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as he was himself of an excellent character, so did || had formerly evinced for virtue, they now showhe leave* children behind him who imitated his ed by their actions a double degree of wickedvirtues. All these proved to be of good disposi-ness; whereby they made God to be their enemy. tions; they also inhabited the same country with- For many angelst of God§ accompanied with woout dissensions, and in happy condition, without men, and begat sons that proved unjust, and deany misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. spisers of all that was good, on account of the They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort confidence they had in their own strength; for the of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly tradition is, that these men did what resembled bodies and their order. And that their inventions the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. might not be lost before they were sufficiently But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, to change their dispositions and their actions for and at another time by the violence and quantity of the better. But seeing they did not yield to him, water, they made two pillars:† the one of brick, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was the other of stone; they inscribed their discove- afraid they would kill him, together with his wife ries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick and children, and those they had married: so he should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of departed out of that land. stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad, to this day.

CHAP. III.

OF THE DELUGE: NOAH'S PRESERVATION IN AN ARK, AND HIS SUB-
SEQUENT DEBARKATION AND DEATH.

Now God loved this man for his righteousness, yet he not only condemned those other men for their wickedness, but determined to destroy the whole race of mankind, and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness, and cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they formerly enjoyed, but one hundred and twenty only, he turned the dry land into sea. And thus were all these men destroyed. But Noah alone was saved, for God suggested to him the following contrivance and way of escape:

THE posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and for--That he should make an ark of four stories high, sook the practices of their forefathers, and did neither pay those honours to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they What is here said of Seth and his posterity, that they were very good and virtuous, and at the same time very happy, without any considerable misfortunes for seven generations, is exactly agreeable to the state of the world, and the conduct of Providence, in all the first ages.

† Of Josephus's mistake here, when he took Seth the son of Adam, for Seth or Sesostris king of Egypt, the erector of these pillars, in the land of Siriad, see Essays on the Old Testament, Appendix, page 159-160. Although the main of this relation might be true, and Adam might foretell a conflagration and a deluge, which all antiquity witnesses to be an ancient tradition; and, Seth's posterity might engrave their inventions in astronomy on two such pillars; yet it is noway credible that they could survive the deluge, which buried all such pillars and edifices far under ground, in the sediment of its waters; especially since the like pillars of the Egyptian Seth or Sesostris were extant, after the flood, in the land of Siriad, and perhaps in the days of Josephus also.

This notion that the fallen angels were in some sense the fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity.

Gen. vi. 4.

Josephus here supposes, that the life of these giants, for of them only do I understand him, was now reduced to one hundred and twenty years; for as to the rest of mankind, Josephus himself confesses their lives were much longer than one hundred and twenty years, for many generations after the flood, as we shall see presently: and he says they were gradually shorten

three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits broad, and
thirty cubits high.** Accordingly he entered into
that ark, with his wife, and his sons and their
wives, and put into it, not only provisions to sup-
ed till the days of Moses, and then fixed for some time at one
hundred and twenty. Nor indeed need we suppose, that either
Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these one hundred and
twenty years for the life of men before the flood to be different
from the one hundred and twenty years of God's patience, (per.
haps while the Ark was preparing) till the deluge; which I take
to be the meaning of God when he threatened this wicked
world, that if they so long continued impenitent, their days
should be no more than one hundred and twenty years.
¶ A cubit is about twenty-one English inches.

** The timber of which the Ark was framed, Moses calls Gopher wood; but what tree this Gopher was, is not a little controverted. Some will have it to be the cedar, others the pine, others the box, and others (particularly the Mahometans) the Indian plane tree. But our learned Fuller, in his miscellanies, has observed, that it was nothing else but that which the Greeks call Kuapiados, or the cypress tree; for, taking away the termi nation, cupar and gophar differ very little in the sound. This observation the great Bochart has confirmed, and shown very plainly, that no country abounds so much with this wood, as that part of Assyria which lies about Babylon. To this we may add the observation of Theophrastus, who, speaking of trees that are least subject to decay, makes the cypress the most durable; for which Bitruvius gives this reason, that the sap, which is in every part of the wood, has a peculiarly bitter taste, and is so very offensive, that no worm or other corroding animal will touch it, so that such things as are made of this wood, will in a manner last for ever. Universal History. B.

port their wants there, but also sent in with the rest, all sorts of living creatures, the male and his female, for the preservation of their kinds: and others of them by sevens.* Now this ark had firm walls, and a roof; and was braced with cross beams, so that it could not be any way drowned, or overturned by the violence of the water: thus was Noah, with his family, preserved. Now he was the tenth from Adam, as being the son of Lamech, whose father was Methusela: he was the son of Enoch, the son of Jared; and Jared was the son of Malaleel; who, with many of his sisters, were the children of Cain, the son of Enos: now Enos was the son of Seth, the son of Adam.

