A. M. 235.

3769.

However, we are affured by the hiftorians, and it is highly probable, that the pofterity of Cain was enormously Ante Chr. wicked, exceeding their father, if poffible, in all manner of villainies; every fucceeding generation growing worse than the former, and becoming wholly addicted to rapine and brutish lufts. This reprobate race is generally fuppofed to be meant by Mofes under the defignation of men, and the daughters of men, as the other family of Seth is by that of the fons of God".

Enos born.

Seth had this year a fon named Enos; about which time it is thought his descendents, who were as eminent for piety and virtue, as those of Cain were for the reverfe, received the appellation we have juft mentioned ; for it is conceived that thofe words, which in our translation are rendered, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord," properly fignify, "Then men began to be called by or after the name of the Lord,” that is, the fons of God. But fome take the words, according to the former verfion, to mean, then the public worship of God was first fet up; and proper ceremonies, and stated times, were appointed for that fervice"; and others, particularly the Jews, fuppofe they intimate, that idolatry, or the deifying of men, had its rife about this time, either adhering to the latter verfion, or tranflating the paffage thus: Then men prophaned in calling upon. the name of the Lord (Z)."

a Vide Heidegg. ubi fupra, p. 136.
cerus, &c. Vide Simfon Chron, coll. 56.
Diis Syris, Proleg. cap. iii.

lefs, because he had done no-
thing to deferve any ill treat
ment. This interpretation
feems the most reafonable, but
cannot be depended on; the
fpeech being introduced by
Mofes very abruptly, and
without any connection with
what precedes or follows it.

(Z) The interpretation of
Onkelos is, "Then men left
off calling upon the name of
the Lord;" as if the worship of

(4) Vide Hottinger, Smegma fupr. p. 148.

Of

Perrer. Drufius, Merc Vide Selden. De

God began then to be neglected.

Some of the Jews (particularly Maimonides) have gone fo far as to charge Enos himfelf with being the author of idolatry, and inventing images, by whofe mediation men might addrefs themselves to God (4).

But the introduction of the idolatrous worship of the hea venly bodies and angels is, by

Orient. p. 230. Heidegg. ubi

the

Of the three next defcendents of Seth, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared, and of Methufelah and Lamech, the grandfather and father of Noah, Mofes, has recorded no more than their feveral ages. The oriental authors commend them, as they do Seth and Enos, for their piety, and the falutary injunctions they left behind them, forbidding their children all intercourse with the race of curfed Cain d.

A. M

235. Ante Chr. 3769.

Enoch, the son of Jared, and father of Methuselah, Enoch was a perfon of moft extraordinary piety, "Walking with tranflated. God," as the Scripture expreffes it, for at least the laft three hundred years of his life: as a reward for which exemplary behaviour in fo corrupt an age, he was taken up by God into heaven, without tafting death (A).

d Vide Eutych. p. 20, &c. Elmacin.

the Sabians, the profeffors of it, referred to Seth himfelf. They give him alfo a fon call. ed Sabi, from whom the fect feems to have taken its name, unless it be rather derived from Saba, or the host of heaven, the objects of their worship. They call the book, which contains the fundamentals of their religion and morality, the Book of Seth; and reckon the patriarch Enoch also among the propagators of Sabiism.

66

(A) Mofes expreffes it thus: "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him." Which paffage the writer of the Epiftle to the Hebrews paraphrafes in this manner: By faith Enoch was tranflated, that he should not fee death, and was not found, becaufe God had tranflated him; for before this tranflation he had this teftimony, that he pleafed God." By which words it feems plain, that Enoch did not die, but fuffered only fuch a change as

That

• Genef. v. 22. & 24.

was neceffary to fit him for
the place whither he was go-
ing. Yet feveral of the Jews
believe he actually died.

