Bede

This is the book of the generation of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God: He created them male and female, and He blessed them. This is the book of the first creation of man, which God made in His likeness, that he might be perpetually good, immortal, and happy by participation in His goodness. God created them male and female and blessed them with the grace of His blessing. Such was the generation of Adam with his wife on the day he was created. But alas! how grievous! He defiled the likeness of God by believing the enemy rather than the Creator; his firstborn contracted the heavier punishment of a curse by envying and killing his brother; the seventh from him, Lamech, corrupted the established law of male and female, of which it was said, "They shall be two in one flesh" (Gen. II, 24), by taking two wives and uniting three in one flesh. As evils increased everywhere, humanity so departed from the likeness of its Creator and the first blessing that by the tenth generation, except for a few whom the ark held, it deserved to be entirely destroyed. However, the Creator Himself granted that we might return to that likeness and blessing, being born and dying in the likeness of our nature, so that redeemed through Him, we might merit to say of Him: "We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John III, 2), and to hear from Him: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. XXV, 34).

And he called their names Adam on the day when they were created. Adam, like Enos, is interpreted as Man, but Enos is said to sound like Man in a way that only suits males: whereas Adam is able to be applied to both sexes; hence it is rightly said that he called their names Adam, that is, Man. Just as man in Latin derives the etymology of the name from soil because he derives the origin of his flesh from soil, so among the Hebrews Adam is named from the earth because man was formed from the clay of the earth; hence also Adam can be interpreted as Earthly, or red earth. Furthermore, among the Greeks, man has a different etymology: for he is called antropos, from the fact that he ought to look above and lift the eyes of the mind to view the heavens. Moreover, in the name Adam, apart from the interpretation which designates man, there is another mystery which ought not to be passed over in silence. For it has four letters: A, and D, and A, and M, from which letters the four quarters of the globe, when named in Greek, take their beginning. For among them the east is called anatole, the west is called dysis, the north is called arctos, and the south is called mesembria; and it was very fitting that the name of the first man should mystically contain all the regions of the world, through whose progeny the whole world was to be filled. But when it says, And he called their names Adam, and added, On the day when they were created, it clearly insinuates that on one and the same day, that is, the sixth day of the nascent world, Adam and his wife were made, and not that the wife was separately created from his side after the sixth or seventh day.

Adam lived for one hundred and thirty years, and he begot a son in his own likeness and image, and he named him Seth. Adam indeed was created in the likeness and image of God, because he was made immortal in both soul and body. However, after he corrupted the image and likeness of God in himself by sinning, he begot a son in his own likeness and image, that is, mortal, corruptible, capable of reason, bound by the guilt of his transgression, and to be freed only by the grace of his Creator. It should be noted that where our Codices, translated from the Hebrew source, say Adam lived for one hundred and thirty years and begot Seth, the ancient translation has, instead of one hundred and thirty, two hundred and thirty; where our Codices continue, "And the days of Adam after he begot Seth were eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters," that one has seven hundred instead of eight hundred. And where it concludes, "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died," it places the same total, and such a distinction of numbers is preserved in all generations up to the flood between the two editions, so that before the birth of a son each one in the Septuagint is said to have had one hundred years more, and after the birth one hundred years less than in the Hebrew truth. But in the conclusion, both editions place an equal number; except only in the sixth generation; where in both Codices, Jared is found to have begotten Enoch at one hundred and sixty-two years, and after his birth to have lived eight hundred years: and in the ninth, where, according to the Hebrew truth, Lamech begot Noah when he was one hundred and eighty years old, and after he was born, he is found to have survived for five hundred and ninety-five years. However, in the Septuagint, the years before Noah was born are found to be one hundred and eighty-eight, and after he was born, five hundred sixty-five; thus it happens that Lamech is found to have lived twenty-four years longer in Hebrew than in the Septuagint Codices: by which difference of interpretations, it is made that the lifetime of Methuselah seems to extend fourteen years beyond the flood, and so the years before the flood according to the Hebrews are one thousand five hundred and fifty-six; according to the Septuagint, which the chronographers follow, two thousand two hundred and forty-two: although the most learned Augustine professes that even in the Septuagint translation, Methuselah is found in fewer but more accurate Codices to have died six years before the flood: who, when he most diligently investigated the cause of the aforementioned discord in interpretations, and did not wish to derogate from the faith of the Septuagint translators, whom the apostles and evangelists are proven to have followed in many places; and he himself believed they used more a prophetic gift than the office of interpretation in translating the Scriptures; he concluded in this way, saying: "Therefore it is more credible for someone to say that when these first began to be copied from the library of Ptolemy; at that time, something like this could have happened in one Codex, but first copied from there, from which it spread more widely, where indeed the error of the scribe could have happened. However, it is not absurd to suspect this in that question about the life of Methuselah." And after some: "I would not doubt at all that it is rightly done, he says, when something different is found in both Codices, since both cannot be according to the faith of the transactions, that the truth be believed rather to the language from which it is translated into another by interpreters." Therefore, according to Hebrew truth, Adam lived one hundred and thirty years and begot Seth. Seth lived one hundred and five years and begot Enos. Enos lived ninety years and begot Cainan. Cainan lived eighty years and begot Mahalalel. Mahalalel lived sixty-five years and begot Jared. Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years and begot Enoch.

