Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of Chapter V
The genealogy of Adam is woven through Seth down to Noah, and this for three reasons: First, so that through it the chronology of the world may be established, and its propagation down to us; hence it is traced through Seth, for we all descend from Seth -- for all the other sons and descendants of Adam perished in the flood. Second, so that we may see that God at all times preserved His Church, His worship, and piety in some people, as here He preserved it in Seth and his descendants. Third, so that the genealogy of Christ from Noah to Adam may be established, about which Luke writes in chapter III, verse 35.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 5:1-32
1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2. Male and female He created them, and blessed them; and He called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. 3. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own image and likeness, and called his name Seth. 4. And the days of Adam after he begot Seth were eight hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters. 5. And all the time that Adam lived was nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. 6. And Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enos. 7. And Seth lived after he begot Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. 8. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. 9. And Enos lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. 10. After whose birth he lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and begot sons and daughters. 11. And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he died. 12. And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Malaleel. 13. And Cainan lived after he begot Malaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begot sons and daughters. 14. And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died. 15. And Malaleel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. 16. And Malaleel lived after he begot Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. 17. And all the days of Malaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died. 18. And Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Henoch. 19. And Jared lived after he begot Henoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 20. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. 21. Moreover, Henoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Mathusalem. 22. And he walked with God; and he lived after he begot Mathusala three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 23. And all the days of Henoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24. And he walked with God, and was seen no more, because God took him. 25. And Mathusala lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. 26. And Mathusala lived after he begot Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begot sons and daughters. 27. And all the days of Mathusala were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. 28. And Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son. 29. And he called his name Noah, saying: "This one shall comfort us from our works and the labors of our hands, in the land which the Lord has cursed." 30. And Lamech lived after he begot Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and begot sons and daughters. 31. And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. And Noah, when he was five hundred years old, begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Verse 1: The Book of the Generations of Adam
"Book" -- a catalog, narration, enumeration of the generations from Adam to Noah; for this is the Hebrew sepher, from the root saphar, that is, "he numbered, he counted." In the same sense Matthew chapter I calls it a book, that is, a catalog of the generation, or genealogy, of Christ.
"In the likeness of God" -- in His own image. For Hebrews often put the antecedent in place of the relative.
Verse 2: He Called Their Name Adam
HE CALLED THEIR NAME ADAM -- from the Hebrew Adama, as if to say, He called them "man" from "earth," from which He created them. Eve therefore is also Adam, that is, "man." God gave one name to both, so that the spouses might know that they are, as it were, one man in two bodies, and that they ought to be united in soul and will, just as they are united in name. Second, by the name Adam they are reminded that they are children of the earth -- lowly, clay-made, fragile, mortal, and destined to return to the earth. Remember, Adam, that you are adama, that is, earth and dust, and to dust you shall return.
Verse 3: He Begot in His Image
HE BEGOT (a son) IN HIS OWN IMAGE AND LIKENESS -- that is, in all things like himself, not in original sin, as Calvin explains, but in nature, namely in the human body and in the rational soul, in which Seth, equally as Adam, was the image of God. See what was said at chapter I, 27.
Verse 5: Adam Lived Nine Hundred and Thirty Years
ADAM, NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS, AND HE DIED. Note first: From Adam to the flood, through Seth there are ten generations, and this is the first age of the world.
Note second: These years were of twelve months, as ours are, as is clear from Genesis VIII, 5; for if they had been monthly, as some would have it -- that is, if one year had been only one month, containing thirty days -- it would follow that those who are read here to have begotten children at age 75 begot them in the 75th month, and consequently begot them in the 7th year of their age; all moreover would have died before the age of 82, which even today not a few people surpass. So St. Jerome and St. Augustine, book XV of The City of God, chapter XIII. I grant that among the ancient Egyptians the year was monthly. For this is reported by Diodorus Siculus, book I; Varro as cited in Lactantius, book II, chapter XIII; Plutarch in his Life of Numa; St. Augustine, book XII of The City of God, chapter XX; and Proclus in his Commentary on the Timaeus, book I, page 33: "The Egyptians," he says, "called the month a year." But you will find nothing of the sort regarding the ancient Hebrews.
