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Wherefore, although there is a discrepancy for which I cannot account
between our manuscripts and the Hebrew, in the very number of years
assigned to the antediluvians, yet the discrepancy is not so great that
they do not agree about their longevity. For the very first man,
Adam, before he begot his son Seth, is in our manuscripts found to
have lived 230 years, but in the Hebrew mss. 130. But after
he begot Seth, our copies read that he lived 700 years, while the
Hebrew give 800. And thus, when the two periods are taken
together, the sum agrees. And so throughout the succeeding
generations, the period before the father begets a son is always made
shorter by 100 years in the Hebrew, but the period after his son is
begotten is longer by 100 years in the Hebrew than in our copies.
And thus, taking the two periods together, the result is the same in
both. And in the sixth generation there is no discrepancy at all. In
the seventh, however, of which Enoch is the representative, who is
recorded to have been translated without death because he pleased God,
there is the same discrepancy as in the first five generations, 100
years more being ascribed to him by our mss. before he begat a son.
But still the result agrees; for according to both documents he lived
before he was translated 365 years. In the eighth generation the
discrepancy is less than in the others, and of a different kind. For
Methuselah, whom Enoch begat, lived, before he begat his
successor, not 100 years less, but 100 years more, according to
the Hebrew reading; and in our manuscripts again these years are added
to the period after he begat his son; so that in this case also the
sum-total is the same. And it is only in the ninth generation, that
is, in the age of Lamech, Methuselah's son and Noah's father,
that there is a discrepancy in the sum total; and even in this case it
is slight. For the Hebrew manuscripts represent him as living
twenty-four years more than ours assign to him. For before he begat
his son, who was called Noah, six years fewer are given to him by the
Hebrew manuscripts than by ours; but after he begat this son, they
give him thirty years more than ours; so that, deducting the former
six, there remains, as we said, a surplus of twenty-four.
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