Furthermore, Enoch lived sixty-five years and begot Methuselah, and walked with God. After he begot Methuselah, he lived for three hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. It is said that he walked with God. He followed God's will and precepts in all things, with God dwelling in him, possessing, and ruling over his heart, he performed good works outwardly, according to that of the prophet: "I will show you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: certainly to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). And as Zachariah says: "I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk in His name, says the Lord" (Zachariah 10:12). However, it is not said that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years after Methuselah was born, as if he had not obeyed divine commands even before his birth; but rather by this sentence, it simply indicates that he did not serve God with good work for more than three hundred years after Methuselah's birth in this life. But after these years were completed, he followed God to the further joys of life. For it continues:

And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, and he walked with God, and he was not, because God took him. It is said most beautifully, that he who had walked with God in this life by obeying His commandments, walked afterwards with Him by passing from this life into another, where he would live in the greatest peace and happiness of flesh and spirit: whom however the faith of the universal Church holds to return before the day of judgment, that is, at the imminent advent of the Antichrist, with Elijah for the conversion of this age, so that by the authority and doctrine of such great men, the hearts of men might be instructed and strengthened to endure and overcome the persecution of that son of perdition; and then, having completed their martyrdom, to consent to the joys of immortal life, according to what the Lord says in the Apocalypse to John: And I will give to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth (Rev. 11:3), that is, for three and a half years living in great continence and struggle. And shortly after: And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the abyss will make war against them, and will conquer them, and kill them (Ibid., 7). We have said previously, by anticipation, that just as Lamech in the seventh generation from Adam, who was cursed, signifies the destruction of the reprobate, which they find in the future age where they ought to have hoped for rest, so Enoch, who was translated in the seventh generation from the world, demonstrates the true rest of the elect, which they receive without end after the labors of this life, which pass through six ages. Hence it is rightly read that Lamech took two wives against the decree of Him who said: "The two shall be one flesh," and from them begot offspring dedicated to worldly deeds and allurements, and thus, by committing murder, was cursed by the sentence of his own mouth. Furthermore, it is stated that Enoch walked with God. What greater praise could there be for a man? None, since he is an inseparable companion, following in all deeds the footsteps of the divine command: if Adam had done this, he would not have turned his foot away from the company of the Creator to hear the serpent's speech, and would still be in paradise with his entire race. The fact that all the days of Enoch are said to be three hundred and sixty-five years, the number of days in a solar year, mystically signifies that throughout the whole of this world's time, those who serve the Lord faithfully and strive towards eternal rest will never fall short. Nor is it by chance that three hundred years are specially mentioned, in which Enoch is particularly reported to have walked with God. For this number among the Greeks is usually marked by the letter T. The letter T indeed holds the figure of the cross; and if it had received the single point missing in the middle, it would no longer be merely the figure of the cross but would be depicted as the clear sign of the cross itself. Enoch therefore walked with God, who is called Dedication, for three hundred years; for he certainly expressed, rather he himself enacted, the life and behavior of those who, in faith of the Lord's passion, look forward to the joy of eternal salvation, denying themselves, taking up their cross daily, and following the Lord: which is to say in other words, walking with God, and aiming for the entrance of paradise. It is to be noted, however, that while Scripture extends the progeny of Seth up to Noah, and then to Abraham with such distinction, it describes the lineage of Cain up to Lamech and his children without any mention of ages, as if tacitly intimating to us the saying of the Psalmist: For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish (Psalm 1:6).

