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It is necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of generations
descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the city of God
after the flood; as before the flood it was exhibited in the series of
generations descending from Seth. And therefore does divine
Scripture, after exhibiting the earthly city as Babylon or
"Confusion," revert to the patriarch Shem. and recapitulate the
generations from him to Abraham, specifying besides, the year in
which each father begat the son that belonged to this line, and how
long he lived. And unquestionably it is this which fulfills the
promise I made, that it should appear why it is said of the sons of
Heber, "The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth
was divided."1 For what can we understand by the division of the
earth, if not the diversity of languages? And, therefore, omitting
the other sons of Shem, who are not concerned in this matter,
Scripture gives the genealogy of those by whom the line runs on to
Abraham, as before the flood those are given who carried on the line
to Noah from Seth.
Accordingly this series of generations begins thus: "These are the
generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat
Arphaxad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he begat
Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters." In like
manner it registers the rest, naming the year of his life in which each
begat the son who belonged to that line which extends to Abraham. It
specifies, too, how many years he lived thereafter, begetting sons
and daughters, that we may not childishly suppose that the men named
were the only men, but may understand how the population increased,
and how regions and kingdoms so vast could be populated by the
descendants of Shem; especially the kingdom of Assyria, from which
Ninus subdued the surrounding nations, reigning with brilliant
prosperity, and bequeathing to his descendants a vast but thoroughly
consolidated empire, which held together for many centuries.
But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the number of
years each member of this series lived, but only the year of his life
in which he begat his heir, that we may thus reckon the number of years
from the flood to Abraham, and may at the same time leave room to
touch briefly and cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our
argument. In the second year, then, after the flood, Shem when he
was a hundred years old begat Arphaxad; Arphaxad when he was 135
years old begat Cainan; Cainan when he was 130 years begat
Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age when he begat Eber.
Eber lived 134 years, and begat Peleg, in whose days the earth
was divided. Peleg himself lived 130 years, and begat Reu; and
Reu lived 132 years, and begat Serug; Serug 130, and begat
Nahor; and Nahor 79, and begat Terah; and Terah 70, and
begat Abram, whose name God afterwards changed into Abraham. There
are thus from the flood to Abraham 1072 years, according to the
Vulgate or Septuagint versions. In the Hebrew copies far fewer
years are given; and for this either no reason or a not very credible
one is given.
When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two
nations, we cannot affirm that while they had but one lip, that is,
one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true
God, and that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations
which descend from Shem through Arphaxad and reach to Abraham; but
from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of
godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes
apparent. Whether it was only disguised before, or non-existent;
whether both cities remained after the flood, the godly in the two sons
of Noah who were blessed, and in their posterity, and the ungodly in
the cursed son and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter
against the Lord, is not easily determined. For possibly, and
certainly this is more credible, there were despisers of God among the
descendants of the two sons, even before Babylon was founded, and
worshippers of God among the descendants of Ham. Certainly neither
race was ever obliterated from earth. For in both the Psalms in which
it is said, "They are all gone aside, they are altogether become
filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one," we read
further, "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up
my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord."1 There
was then a people of God even at that time. And therefore the words,
"There is none that doeth good, no, not one," were said of the
sons of men, not of the sons of God. For it had been previously
said, "God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if
any understood and sought after God;" and then follow the words which
demonstrate that all the sons of men, that is, all who belong to the
city which lives according to man, not according to God, are
reprobate.
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