The combined ages of seven patriarchs equal a sum five hundred years greater than the time that has elapsed from the creation of the world to the present time. 2. "Every one that findeth me shall slay me" (Gen. iv, 14). "And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him" (15). "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod" (16). "And Cain knew his wife: and she conceived, and bare Enoch; and he [Cain] builded a city" (17). Cain, believing that he had a plurality of lives, and fearing that every one who found him would take one, appealed to God, who set a mark on him so that his father and mother, the only persons in existence besides himself, would know him. Then going out from the presence of Omnipresence, he went to a country where nobody lived, married a wife, and built a city with a population of three inhabitants. 3. "And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years.... And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years" (Gen. v, 25-27). "And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah" (28, 29). "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened" (vii, 11). "And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth" (viii, 13). "And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years" (ix, 28, 29). When the Flood began Noah was 599 years (one month and seventeen days) old; when it ended he was exactly 600 years old. It is commonly supposed that Methuselah died before the Flood. If the foregoing passages be correct, he did not, as will be shown by the following: 1. From the birth of Lamech to the beginning of the Flood was 182 years + 599 = 781 years; and from the birth of Lamech to the end of the Flood was 182 years + 600 years = 782 years. If Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years, he lived until the end of the Flood. 2. From the birth of Methuselah to the beginning of the Flood was 187 years + 182 years + 599 years = 968 years. From the birth of Methuselah to the end of the Flood was 187 years + 182 years + 600 years = 969 years. At the commencement of the Flood he was but 968 years old, and not until the end of it was he 969. 3. From the birth of Methuselah to the death of Noah was 187 years + 182 years + 950 years = 1319 years. As Noah died 350 years after the Flood, from the birth of Methuselah to the end of the Flood was 1319 years - 350 years = 969 years. If he lived 969 years, he lived until the end of the Flood.