Methuselah also lived one hundred eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. Lamech lived one hundred eighty-two years, and begot Noah, saying: "He will comfort us from our works and labors of our hands on the earth which the Lord has cursed." Lamech foresaw in prophetic spirit what kind of person his son would be, of what great virtue he would be, and that in his days the nation of the impious would be exterminated, and that through him, after the flood, the generation of the faithful would be restored. But the works and labors of the hands, which he said, I believe he wanted not to be understood as anything other than those by which the progeny of the elect were oppressed at that time by the wickedness of the evil; he declared that his and their consolation, when the world, which was then lost by the flood, all things of the world and its inhabitants being removed from the midst, would foresee a new race of the just to be born. For even at this time, the consolation of the good is when they see the approaching day of judgment with the ruins of the world increasing, in which, the entirety of the wicked being consumed, they themselves will possess with the Lord the new kingdoms of the future age. But for what our edition has as "he will comfort," the ancient interpreters said: "He will make us rest from our works," which seems to fit the name Noah better. For Noah indeed means Rest. In which, according to the letter, it can be understood that in his times all past works of men rested through the flood. According to the spiritual sense, however, the same rest is which is also the consolation of the saints, namely to behold, with the end of the world approaching, both the destruction of the impious, and their own time of rewards at hand. But Noah, in whose merits a rest and consolation was to be given to the world by the Lord devoutly, is born in the tenth generation from Adam: because clearly, through the fulfillment of the Decalogue of the law, eternal rest and life are granted to us. When Scripture says he begot him well, it by no means wished to name his one son, lest in a perfect man the number eleven, as if a transgression of ten, should appear to have any place, but speaking mystically about a man of virtue, it reports that three sons were born to him together.

And when men began to multiply on the earth and had daughters, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. "Men" means the offspring of Cain, who, turned away from the view of divine will, subjected their mind solely to human affairs: "sons of God", however, refers to those who were born from the lineage of Seth, who, following the example of their father's devotion, preserved with an inviolate mind the service they owed to God. By this distinction, the Lord in the Gospel also separated His disciples from the rest, saying, "Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" (Matthew 16:13). And having received their answer, He said, "But who do you say that I am?" evidently wanting them to be understood as superior to men and to be counted among those of whom He Himself said: "I have said, You are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High" (Psalm 82:6). Some manuscripts have "angels of God" instead of "sons of God," which is obviously taken in the same sense. For the angels of God are rightly called righteous men, who according to the measure of their capacity strive to live an angelic life on earth: to such the Apostle says, "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit" (Romans 8:9). And again: "For our conversation is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20). Therefore, it seems that the generation of the lineage of Seth, as long as it was not mingled with the offspring of Cain, preserved the norm of its chastity untainted; but after it fell into concupiscence and joined the cursed offspring of wicked women, it also began to share in the curse with the corrupted decency of its sober mind. Hence, in the law it is diligently and carefully commanded to the sons of Israel, not to intermarry with foreigners, because, it says, “his daughter will seduce your son to follow their gods” (Deuteronomy 7:4).