Third, from the Hebrew text and from our Latin version it is clear that from Adam to the flood 1,656 years elapsed. So St. Jerome, Bede, and St. Augustine cited above. Therefore in the Septuagint, which counts 2,242 years (according to the edition corrected by Cardinal Caraffa), an error crept in; for this number exceeds the truth by 586 years. St. Augustine suspects that some half-learned person changed the number in the Septuagint, because he thought that monthly years should be understood here; for it seemed unusual and paradoxical that men then lived 900 full years. But because that same person in turn saw that it could be objected to him: if the years were monthly, then those who are said to have begotten at the hundredth year actually begot in the eighth year by our reckoning -- hence, to escape this difficulty, he put 200 for 100.
Fourth, Adam died in the 57th year of Lamech, the father of Noah, 726 years before the flood, and he saw the propagation and corruption of the entire human race descended from him. St. Irenaeus adds, book V, chapter XXXII, that Adam died on the sixth day of the week, a Friday; because on that same day Adam was created and sinned. For God had said to him: "In whatever day you eat of it, you shall die the death"; therefore he died on Friday, the day on which he also sinned. But that threat...
The Alexandrian translators partly agree and partly disagree with the Hebrew manuscripts on the number of years. They agree if you consider the total years of life; they disagree in how they divide them. For they assume that no one could beget offspring before the one hundred and fiftieth year. Hence, while the Hebrews assign to Adam 130 years before begetting Seth and 800 after, the Greeks put 230 before Seth and only 700 after. The total years of life come out equal: 930. Likewise the Hebrews assign to Seth 105 years before begetting Enoch, the Greeks 205. On the contrary, the Samaritan assumes that no one could become a father after the one hundred and fiftieth year, and divides the years which the fathers are said to have lived according to this principle.
The threat of God has another sense, as I said above. Eve, if we believe Marianus Scotus, lived ten years after her husband, and died in the year of her life and of the world 940.
Fifth, the tradition is that Adam was buried in Hebron. Jacob of Edessa, who was the teacher of St. Ephrem, reports (as cited by Bar-Cephas, book I, chapter XIV) that Noah reverently received Adam's bones into the ark, and after the flood distributed them among his children, and gave to Shem, whom he preferred above the others, the skull of Adam, and with it Judea. So great was the care and honor of burial among the patriarchs, on account of the immortality of souls, which they set before themselves with certain faith and hope. Hence it is the common opinion of the Fathers that the skull of Adam was buried on Mount Calvary, so that there it might be watered, washed, and vivified by the blood of Christ crucified. Hear among others Tertullian, book II of his Poem against Marcion, chapter IV:
Golgotha is the place, once named from a skull:
Here is the center of the earth, here is the sign of victory,
A great bone our ancestors taught was found here,
Here we have received that the first man was buried,
Here Christ suffers, the earth is soaked with His holy blood,
So that the dust of old Adam, mingled with the blood of Christ,
Might be washed by the power of the dripping water.
Finally, Adam and Eve had their sin forgiven, as is clear from Wisdom X, verse 2. Understand this insofar as this sin was personal to them, but not insofar as it was a sin of nature, or of the whole human race; for in this way this sin is original to us, and is transmitted to all the posterity of Adam by birth, and in this respect it is irremissible.
Adam and Eve were saved. Add that the tradition is that Adam and Eve were saved, which is so certain that Epiphanius, Philastrius, Augustine and others condemn the Encratites, who deny this, for error. See Alphonsus a Castro under the word "Adam."
Wherefore St. Athanasius (Oration on the Passion), Augustine here (Question 161), Origen (Tractate 35 on Matthew), and others teach that Adam, among the other Saints -- indeed before others -- rose again with Christ, Matthew chapter XXVII, verse 53.
You may ask, why were men so long-lived at that time? Pererius gives various causes: first, the primal goodness of the bodily constitution and temperament in the first men; second, their sobriety, which was so great that they used neither meat nor wine; third, the original vigor of the earth, of its fruits and foods, which at the beginning of their creation were far more life-giving, juicier, and more potent than now, when they are exhausted; fourth, the knowledge of Adam, which he communicated to others, by which he knew the powers of herbs, fruits, metals, etc. better than our physicians; fifth, the benign aspect, conjunction, and influence of the stars; sixth, the will and hidden cooperation of God, and this for the purpose that men might be propagated more quickly, and through long experience might thoroughly learn all sciences and arts, and so that the first men might hand down faith in the creation of things, and the knowledge and worship of God, to even the most remote posterity. Hence Lipomanus attributes this longevity more to a miracle of God than to nature.
