Early Church Fathers
1 "carptim": such seems to be the meaning of the word here, as Sigonius has noted. His words are "Carptum-profecto innuit se non singulas res eodem modo persecuturum, sed quae memoratudigniores visae fuerint, selecturum."
1 Sulpitius follows the Greek version, which ascribes many more years to the fathers of mankind than does the original Hebrew.
2 Many of the ancients (among whom our author is apparently to be reckoned) believed that Paradise was situated outside our world altogether.
3 An obvious mistake. The first city was built, not by Enoch but by Cain. Gen. iv. 17.
4 After the LXX, as usual.
5 Not of birds only, but other animals also. Gen. viii. 20.
6 This is the Nimrod of the A. V.; he is called Nebrod by the LXX. We have, for the most part, given the proper names as they appear in the edition of Halm.
7 Such is the form of the name as given by Halm, though Abram would be expected.
8 The LXX has xw/ra, instead of Ur.
9 A most improbable statement.
10 In the Greek of the LXX. the name appears as Abraam, so that, as our author says, there is only a change of one letter.
11 "juvinilis aetatis": the meaning is that he ceased to be a mere adolescens, and had reached the flower of his age.
12 So in LXX.
13 This is the meaning of the Hebrew word, Beersheba.
14 "Titulum sibi domus Dei futurum": the rendering of the Hebrew original is here obviously faulty, and the words, as they stand, are scarcely intelligible.
15 ei!dwla is the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew word Teraphim. Perhaps the original word should simply be transliterated into English as has been done in the Revised Version.
16 The rendering of the LXX.
18 "Latitudo": Vorstius says this refers to the broad bone, or broad nerve of the thigh.
19 "In parte turris Gadir": this is a strange rendering of the Hebrew. The LXX. has "beyond the tower Gader": while the Revised English Version has "beyond the tower of Eder."
21 Called Shuah in A.V.
22 Or perhaps, rather, marriage of a sort, as appears from what follows.
23 A different reading gives, "was born on the following day."
24 The chronology of the LXX is, as usual, here followed.
25 The original is, "quibus benedictis, cum tamen benedictionis merito majori minorem praeposuisset, filios omnes benedictione lustravit."
26 This somewhat remarkable statement by the text of Halm, who reads, "lege naturae." But other editions have "legem naturae," and the meaning will then be "who had learned the law of nature, and the knowledge of God," &c.
28 Such is Halm's reading; another is simply "before."
29 The Hebrew text has "seventy," but our author, as usual, follows the LXX.
30 Again after the LXX.
31 The text here is uncertain and obscure.
33 This is a somewhat strange description of the manna. Hornius remarks upon it that there may be a reference to the dew in which the Hebrews believed the manna to have been enveloped, but that seems a far-fetched explanation.
34 These words denote what is expressed in the Greek, "rulers of thousands, of hundreds, and of tens."