This calamity happened in the six hundredth year of Noah's government or age, in the second month,† called by the Macedonians, Dius; but by the Hebrews, Marhesvan; for so did they order their year in Egypt. But Moses appointed that Nisan, which is the same with Xanthicus, should be the first month; so that this month began the year, as to all the solemnities they observed in honour of God; although he preserved the original order of the months as to buying and selling, and other ordinary affairs. Now he says, that this flood began on the seventeenth day of the beforementioned month; and this was one thousand five hundred and fifty-six years from Adam the first man; and the time is written down in our sacred books, those who then lived having noted down, with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men.

hundred and sixty-two years old. Now he, when he lived three hundred and sixty-five years, departed and went to God. Whence it is that they have not written down his death. Now Mathuselah, the son of Enoch, who was born to him when he was one hundred and sixty-five years old, had Lamech for his son, when he was one hundred and eighty-seven years of age; to whom he delivered the government when he had retained it nine hundred and sixty-nine years. Now Lamech, when he had governed seven hundred and seventy-seven years, appointed Noah his son to be ruler of the people; who was born to Lamech when he was one hundred and eighty-two years old, and retained the government nine hundred and fifty years. These years, collected together, make up the sum before set down. But let no one inquire into the deaths of these men, for they extended their lives all along, together with their children and grandchildren: but let him have regard to their births only.

When God gave the signal, and it began to rain, the water poured down forty entire days, till it became fifteen cubits§ higher than the earth; which was the reason why there were no greater number preserved, since they had no place to fly to. When the rain ceased, the water did but just begin to abate after one hundred and fifty days, that is, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. After this the Ark rested on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia; which, when Noah understood, he opened it, and seeing a small piece For indeed Seth was born when Adam was in of land about it, he continued quiet, and conceivhis two hundred and thirtieth year; who lived nine ed some hopes of deliverance. But a few days hundred and thirty years. Seth begat Enoch in afterward, when the water was decreased to a his two hundred and fifth year; who, when he had greater degree, he sent out a raven, as desirous lived nine hundred and twelve years, delivered the to learn whether any other part of the earth was government to Cain his son; whom he had at his left dry by the water, and whether he might go hundred and ninetieth year. He lived nine hun- out of the Ark with safety; but the raven, finding dred and five years. Cain, when he had lived all the land still overflowed, returned to Noah nine hundred and ten years, had his son Malaleel, again. But after seven days he sent out a dove, who was born in his hundred and seventieth year. to know the state of the ground, which came back This Malaleel having lived eight hundred and to him covered with mud, and bringing an oliveninety-five years, died, leaving his son Jared, branch. Hereby Noah learned that the earth was whom he begat when he was at his hundred and become clear of the flood. So after he had staysixty-fifth year. He lived nine hundred and sixty-ed seven more days, he sent the living creatures two years and then his son Enoch succeeded him; who was born when his father was one

* Gen. vii. 2.

† Josephus here truly determines, that the year at the flood began about the Autumnal Equinox. As to what day of the month the flood began, our Hebrew and Samaritan, and, perhaps, Josephus's own copy, more rightly placed it on the 17th day instead of the 27th, as here; for Josephus agrees with them as to the distance of one hundred and fifty days to the 17th day of the seventh month, as Gen. vii. ult. with viii. 3.

Josephus here takes notice, that these ancient genealogies

out of the Ark, and both he and his family went
out; when he also sacrificed to God,|| and feasted
were first set down by those that then lived, and from them
were transmitted down to posterity: which I suppose to be the
true account of that matter; for there is no reason to imagine
that men were not taught to read and write soon after they were
taught to speak; and perhaps all by the Messiah himself, who,
under the Father, was the creator or governor of mankind, and
who frequently, in those early days, appeared to them.
Gen. vii. 20.
Gen. viii. 20.

*

with his companions. However, the Armenians on cheerfully in cultivating the same; to build | call this place Arobalov, the place of descent: for cities, and live happily in them; and that they the Ark being saved in that place, its remains are might not be deprived of any of those good things showed by the inhabitants of this day. which they enjoyed before the flood; but might attain to the old age which the ancient people had arrived at before.

