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From this discrepancy between the Hebrew books and our own arises the
well-known question as to the age of Methuselah; 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, and because
they believe that the Jewish manuscripts 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 manuscripts 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. 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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