Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/296

 224 Giants, and their not having had men for their fathers, is considered by good judges to be spurious.

Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah, after which he lived 300 years, and walked with God. The Septuagint makes it 165 years before the birth of Methuselah, and 200 afterwards. And it happened most appropriately, that in the seventh generation, Enoch, which means dedication, was taken from the world by God; for the communion of the elect, after labouring in God's cause during these six ages of the world, expect to obtain the glory of consecration in the seventh—their future sabbath.

But, because the reprobate are contented with their present happiness, Cain consecrates the city which he built, not in the seventh generation, but in his first-born son Enoch.

Methuselah was 187 years old when he begat Lamech, after whose birth he lived 782 years, i. e. till the time of the deluge. The Septuagint reckons 167 years before the birth of Lamech, and 802 afterwards. This number, as the reader will easily perceive, passes beyond the date of the deluge, by 20 years according to the Hebrew calculation, and 14 by their own system. On this famous question those learned fathers, Jerome and Augustine, have treated at length, the former in his book of Hebrew Questions; the latter in the fifteenth book of his work on "the City of God."

Lamech, at the age of 182 years, begat Noah, whose birth he outlived 595 years. The Septuagint calculates 188 years before Noah's birth, and 565 years afterwards. This is the only generation about the length of which