Now all the writers of profane history make mention of this flood, and of this Ark, among whom is Berosus, the Chaldean; for when he was describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus:

When Noah had made these supplications, God, who loved the man for his righteousness, granted his prayers and said, "that it was not he who "It is said there is still some part of the ship, brought the destruction on a polluted world, but in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyæans; that they underwent that vengeance on account and that some people carry off pieces of the bitu- of their own wickedness; and that he had not men, which they take away, and use, chiefly as brought men into the world, if he had himself deamulets, for the averting of mischiefs." Hierony-termined to destroy them; it being an instance of mus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician greater wisdom not to have granted them life at Antiquities, and Manaseas, and many more, make all, than, after it was granted, to procure their demention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, struction. But the injuries," said he, "they offerin his ninety-sixth Book, hath a particular rela-ed to my holiness and virtue, forced me to bring tion about them, where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris; upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark, came on shore upon the top of it, and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved: this might be the man about whom Moses, the legislator of the Jews, wrote."

But as for Noah, he was afraid, since God had determined to destroy mankind, lest he should drown the earth every year. So he offered burnt offerings, and besought God that nature might hereafter go on in its former orderly course, and that he would not bring on so great a judgment any more, by which the whole race of creatures might be in danger of destruction; but that, having now punished the wicked, he would of his goodness spare the remainder, and such as he had hitherto judged fit to be delivered from so severe a calamity; for that otherwise these last must be more miserable than the first, and that they must be condemned to a worse condition than the others, unless they be suffered to escape entirely; that as, if they be reserved for another deluge, while they must be afflicted with the terror and the sight of the deluge, and must also be destroyed by a second. He also entreated God to accept of his sacrifice, and to grant, that the earth might never again undergo the like effects of his wrath; that men might be permitted to go

This place of descent is the proper interpretation of the Armenian name of this city. It is called in Ptolemy Naxuana, and by Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, Idsheuan; but at the place itself Nichidsheuan, which signifies the first place of descent; and is a lasting monument of the preservation of Noah in the Ark upon the top of that mountain, at whose foot it was built, as the first city or town after the flood. See

this punishment upon them; but I will leave off for the time to come to require such punishments, the effects of so great wrath, for their future wicked actions; and especially on account of thy prayers. But if I shall at any time send tempests of rain in an extraordinary manner, be not affrighted at the copiousness of the showers, for the water shall no more overspread the earth. However, I require you to abstain from shedding the blood of men, and to keep yourselves pure from murder, and to punish those who commit any such thing; I permit you to make use of all the other living creatures, at your pleasure, and as your ap petites lead you; for I have made you lords of them all; both of those that walk on the land, and those that swim in the waters, and of those that fly in the regions of the air on high, excepting the blood, for therein is the life. But I will give you a sign, that I have laid aside my anger by my bow; "t whereby is meant the rainbow: for they determined that the rainbow was the bow of God. And when God had said and promised thus, he went away.

Now when Noah had lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and all that time happily, he died; being nine hundred and fifty years old; but let no one, upon comparing the lives of the ancients with our lives, and with the few years which we now live, think that what we have said of them is false; or make the shortness of our lives at present an argument that they did not attain to so long a

Antiq. xx. 2, and Moses Chorenensis, page 71-72. Who also says, page 19, that another town was related by tradition to have been called Seron, or the place of dispersion, on account of the first dispersion of Xisuthrus's or Noah's sons from thence, Whether any remains of this Ark be still preserved, as the peo ple of the country suppose, I cannot certainly tell.

† Gen. ix. 13.

duration of life; for those ancients were beloved of || ing that their own power was the proper cause of God, and lately made by God himself; and, because their food was then fitter for the prolongation of life, might well live so great a number of years. And besides, God afforded them a longer time of life on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded them time for foretelling the periods of the stars, unless they had lived six hundred years, for the great year is completed in that interval.

Now I have for witnesses to what I have said all those that have written antiquities, both among the Greeks and Barbarians; for even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian History; and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean Monuments; and Mochus, and Hestiæus, and besides these, Hieronymus, the Egyptian, and those that composed the Phoenician History, agree to what I here say. Hesiod* also, and Hecatæus, and Hellanicus, and Aculsilaus; and besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate, that the ancients lived a thousand years. But, as to these matters, let every one look upon them as they think fit. CHAP. IV.

OF THE TOWER OF BABYLON, AND THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES.

THE SONS of Noah were three, Shem, Japhet, and Ham, born one hundred years before the deluge. These first of all descended from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there, and persuaded others, who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loath to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their example. Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner; but they were so ill-instructed, that they did not obey God, for which reason they fell into calamities, and were made sensible by experience of what sin they had been guilty of; for when they flourished with a numerous youth, God admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining that the prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favour of God, but suppos

* Since the Latin copies have here generally Isiodorus, instead of Hesiodus: Vossius, and perhaps Hudson, inclined to think the writer here meant was Isidorus Characenus, who produced instances of kings who reigned a long time. But since the Greek copies have constantly Hesiod, and since Hesiod says, that men's lives were once so long, that at one hundred years of age they might be esteemed great infants, I prefer that reading. But what a catalogue of ancient authors are there that confirm the sacred History in one of its most difficult branches! To which, had Josephus read the Latin authors, as he did the Greek, he might have added Varro, the most learned of the Ro

the plentiful condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, they added to this disobedience to the divine will, the suspicion that they were ordered to send out separate colonies, that, being divided asunder, they might the more easily be oppressed. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God; he was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means that they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage that procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other method of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his own power. He also said, "He would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach, and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers."

Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work; and by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height_seemed, upon view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw them acting so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners, but he caused a tumult among them by producing in them divers languages, and causing that through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before, for the Hebrew means by the word Babel,† confusion. The Sibylt also makes mention of the tower, and of the

mans, who made this inquiry, what the reason was that the ancients were supposed to have lived one thousand years? † Gen. xi. 29.

See this testimony in the original, and in English in my edition of the Sibylline Oracles, page 11. 93, 94; but there it is in verse, as here in prose, the reason of which difference I by no means understand. But what is here remarkable is, that Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, confirms this history, that God overthrew this tower by a terrible and divine storm, and confounded the language of the builders; and this from the earliest records belonging to that nation.

confusion of the language, when she says thus:"When all men were of one language, some of them built an high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven, but the gods sent storms of wind, and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon." But as to the plain of Shinah, in the country of Babylonia, Hestiæus mentions it when he says, "Such of the priests as were saved took the sacred vessels of Jupiter Enyalius, and came to Shinar or Babylonia."

CHAP. V.

OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE POSTERITY OF NOAH SENT OUT COLONIES, AND INHABITED THE WHOLE EARTH.

AFTER this they were dispersed abroad on account of the difference of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land unto which God led them, so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland and maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited the islands; and some of those nations still retain the denominations which were given them by their first founders, but some have lost them, and some have only admitted certain changes in them, that they might be more intelligible to the inhabitants; and they were the Greeks who became the authors of such mutations; for when, in after ages, 'they grew potent, they claimed to themselves the glory of antiquity, giving names to the nations that sounded well in Greek, that they might be better understood among themselves, and setting agreeable forms of government over them, as if they were a people derived from themselves.

CHAP. VL

HOW EVERY NATION WAS DENOMINATED FROM THEIR FIRST

INHABITANTS.

Now they were the grandchildren of Noah, in honour of whom names were imposed on the nations by those that first seized upon them. Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons; they inhabited so, that beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanais, and along Europe to Cadiz, and settling themselves on the lands they chose, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names; for Gomer founded those whom the Greeks called Galatians, but were then called Gomerites. Magog founded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians. Now as to Javan and Madai, the sons of Japhet: from Madai came the Madeans, which are called Medes by the Greeks, but from Javan

Thobel

and Jonia all the Grecians are derived. founded the Thobelites, now called Iberes: and the Mosocheni, now called Cappadocians, were founded by Mosoph. There is also a mark of their ancient denomination still to be shown, for there is even now among them a city called Mazaca, which may inform those who are able to understand, that so was the nation once called. Thiras also called those whom he ruled over Thirasians, but the Greeks changed the name into Thracians; and so many were the countries that had the children of Japhet for their inhabitants.

Of the three sons of Gomer, Aschanax founded the Aschanaxians, who are now called by the Greeks Rheginians; Riphath founded the Ripheans, now called Paphlagonians; and Thrugramma the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians. Of the three sons of Javan also, the son of Japhet. Elisa gave name to the Eliseans, who were his subjects; they are now the Eolians. Tharsus to the Tharsians, for so was Cilicia of old called; the sign of which is, that the noblest city they have, and a metropolis also, is Tausus, the letter Tau being by change put for Theta. Cethimus possessed the island Cethima.. It is now called Cyprus, and from that all islands, and the greatest part of the sea-coasts, are named Cethim by the Hebrews; and one city there is in Cyprus that has been able to preserve its denomination; it is called Citius by those who use the language of the Greeks, and has not, by the use of that dialect, escaped the name of Cethim; and so many nations have the children and grandchildren of Japhet possessed. Now when I have premised somewhat which, perhaps, the Greeks do not know, I will return and explain what I have omitted; for such names are pronounced here after the manner of the Greeks, to please my readers, for our own language does not so pronounce them; but the names in all cases are of one and the same ending; for the name we here pronounce Noeus, is there Noah, and in every case retains the same termination.

The children of Ham possessed the land from Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus, seizing upon all the maritime parts, and keeping them as their own. Some, indeed, of its names are utterly vanished: others of them being changed, and another sound given them, are hardly to be discovered; yet there are a few which have kept their denominations entire; for of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Chus; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Chusites. The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name, for all we who inhabit the country of Judea call Egypt Mestre, and the

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