Note: None of these patriarchs reached the thousandth year, so that we may see that even the longest life in this world is not even a point compared to eternity. For a thousand years in the sight of God are as yesterday which has passed, Psalm LXXXIX, 4.
"And He Died"
This is added for each, so that you may see how effective was the sentence of death pronounced by God upon Adam when he sinned, and upon his posterity, chapter III, verse 19; for as the Wise Man says in Ecclesiasticus XIV, 12: "This is the testament of this world: he shall die the death." Therefore let each of us reflect: Of me too it will shortly be said: "And he died." This is, or will be, the emblem of me and of everyone; this the epitaph: Cornelius lived so many years, and in such a year he died. "He easily despises all things, who always thinks that he is about to die," says St. Jerome, epistle 103.
The emperor Severus, according to Dio of Nicaea in his Life, had an urn prepared for himself in which to be buried, and frequently handling it said: "You will hold a man whom the whole world could not hold"; and he did this to retain the memory of death.
For the same reason, St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, ordered a tomb to be built for himself, but left unfinished; and on solemn feast days, in the sight of many, he wished the workmen to say to him: "Your tomb, Lord, is still unfinished; command therefore that it be completed at last; for it is uncertain at what hour death will come." So Leontius in his Life. "It is uncertain," says Seneca, epistle 26, "in what place death awaits you; therefore do you await it in every place. As we go to sleep, let us say cheerfully and gladly: I have lived, and the course which You gave, gracious God, I have finished." Learn therefore to die: think upon eternity. O eternity! how long you are, eternity; how eternal, how constant, eternity!
Verse 12: Cainan and Mahalalel
"And Cainan Lived Seventy Years, and Begot Malaleel."
Malaleel, or as the Hebrew has it, Mahalalel, means "one who praises God"; for halal means "to praise," and el means "God." Either because the son was constantly praising God and was therefore called Mahalalel; or because the father Cainan so named him at birth, in order to rouse both himself and his son to constant praise of God, so that every time he would name and call his son Mahalalel, he would, as it were, say Hallelujah, that is, "praise God," or more precisely hallel el, that is, "praise the mighty God."
In the ten generations which are listed here, full years are always assigned, as if the men begot children at the completion of a whole year, at the beginning of the next, or died at that point; although it can scarcely be doubted that the times of begetting and death were various, and occurred in various months indiscriminately. Therefore it must be concluded that no account was taken of the months lacking or exceeding in a year, whence it is clear that an entirely accurate chronology cannot be gathered from these data.
Verse 22: Enoch Walked with God
22. "Enoch walked with God" -- as if to say, Enoch lived so holily and piously that he always had God present before his eyes and revered Him, and therefore in every work he always proceeded most cautiously, most modestly, and most religiously, and was consenting to God and to God's will in all things, just as a man walking everywhere and inseparably with a friend or with his master, consents to him in all things and conforms himself to him in everything. The Septuagint translates it: "Enoch pleased God," namely more than other men, even the just and holy ones of that age.
The Jerusalem Targum translates it: "Enoch served in truth before the Lord"; the Arabic: "Enoch walked uprightly before God"; the Chaldean: "And Enoch walked in the fear of God." For this reason the Lord took and carried him away to Himself, as one too lofty for the earth, worthy of God and the angels -- indeed, intimate with them.
Hence some Jews thought that Enoch was an incarnate angel. Hugo the Cardinal says: The humble penitents walk after the Lord; with the Lord, the holy prelates and governors; before the Lord, the pious preachers, as St. John the Baptist; from the Lord, the apostates and those who serve their own will and pleasure; against the Lord, the proud and rebellious, as the Jews in Leviticus XXVI, 2.
Some add that "to walk with God" signifies being in the public ministry of God and performing the priestly office. For thus God says of Eli the High Priest, I Kings II, 30: "Speaking I spoke, that your house and the house of your father should minister in My sight" -- in Hebrew, "should walk before Me." And verse 35: "I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, etc. And he shall walk before My Anointed all days." For it is the duty of priests to be constantly engaged with God in prayers, sacrifices, and sacred functions; for they are the angels and mediators between God and men, and there is no doubt that Enoch, as head of the family, was a priest.
It is a great art to know how to walk with God -- to have Him present everywhere, to join oneself to Him, to obey Him in all things, to converse with Him often, to implore His help, to depend on Him, to be governed by Him, to be wholly united to Him. He who walks with God walks well with men; he who walks only with men walks well neither with God nor with men.
