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God therefore did not inflict
the punishment [of death] upon him, on account of his offering sacrifice, and
thereby making supplication to him not to be extreme in his wrath to him; but
he made him accursed, and threatened his posterity in the seventh generation.
He also cast him, together with his wife, out of that land. And when he was
afraid that in wandering about he should fall among Wild beasts, and by that
means perish, God bid him not to entertain such a melancholy suspicion, and to
go over all the earth without fear of what mischief he might suffer from wild
beasts; and setting a mark upon him, that he might be known, he commanded him
to depart.
2. And when Cain had traveled over many countries,
he, with his wife, built a city, named Nod, which is a place so called, and
there he settled his abode; where also he had children. However, he did not
accept of his punishment in order to amendment, but to increase his wickedness;
for he only aimed to procure every thing that was for his own bodily pleasure,
though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbors. He augmented his
household substance with much wealth, by rapine and violence; he excited his
acquaintance to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a great
leader of men into wicked courses.
He also introduced a change in
that way of simplicity wherein men lived before; and was the author of measures
and weights. And whereas they lived innocently and generously while they knew
nothing of such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness. He first of
all set boundaries about lands: he built a city, and fortified it with walls,
and he compelled his family to come together to it; and called that city Enoch,
after the name of his eldest son Enoch. Now Jared was the son of Enoch; whose
son was Malaliel; whose son was Mathusela; whose son was Lamech; who had
seventy-seven children by two wives, Silla and Ada.
Of those children by Ada, one
was Jabal: he erected tents, and loved the life of a shepherd. But Jubal, who
was born of the same mother with him, exercised himself in music;
(7) and invented the psaltery and the
harp. But Tubal, one of his children by the other wife, exceeded all men in
strength, and was very expert and famous in martial performances. He procured
what tended to the pleasures of the body by that method; and first of all
invented the art of making brass. Lamech was also the father of a daughter,
whose name was Naamah.
And because he was so skillful
in matters of divine revelation, that he knew he was to be punished for Cain's
murder of his brother, he made that known to his wives. Nay, even while Adam
was alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceeding wicked,
every one successively dying, one after another, more wicked than the
former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies; and if any one
were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his profligate behavior, in
acting unjustly, and doing injuries for gain.
3. Now Adam, who was
the first man, and made out of the earth, (for our discourse must now be about
him,) after Abel was slain, and Cain fled away, on account of his murder, was
solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement desire of children, he being two
hundred and thirty years old; after which time he lived other seven hundred,
and then died. He had indeed many other children, (8) but Seth in particular. As for the rest, it would be
tedious to name them; I will therefore only endeavor to give an account of
those that proceeded from Seth.
Now this Seth, when he was
brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good,
became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did
he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. (9) All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also
inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition,
without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died.
They also were the inventors
of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies,
and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were
sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed
at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and
quantity of water, they made two pillars, (10) the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed
their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be
destroyed by the flood, the pillar of 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.
Footnotes
(6) St. John's account of the reason why God accepted the
sacrifice of Abel, and rejected that of Cain; as also why Cain slew Abel, on
account of that his acceptance with God, - is much better than this of
Josephus: I mean, because
"Cain was of the
evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own
works were evil, and his brother's righteous." (1 John 3:12).
Josephus's reason seems to be
no better than a pharisaical notion or tradition.
(7) From this Jubal, not improbably, came Jobel, the trumpet
of jobel or jubilee; that large and loud musical instrument, used in
proclaiming the liberty at the year of jubilee.
(8) The number of Adam's children, as says the old tradition
was thirty-three sons, and twenty-three daughters.
(9) 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, [see ch. 2. sect. 1, before;
and ch. 3. sect. 1, hereafter,] is exactly agreeable to the state of the world
and the conduct of Providence in all the first ages.
(10) Of Josephus's mistake here, when he took Seth the son of
Adam, for Seth or Sesostris, king of Egypt, the erector of this pillar in the
land of Siriad, see Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, p. 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; nay, Seth's posterity might engrave their inventions in astronomy on
two such pillars; yet it is no way credible that they could survive the deluge,
which has 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, as is shown in the place here referred to.
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