The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
so and so, and he died," are we to understand that, because it does
not name those sons and daughters, therefore, during that long term
of years over which one lifetime extended in those early days, there
might not have been born very many men, by whose united numbers not one
but several cities might have been built? But it suited the purpose of
God, by whose inspiration these histories were composed, to arrange
and distinguish from the first these two societies in their several
generations,--that on the one side the generations of men, that is to
say, of those who live according to man, and on the other side the
generations of the sons of God, that is to say, of men living according
to God, might be traced down together and yet apart from one another as
far as the deluge, at which point their dissociation and association
are exhibited: their dissociation, inasmuch as the generations of both
lines are recorded in separate tables, the one line descending from the
fratricide Cain, the other from Seth, who had been born to Adam instead
of him whom his brother slew; their association, inasmuch as the good
so deteriorated that the whole race became of such a character that it
was swept away by the deluge, with the exception of one just man, whose
name was Noah, and his wife and three sons and three daughters-in-law,
which eight persons were alone deemed worthy to escape from that
desolating visitation which destroyed all men.
Therefore, although it is written, "And Cain knew his wife, and
she conceived and bare Enoch, and he builded a city and called the
name of the city after the name of his son Enoch,"[158] it does not
follow that we are to believe this to have been his first-born; for
we cannot suppose that this is proved by the expression "he knew his
wife," as if then for the first time he had had intercourse with
her. For in the case of Adam, the father of all, this expression
is used not only when Cain, who seems to have been his first-born,
was conceived, but also afterwards the same Scripture says, "Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare a son, and called his
name Seth."[159] Whence it is obvious that Scripture employs this
expression neither always when a birth is recorded nor then only when
the birth of a first-born is mentioned. Neither is it necessary to
suppose that Enoch was Cain's first-born because he named his city
after him. For it is quite possible that though he had other sons,
yet for some reason the father loved him more than the rest. Judah
was not the first-born, though he gives his name to Judæa and the
Jews. But even though Enoch was the first-born of the city's founder,
that is no reason for supposing that the father named the city after
him as soon as he was born; for at that time he, being but a solitary
man, could not have founded a civic community, which is nothing else
than a multitude of men bound together by some associating tie.
But when his family increased to such numbers that he had quite a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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