Thus St. Paul, the first hermit, walked with God, dwelling in the desert from the 15th year of his age to the 115th, whose soul at death St. Antony saw carried up to heaven among the choirs of Angels, among the assemblies of Prophets and Apostles.
St. Antony himself followed him, whom the rising sun often found standing in the same spot and gazing toward heaven, where the setting sun had left him, as St. Athanasius attests.
Thus Macarius dwelt in the heavens with God, and used to say to himself: "You have Angels, Archangels, all the heavenly powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, God the maker of all these; dwell there, do not descend below the heavens, do not fall into worldly thoughts." Palladius is witness to this in the Lausiac History, chapter XX.
Thus Anuph, in the same author, chapter XV: "No desire for any other thing," he says, "rose in my heart except for God. God hid nothing of earthly things from me; I did not sleep during the day, nor rest at night, seeking God; I received every petition from God immediately. I often saw myriads attending upon God; I saw the choirs of the just. I saw the multitude of Martyrs; I saw the rule of life of monks; and the work of all praised God. I saw the just rejoicing for eternity."
Thus Simeon Stylites walked with God, and John, Macedonius, Marcian, Ephrem, and countless others, about whom Evagrius writes in the Lives of the Fathers, and Theodoret in the Philotheus. O how happy were these earthly angels!
Enoch was therefore a prophet, and he wrote certain divine things, which St. Jude cites in his epistle; but the Book of Enoch has perished. For the one which St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Origen, and Tertullian saw is spurious and apocryphal.
Verse 24: He Was Seen No More
24. "And he was seen no more, because the Lord took him." -- Calvin, following Aben Ezra and the Jews, thinks that Enoch died gently and peacefully, and that soon after death his soul was translated to heaven, but that he did not see God until Christ ascended into heaven; and thus that Enoch is now immortal, and will no longer return to us or die. But all of these things are false and erroneous. First, because if Enoch had died, Scripture would have said of him, as of all the others: "And he died." Second, because it is said here of him that God "took" him -- that is, carried him away alive -- whence the Septuagint translates it: "God transferred him." Hence also Ecclesiasticus chapter XLIV, verse 16, asserts that Enoch was not dead but translated into paradise so that he might give the nations repentance; therefore Enoch still lives, and will return to us to oppose the Antichrist and to preach to the nations. Third, because St. Paul expressly says, Hebrews XI, 5: "Enoch was translated, that he should not see death." Fourth, the Fathers commonly teach this, as Delrio and Pererius cite them.
From what has been said it follows first that Enoch was translated into the earthly paradise, which before the flood still existed; for that is what is understood when paradise is named without qualification, as Ecclesiasticus names it when he says that Enoch was translated into it. Therefore when St. Ambrose, in the book On Paradise, chapter III, says that Enoch was caught up into heaven, understand that Enoch was lifted from the earth into the air, and through the air was translated into paradise; nor did Tertullian mean anything else when, in the book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter LVIII, he said that Enoch and Elijah were translated from the world; for by "the world" he means this earth inhabited and cultivated by men.
The Wise Man indicates the cause of his translation, Wisdom chapter IV, verse 10. First, because he was beloved of God and lived as a good man among the wicked; hence he was caught up, lest wickedness should change his understanding. Again, he was caught up because he walked with God, and therefore was worthy of paradise and of the continual contemplation of God. Third, he was caught up so that he might return and give the nations repentance, just as Elijah will give it to his Jews; for this is what is said of him in Ecclesiasticus chapter XLVIII, verse 10: "You who are written down for the judgments of the times, to appease the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob." Fourth, he was caught up so that by his rapture he might show what Adam lost by sinning; for in the same way we would all in our time have been translated without death, if we had remained in innocence. Fifth, the Lord took him to confirm the faith of the patriarchs in the future life, as if to say: From this very fact recognize that I have another life, and a better one, in which I will reward the Saints.
It follows second that it is next to an article of faith that Enoch, equally as Elijah, have not yet died. Hence Tertullian, in the book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter LVIII, calls them candidates for eternity: "Candidates for eternity," he says, "they learn immunity of the flesh from all vice, from all harm, from all injury and insult." And Irenaeus, book V, chapter V, calls them "those who share the first beginnings of immortality," that is, receiving its omen and, as it were, its foreshadowing.
