THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO
TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION
BY
M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.
CHAPTER III.
III. And it came to pass when men had begun to multiply on the earth, that beautiful daughters were born unto them. And the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were exceeding fair, and took them wives of all that they had chosen. Gen. 6:1
2. 1 And God said: My spirit shall not judge among these men for ever, because they are of flesh; but their years shall be 120. Upon whom he laid (or wherein I have set) the ends of the world, and in their hands wickednesses were not put out (or the law shall not be quenched). Gen. 6:5
3. And God saw that in all the dwellers upon earth works of evil were fulfilled: and inasmuch as their thought was upon iniquity all their days, God said: I will blot out man and all things that have budded upon the earth, for it repenteth me that I have made him.
4. But Noe found grace and mercy before theLord, and these are his generations. Noe, which was a righteous man and undefiled in his generation, Gen. 6:13 pleased the Lord. Unto whom God said: The time of all men that dwell upon the earth is come, for their deeds are very evil. And now make thee an ark of cedar wood, and thus shalt thou make it. 300 cubits shall be the length thereof, Gen. 6:18 and 50 cubits the breadth, and 30 cubits the height. And thou shall enter into the ark, thou and thy wife and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee. And I will make my covenant with thee, to destroy all the dwellers upon earth. Gen. 7:2-4 Now of clean beasts and of the fowls of the heaven that are clean thou shalt take by sevens male and female, that their seed may be saved alive upon the earth. But of unclean beasts and fowls thou shalt take to thee by twos male and female, Gen. 6:21 and shalt take provision for thee and for them also. Gen. 7:5, 7:7
5. And Noe did that which God commanded him and entered into the ark, he and all his sons with him. Gen. 7:10 And it came to pass after 7 days that the water of the flood began to be upon the earth. Gen. 7:11 And in that day all the depths were opened and the great spring of water and the windows of heaven, and there was rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
6. And it was then the 1652nd (1656th) year from the time when God had made the heaven and the earth in the day when the earth was corrupted with the inhabiters thereof by reason of the iniquity of their works.
7. And when the flood continued 140 days upon the earth, Noe only and they that were with him in the ark remained alive: and when God remembered Noe, he made the water to diminish. Gen. 8:16
8. And it came to pass on the 90th day that God dried the earth, and said unto Noe: Go out of the ark, thou and all that are with thee, and grow and multiply upon the earth. And Noe went out of the ark, he an d his sons and his sons' wives, and all the beasts and creeping things and fowls and cattle brought he forth with him as God commanded him. Then built Noe an altar unto the Lord, and took of all the cattle and of the clean fowls and offered burnt offerings on the altar: and it was accepted of the Lord for a savour of rest. Gen. 8:21
9. And God said: I will not again curse the earth for man's sake, for the guise of man's heart hath left off1 from his youth. And therefore I will not again destroy together all living as I have done. But it shall be, when the dwellers upon earth have sinned, I will judge them by famine or by the sword or by fire or by pestilence (lit. death), and there shall be earthquakes, and they shall be scattered into places not inhabited (or, the places of their habitation shall be scattered). But I will not again spoil the earth with the water of a flood, and in all the days of the earth seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and autumn, day and night shall not cease, until I remember them that dwell on the earth, even until the times are fulfilled. Gen. 8:22
10. 2 But when the years of the world shall be fulfilled, then shall the light cease and the darkness be quenched: and I will quicken the dead and raise up from the earth them that sleep: and Hell shall pay his debt and destruction give back that which was committed unto him, that I may render unto every man according to his works and according to the fruit of their imaginations, even until I judge between the soul and the flesh. And the world shall rest, and death shall be quenched, and Hell shall shut his mouth. And the earth shall not be without birth, neither barren for them that dwell therein: and none shall be polluted that hath been justified in me1. And there shall be another earth and another heaven, even an everlasting habitation. Gen. 9:8
11. And the Lord spake further unto Noe and to his sons saying: Behold I will make my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and will not again spoil the earth with the water of a flood. Gen. 9:2 And all that liveth and moveth therein shall be to you for meal. Nevertheless the flesh with the blood of the soul shall ye not eat. For he that sheddeth man's blood, his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God was man made. And ye, grow ye and multiply and fill the earth as the multitude of fishes that multiply in the waters. Gen. 9:12 And God said: This is the covenant that I have made betwixt me and you; and it shall be when I cover the heaven with clouds, that my bow shall appear in the cloud, and it shall be for a memorial of the covenant betwixt me and you, and all the dwellers upon earth.
Footnotes
79:1 III. 2. fin. See the variants, which are difficult to explain. If the reading et in manibus eorum scelera non extinguebantur is right, the clause would be better placed after opera malignitatum in the next verse. "And God saw that in all the inhabiters of the earth works of wickedness were fulfilled, and in their hands," etc. I have preferred the other reading, the whole sentence will then refer to the new race who are to arise after the Flood, and especially to Moses (see IX. 8 fin.): the last preceding words ("their years shall be 120") do certainly apply to them and to him. The antediluvians are to perish utterly. See on XVI. 3.
81:1 9. the guise of man's heart hath left off (figura cordis hominis desiit: Cohn suggests desipit) "ὁ Ἑβραῖοσ" (ap. Euseb. Emis. in Catena: see Field's Hexapla in loc.) has τὸ πλάσμα τῆσ καρδίασ ἀνθρώπου.
81:2 10. This is the first really characteristic passage.
82:1 that hath been justified in me. The word occurs in XLIX. 45 "Is Armathem iustificata more than all the cities of Israel?" and in LI. 2.
