The extent of the _first_, or Antediluvian age, is ascertained from the text of Genesis, v. 3–32, and vii. 6, by summing up the ages at which the Patriarchs begat their eldest sons, including the date of the flood from that of Noah. This amount is, according to the Hebrew text, 1656 years; according to the Septuagint version, 2262 years; and according to the Samaritan Pentateuch, 1307 years. This astonishing discrepancy, which is found in all the codices of the three texts, is a Gordian knot, which has puzzled the Christian Church for more than fifteen centuries! The difference of the three computations is the more remarkable, inasmuch as all the three texts are considered to have been very carefully preserved! The Samaritan Pentateuch rivals the Hebrew text in point of antiquity, and is reckoned by some to be the nearest to the true Mosaic text; while, the Septuagint version is rendered almost sacred, by the authority of the Apostles and the early Fathers of the Church. Which then, is the true computation? So difficult of solution was this question deemed in the middle ages, that chronographers, in order to reconcile the difference between the Hebrew and the Septuagint, even argued the possibility of both texts _being equally correct_! The Hebrew computation, however, has been followed in modern times chiefly on the authority of the Latin vulgate, which is said to have been translated by St. Jerome. The Samaritan computation has had comparatively few supporters; while that of the Septuagint, which was universally followed by the ancient chronographers and historians, both sacred and profane, has never been wholly abandoned by the Church even to the present day.