It follows third that Enoch and Elijah do not have glorified but mortal bodies, and therefore will die. Hence Tertullian in the passage cited above: "Enoch," he says, "and Elijah have not yet been discharged by resurrection, because they have not undergone death." Therefore Procopius and Eugubinus err, who think that Enoch and Elijah enjoy the vision of God and have glorified bodies in heaven.
Fifth, concerning Elijah who was taken up alive into heaven, the same verb is used as here, in II Kings II, 3 ff. Nor does Onkelos seem to have understood the Hebrew words otherwise: "He no longer existed; for the Lord did not kill him." More clearly, Jonathan: "And behold, he was no longer among the inhabitants of the earth; for he was taken away and ascended into heaven through the Word that is before the Lord." This passage is evidence that men in those times had faith in a future life.
Where are Enoch and Elijah now?
You may ask where Enoch and Elijah now are, and what kind of life they lead. I answer: The Fathers commonly teach that they dwell in paradise. But I say that Enoch before the flood was translated into the earthly paradise; after the flood, however, by which paradise seems to have been inundated and destroyed, he dwells in some pleasant place which God prepared for him, whether in the air or on the earth, to which Elijah was also caught up after the flood. There, therefore, they together lead a life that is quasi-beatific, free from concupiscence and from our miseries, in the most exalted contemplation of God.
Second, Epiphanius (Heresy 64) and Jerome (to Pammachius) hold that they live without food. St. Augustine, however, is uncertain on this matter, book I of On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter III; and he says they either live without food, or certainly live as Adam lived in paradise, namely from the tree of life, and therefore fail neither from disease nor old age. But it is more true that they are preserved by God alive and vigorous by a miracle, without food; for, as I have said, paradise and consequently the tree of life perished.
Whether Enoch and Elijah see God
You may ask second, whether Enoch and Elijah see God and are blessed. Catharinus asserts this, in his treatise On the Consummated Glory of Christ; Father Salmeron also, and Barradius inclines toward it, on John chapter XXI, verse 23: "Thus I wish him to remain until I come." For they think that Enoch and Elijah, as well as St. John the Evangelist, have not yet died, and therefore still have mortal bodies, and will come against the Antichrist and be put to death by him as martyrs; in the meantime, however, they see God and enjoy Him, at least since the death and resurrection of Christ.
They prove this with many plausible arguments. First, because it seems to be asserted in Apocalypse chapter X, verse 11 that St. John will come with Enoch: "You must prophesy again to the nations"; and John chapter XXI, verse 23: "Thus I wish him to remain until I come." For the crown of martyrdom is owed and was promised to John, as to the other Apostles, in Matthew chapter XX, verse 23, in these words: "You shall drink My chalice." Now that St. John sees God does not seem doubtful, for the Church publicly venerates and invokes him in the litanies, equally as the other Blessed.
Second, because the Church celebrates a feast both of St. John and of Elijah on July 20, as is clear from the Roman Martyrology; therefore they enjoy God.
Third, because the Greeks erected temples in honor of both Elijah and St. John, as Baronius teaches in the Martyrology, July 20. Therefore they are blessed; for temples are erected only to the blessed.
Fourth, because Enoch and Elijah lived most holily, and are therefore most worthy to enjoy God, especially since other Prophets and Patriarchs, even less holy than they, with whom they lived, now see God.
Fifth, because in this way we best escape the difficulty concerning the suspension of the merits of Enoch and Elijah. For why did God suspend their merits contrary to custom, unless because they already see God and are not on the way but at the goal -- that is, they are blessed? If you say that God did not suspend their merits, I will infer: Therefore they in merits and rewards will surpass almost immeasurably all other Blessed; for through so many thousands of years they are constantly meriting and daily increasing their merits, and this until the day of judgment -- but this seems incredible.
But this opinion seems novel and paradoxical, and lacking a solid foundation. First, because scarcely any of the ancient Fathers or Doctors asserted it; for Nazianzen, whom Barradius cites, does not assert it but expresses doubt.
Second, if Enoch and Elijah see God, then they are blessed, and therefore they are comprehensors, not wayfarers. But they are wayfarers, because they are still going to die and be crowned with martyrdom.
Third, neither to Moses, nor to Paul, nor to any other mortal was it granted to see God before death; indeed the Lord declared to Moses: "No man shall see Me and live," Exodus chapter 33, verse 20. Therefore neither should this be granted to Enoch and Elijah: for they are themselves still mortal, and will in fact die.