And God said, "My Spirit shall not remain in man forever, because he is flesh; and his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." Saint Jerome, explaining these verses, says, "It is written in Hebrew: My Spirit shall not judge these men forever, because they are flesh; that is, because human nature is fragile, I will not condemn them to eternal torment; but here I will render to them what they deserve. Therefore, it denotes not the severity, as it is read in our texts, but the clemency of God, while a sinner is punished here for his crime: hence also an angry God speaks to some: I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery (Hos. IV). And in another place: I will punish their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes; nevertheless, I will not take my mercy away from them (Ps. LXXXIX)." Moreover, lest He seem to be cruel in not giving sinners a place for repentance, He added: "And his days shall be one hundred and twenty years" (Gen. VI), that is, they will have one hundred and twenty years to repent; but because they despised repentance, God did not want to wait for the appointed time, but cutting short the span of twenty years, He brought the flood in the hundredth year appointed for repentance.

He said to Noah: The end of all flesh has come before me; the earth is filled with iniquity because of them, and I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of smoothed wood, etc. The diverse form in the construction of the ark and the imminent flood contains a mystery. First, as the Lord himself showed by the sudden inundation of the flood, the unexpected hour of the last judgment is signified: "And as it was, he says, in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all" (Matthew 24:38). For the construction of the ark, which took a hundred years, signifies the entire period of this age, during which the holy church is also built and brought to its perfect end. There is no doubt that the hundred-year number signifies perfection, either because it is filled by ten decades, or because it moves from the left to the right, expressing an action which takes place in this life as though on the left, but will be consummated in the future life as on the right. But as the ark was made, and with everything that was to be saved brought into it, the flood came and took away all that was outside it; so, when all those who are predestined to eternal life have entered the church, the end of the world will come and all those found outside the church will perish; and according to this understanding, the ark clearly signifies the church, Noah signifies the Lord who builds the church with his saints, and the flood signifies the end of the age or the final judgment. However, aside from the construction of the ark, even in Noah, because his name means rest, and he was to give rest or comfort to men, it was prefigured that men would rest from the works and labors of their hands on the earth, which the Lord cursed, holding the image of the Lord Savior. For he consoles us through the illumination of his Spirit, who is therefore called the Paraclete, that is, the comforter. He has rescued us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us. He calls the weary to rest: "Come to me, he says, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28). He truly was the just and perfect man through all generations, that is, in every congregation of saints, as he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. According to another equally pious and catholic interpretation, the ark signifies the church, the flood signifies the water of baptism, by which the church itself is washed and sanctified in all its members, as the apostle Peter explains, saying: "When the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water, which also saves you now, a baptism of similar fashion, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:20). That he says we are saved in baptism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ briefly explains what the number of eight souls saved through water mystically signifies. For the day of the Lord's resurrection is indeed the third day from his passion, but the eighth from the day of the first creation. Some Fathers often interpret the waves of the flood as the trials of this age, by which the holy church is daily struck but not overcome; rather, by being tested through these trials, it is more elevated from earthly desires to seek heavenly things. Whatever is outside it is killed by the same temptations of the world, just as it is said that multiplying and mightily flooding waters on the surface of the earth lifted the ark above the land; whatever was outside the ark perished. This exposition aligns with the parable of the two houses from the Lord, one built on rock, the other on sand; when equally struck by rain, winds, and floods, the one founded on the rock of faith was tested by temptations; the one that placed its hope in the fleeting pleasures of this life, like on sands, was shaken. For what the builder Noah is to the ark, the foundation rock is to the house of faith; and what the corrupt mind of giants bent to earth is outside the ark, this is expressed by the sand gathered in the house of unbelief. Therefore, let the ark signify the church, the flood the font of baptism by which it is washed, the waves the temptations of the world by which it is tested, the end in which it is crowned. Moreover, the builder of the ark Noah typically denotes either the Lord and Savior himself or any devoted ruler of the same holy church.