The Greek Chriftians fup-
pofe Enoch to be the fame
with the first Egyptian Hermes,
who dwelt at Sais; that he
firft difcourfed on fuperior fub-
ftances, and foretold the de-
luge: and that he built the
pyramids, engraving thereon
the figures of artificial inftru-
ments, and the elements of
the fciences; fearing left the
memory of them fhould perish
in that general deftruction.
Eupolemus alfo attributes the
invention of aftronomy to E-
noch, and fays he was the fame
with Atlas, to whom the
Greeks afcribe the fame thing.
Origen mentions a book attri-
buted to Enoch, different from
his prophecy, containing fe-
crets concerning the names of
the parts of heaven, and of all
the ftars and conftellations,
which is faid to be extant a-
mong the Ethiopians, in their
tongue. The learned Mr. du
D 2

Peirefe

A. M.

235.

Ante Chr. 3769.

A. M. 930.

3074.

That Enoch was a prophet, and that some prophecy of his was preserved, either in writing, or by tradition, even to our Saviour's time, appears from the paffage quoted thence by St. Jude f. However, the piece under the title of The Scripture or Prophecy of Enoch, of which we have fome fragments extant (B), is allowed to be a manifeft forgery; though feveral of the fathers had a better opinion of it than it deferves. Many paffages are quoted thence in that very ancient writing, the Teftament of the Twelve Patriarchs; and it is alfo cited by Clemens Alexandrinus. St. Auftin makes mention of the Scripture of Enoch, but denies it to be genuine. And when Celfus objected its authority to Origen, he replied, that the books attributed to Enoch were not looked upon by the church as divine writings. That there was a book under the name of Enoch, in the hands of the Jews, appears from its being referred to in their ancient book Zohar.

Adam, having feen a numerous pofterity iffue from his own loins (C), after a life of nine hundred and Ante Chr. thirty years, paid that natural debt to which he had, by his difobedience, fubjected himself and them. That he repented of his fin, and made his peace with God, is very reasonable to believe, notwithstanding the uncharitable opinions of fome to the contrary (D).

g

Conjectures Where he was buried cannot be collected from Scripconcerning ture. St. Jerom feems to approve of the opinion of the place of thofe who imagine he was buried at Hebron (E), in the

his burial.

f Jude v. 14, 15.
Peiresc ufed his utmost endea-
vours to get it from thence,
but to no purpose.

(B) Thefe fragments were
first published by Jofeph Sca-
liger, in his notes
on the

Greek Chronicon of Eufebius;
and afterwards more correctly,
by J. Goar, in his edition of
the Chronography of George
Syncellus.

(C) Befides Adam's three
fons named by Mofes, and the
fuppofed twin filters of Cain
and Abel, we are told he had
two daughters, one named
Afuam, or Saue, who married

cave

g Hieron. in Matth. xxvii.
Cain, and the other Azura,
who was the wife of Seth.

(D) A certain heretical fect, named Tatianites, affirmed, he was damned.

(E) This is offered to be proved by this paffage of Scripture, according to the Vulgate tranflation, "Nomen Hebron ante vocabatur Cariath-arbe: Adam maximus ibi inter Enacem fitus eft." But the name Adam is unwarrantably inferted in the text; the Hebrew plainly fignifying (as the other verfions render it), that Hebron was formerly called

Kerjath

A. M.

930.

3074.

cave of Machpelah, or the double cave, which Abraham, many ages after, bought for a burying-place for himself and family. The oriental Chriftians fay, that Ante Chr. when Adam faw death approaching, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, and Mahalaleel, to him; and ordered them to embalm his body with myrrh, frankincenfe, and caffia, and depofit it in a certain cave on the top of a mountain, which he had chofen for the repofitory of his remains, thence named the cave of Al-Konuz (F). The primitive fathers generally believe that he died in the place where Jerufalem was afterwards built; and that he was interred on Mount Calvary, in the very spot whereon Christ was crucified (G), which opinion opened a large field for rhetorical flourishes and allufions.

