? For it does not follow that they alone had been begotten of Adam, because they alone were named in order to continue the series of generations which it was desirable to mention. For though the names of all the rest are buried in silence, yet it is said that Adam begot sons and daughters; and who that cares to be free from the charge of temerity will dare to say how many his offspring numbered? It was possible enough that Adam was divinely prompted to say, after Seth was born, "For God hath raised up to me another seed for Abel," because that son was to be capable of representing Abel's holiness, not because he was born first after him in point of time. Then because it is written, "And Seth lived 205 years," or, according to the Hebrew reading, "105 years, and begat Enos," ³ who but a rash man could affirm that this was his first-born? Will any man do so to excite our wonder, and cause us to inquire how for so many years he remained free from sexual intercourse, though without any purpose of continuing so, or how, if he did not abstain, he yet had no children? Will any man do so when it is written of him, "And he begat sons and daughters, and all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died?" ⁴ And similarly regarding those whose years are afterwards mentioned, it is not disguised that they begat sons and daughters.

Consequently it does not at all appear whether he who is named as the son was himself the first begotten. Nay, since it is incredible that those fathers were either so long in attaining puberty, or could not get wives, or could not impregnate them, it is also incredible that those sons were their first-born. But as the writer of the sacred history designed to descend by well-marked intervals through a series of generations to the birth and life of Noah, in whose time the flood occurred, he mentioned not those sons who were first begotten, but those by whom the succession was handed down.

Let me make this clearer by here inserting an example, in regard to which no one can have any doubt that what I am asserting is true. The evangelist Matthew, where he designs to commit to our memories the generation of the Lord's flesh by a series of parents, beginning from Abraham and intending to reach David, says, "Abraham begat Isaac;" ⁵ why did he not say Ishmael, whom he first begat? Then "Isaac begat Jacob;" why did he not say Esau, who was the first-born? Simply because these sons would not have helped him to reach David. Then follows, "And Jacob begat Judah and his brethren:" was Judah the first begotten? "Judah," he says, "begat Pharez and Zara;" yet neither were these twins the first-born of Judah, but before them he had begotten three other sons. And so in the order of the generations he retained those by whom he might reach David, so as to proceed onwards to the end he had in view. And from this we may understand that the antediluvians who are mentioned were not the first-born, but those through whom the order of the succeeding generations might be carried on to the patriarch Noah. We need not, therefore, weary ourselves with discussing the needless and obscure question as to their lateness of reaching puberty.

Traduction Masquer
La cité de dieu

CHAPITRE XV.

S’IL EST PRÉSUMABLE QUE LES HOMMES DU PREMIER AGE AIENT PERSÉVÉRÉ DANS L’ABSTINENCE JUSQU’À L’ÉPOQUE OU L’ON RAPPORTE QU’ILS ONT EU DES ENFANTS.

Est-il croyable, dira-t on, qu’un homme, qui n’avait pas dessein de garder le célIbat, se soit contenu cent ans et plus, ou, selon l’hébreu, quatre-vingts, soixante-dix ou soixante ans, et qu’il n’ait point eu d’enfants auparavant ? Il y a deux réponses à cela. Ou l’âge d’avoir des enfants venait plus tard en ce temps-là, à proportion des années de la vie; où, ce qui me paraît plus vraisemblable., I’Ecriture n’a pas fait mention des aînés, mais seulement de ceux dont il fallait parler selon l’ordre des générations, pour parvenir à Noé et ensuite à Abraham, et pour marquer le progrès de la glorieuse Cité de Dieu, étrangère ici-bas et qui soupire après la céleste patrie. En effet, on ne saurait nier que Caïn ne soit le premier fils d’Adam, puisque Adam n’aurait pas dit, comme le lui fait dire l’Ecriture: «J’ai acquis un homme par la grâce de Dieu », si cet homme n’avait été ajouté en naissant à nos deux premiers parents. Abel vint après, qui fut tué par son frère Caïn, en quoi il fut la première figure de la Cité de Dieu, exilée en ce monde et destinée à être en butte aux injustes persécutions des méchants , c’est-à-dire des hommes du siècle attachés aux biens passagers de la cité de la terre; mais on ne voit pas à quel âge Adam les engendra l’un et l’autre. Ensuite sont rapportées les deux branches d’hommes, l’une sortie de Caïn, et l’autre de Seth, que Dieu donna à Adam à la place d’Abel. Ainsi ces deux ordres de générations, l’une de Seth et l’autre de Caïn, marquant distinctement les deux cités dont nous parions, l’Ecriture sainte ne dit point quel âge avaient ceux de la race de Caïn quand ils eurent des enfants, parce que l’esprit de Dieu n’a jugé dignes de cet honneur que ceux qui représentaient la Cité du ciel. La Genèse, à la vérité, marque à quel âge Adam engendra Seth, mais il en avait engendré d’autres auparavant, savoir: Caïn et Abel; qui sait même s’il n’avait engendré que ceux-là? De ce qu’ils sont nommés seuls à cause des généalogies qu’il fallait établir, ce n’est pas à dire qu’Adam n’en ait point eu d’autres. Aussi bien, lorsque l’Ecriture sainte dit en général qu’il engendra des fils et des filles qu’elle ne nomme pas, qui oserait sans témérité en déterminer le nombre? Ce qu’Adam dit après la naissance de Seth: « Dieu m’a donné un autre fils au lieu d’Abel », il a pu fort, bien le dire par une inspiration divine, en tant que Seth devait imiter la vertu d’Abel, et non en tant qu’il fut né immédiatement après lui. De même, quand il est écrit: « Seth avait deux cent cinq ans », ou, selon l’hébreu, cent cinq, (319) lorsqu’il engendra Enos, qui serait assez hardi pour assurer qu’Enos fût son premier-né? Outre qu’il n’y a point d’apparence qu’il se soit contenu pendant tant d’années, n’ayant point dessein de garder la continence. L’Ecriture dit aussi de lui : « Et il engendra des fils et des filles, et Seth vécut en tout neuf cent douze ans¹ ». L’Ecriture, qui ne se proposait, comme je l’ai déjà dit, que de descendre jusqu’à Noé par une suite de générations, n’a pas marqué celles qui étaient les premières, mais celles où cette suite était gardée.

J’appuierai ces considérations d’un exemple clair et indubitable. Saint Matthieu, faisant la généalogie temporelle de Notre-Seigneur, et commençant. par Abraham pour venir d’abord à David: « Abraham, dit-il, engendra Isaac ». Que ne dit-il Ismaël, qui fut le fils aîné d’Abraham? « Isaac, ajoute-t-il, engendra Jacob ». Pourquoi ne dit-il pas Esaü, qui fut son aîné? C’est sans doute qu’il ne pouvait pas arriver par eux à David. Poursuivons « Jacob engendra Juda et ses frères ». Est-ce que Juda fut l’aîné des enfants de Jacob? « Juda », dit-il encore, « engendra Pharès et Zaram² » . Et cependant il avait déjà eu trois enfants avant ceux-là. Voilà l’unique et irrécusable solution qu’il faut apporter à ces difficultés de la Genèse, sans aller s’embarrasser dans cette question obscure et superflue, si les hommes avaient en ce temps-là des enfants plus tard qu’aujourd’hui.