Kerjath-Arba, or the city of Arba, who had been a great man among the Anakims. There is, however, another origin of that ancient name of Hebron given by fome writers, who, taking the word Arba, which alfo fignifies four, in that fenfe, and not for a proper name, fay, that city was fo called becaufe four couple were there buried, viz. Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Ifaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah (5).

(F) From the Arabic kanaza, to lay up privately, as treafure, &c. Some Jews fay, that this precaution was ordered by Adam to be taken, left his pofterity fhould make his relics an object of idolatry.

The eastern Chriftians add that he farther directed his family, that, when they were obliged to leave the neighbourhood of Paradife, they fhould take his body with them, and place it in the midst of the earth: becaufe thence fhould come his falvation, and that of

The

all his pofterity. Which order,
it is faid, was repeated by La-
mech to his fon Noah, with this
addition, that he should take with
the body, gold, frankincense,
and myrrh, as offerings, and
appoint one of his fons to at-
tend the corpfe to and at the
new fepulchre, who was to be
a religious perfon, and un-
married; was to shed no blood,
nor offer
any facrifices but
bread and wine only; was to
be clothed in skins, and
fhould neither cut his hair nor
pare his nails, and was to be
called the Priest of God;
meaning thereby Melchize-
dek. And this Noah and
Melchizedek are faid to have
performed.

(G) This opinion may be
reconciled with the preceding,
if we fuppofe the body was re-
moved to Golgotha after the
flood, in purfuance of the
above mentioned orders. Ja-
cobus Edeffenus fays, that
Noah carried the bones of A-
dam with him into the ark;
and, when he came out of it,

(5) Vide R. Eliezer Perke, cap. 20. Heidegg. ubi fupra, p. 106.

A. M. 939.

The time of the death of Eve, the mother of all living (H), is not intimated in Scripture; but there are fome Ante Chr. who venture to tell us, that the outlived her husband ten

3974.

years.

Opinions of After the death of Adam, as the eastern writers fay, the Eastern Seth, with his family, feparated themselves from the prowriters fligate race of Cain, and removed to the mountain where concerning Adam was buried, which they chofe for their habitation; Seth.

Cain and his family remaining below, in the valley where Abel was flain. But how this near neighbourhood is confiftent with Scripture, which plainly intimates Cain's banifhment into a country at fome confiderable diftance from the refidence of Adam, and his pofterity by Seth, we cannot conceive; unless it fhould be fuppofed, that Cain, or his defcendents, left their own fettlements to difpoffefs Seth and his offspring; or elfe, that the pofterity of both were, by this time, fo greatly increased, that, after gradually extending their borders on both fides, they at length met, and ftreightened each other. However this be, the eastern tradition is, that the progeny of Seth lived in the faid mountain in great fanctity and purity of manners. Their conftant employment was, praifing God, from which they had few or no avocations; for their only food was the fruit of the trees which grew on the mountains; fo that they had no occafion to undergo any fervile labours, nor the trouble of fowing or getting in harveft: they were utter ftrangers to envy, injuftice, or deceit. Their only oath was by the blood of Abel; and they every day went up to the top of the mountain to worship God, and to vifit the body of Adam, as the means of procuring the divine bleffingh

What time they had to fpare, in thefe happy circumftances, they feem to have employed in cultivating their minds, and in fublime fpeculations; while the children of Cain, feeking no farther than prefent convenience and pleasure, were taken up with improving agriculture, and inventing mechanical arts and mufical inftruments. For it is faid, that the offspring of Seth, by contemplation of the heavenly bodies, laid the foundations of the fcience of Elmacin. p. 6.

h Eutych. p. 20.

he divided them among his
fons, giving the skull to Shem,
who, coming into Judæa, re-
pofited it in the fepulchre of
Adam on Mount Calvary

(H) From whence he had her name, which is properly written Hawwah, and derived from the root haya, to live.

astronomy;