Fourth, it seems much more paradoxical that Enoch and Elijah should return from heavenly glory and the vision of God to sufferings, merits, and death, than that their merits should be suspended: for what blessed person ever returned from heaven to labors, merits, and death? Who was ever changed from a comprehensor into a wayfarer?
Fifth, Christ alone was simultaneously a wayfarer and a comprehensor; for all theologians grant this privilege to Christ alone. But according to this new opinion, this is false: for Enoch and Elijah, at least when they return to fight against the Antichrist, will simultaneously be wayfarers and comprehensors. For then they will not lose the vision of God which they already possess and by which they are blessed.
Sixth, if the vision of God will not then impede their merits and labors against the Antichrist, why does it impede their merits now? For in the same way Christ, seeing God before His death and resurrection, was never impeded by this vision from His own merit.
Seventh, that Saint John has not died, and that he will come against the Antichrist, seems plainly improbable, and contradicts both the very many historians who assert that he died (Baronius cites them), and the Church, which celebrates the feast of Saint John as one who has died and now reigns in heaven with Christ, and invokes him. It is otherwise with Enoch and Elijah; for no one celebrates their feast or invokes them.
To the first I respond that John, after those words of Apocalypse chapter 10, again prophesied to the nations in chapters 12, 13, 14, and following, up to the end of the Apocalypse, but that he will not prophesy to them at the end of the world. That passage in John chapter 21, "So I wish him to remain," means the same as if He said: "If I wish him to remain," as other manuscripts read; for Christ speaks not assertively but conditionally, and this to blunt Peter's curious question: "Lord, what about this man?" Furthermore, Saint John drank the cup of suffering, both at other times and at the time when he was cast into a vat of boiling oil. Hence he is called by the Fathers, celebrated by the Church, and truly is a martyr.
To the second I respond. The Greeks celebrate the feast of Elijah, not as one blessed, but as one taken up: for on that day they merely commemorate his rapture, because this rapture was admirable.
To the third I respond. In the same manner and for the same purpose the Greeks erected temples to Elijah as they instituted a feast for him, namely so that by these they might testify to and recall the memory of so wondrous a rapture of Elijah (for temples are properly erected not to the Saints, but to God alone in honor of the Saints), who led a heavenly life here, and left behind him heavenly disciples, as it were, and was the father and patriarch, so to speak, of monks, and who, although not yet blessed, is nevertheless already confirmed in grace, as it were, and certainly to be blessed, and thus by God's revelation and oracle has been, as it were, already canonized.
To the fourth I respond. The order established by God requires that Enoch and Elijah not see God, since they have not yet died: but other prophets have died, and therefore see God. For this reason it is fitting that Enoch and Elijah lead an intermediate life between earthly men and the blessed in heaven, peaceful and pleasant, but not yet blessed. Their holiness and merits are repaid not with the vision of God, but with something else great, namely that they alone among the prophets will come as the bravest champions of Christ against the Antichrist, and will refute him, and therefore be crowned with martyrdom by him.
To the fifth, I will speak presently about the suspension of merits, and that suspension does not remove the difficulty here. For at least Enoch's merits were suspended, from his rapture until the passion of Christ, for nearly three thousand years (for precisely 2,997 years elapsed), during which nevertheless Enoch did not see God; for if his merits were not then suspended, then Enoch, by continuously meriting for so many years, will far surpass all the Saints in grace and glory, and so we will fall back into the inconvenience that is alleged by this very argument.
Whether Enoch and Elijah are in a state of meriting
It is asked thirdly, whether they are in a state of meriting? Viegas asserts this in his commentary on Apocalypse chapter 11. The reason is that they are still wayfarers, and since they are deprived of the vision of God, why should they, beyond the common order, also be deprived of the faculty of meriting, which other wayfarers have? Granted that by this reasoning they will surpass in merits and glory all the Saints, except the Blessed Virgin. But Pererius and Suarez deny this very thing. And this seems more probable; the reason is that otherwise over so many thousands of years they would accumulate innumerable merits, nor would there be any comparison or proportion between them and other saints in grace and glory: second, because by their rapture they were translated into another state and life. Hence the rapture seems to have been for them like death, and consequently to have suspended their merits, until they return to us in the time of the Antichrist; for then they will again merit.
Therefore they are now, as it were, in an intermediate state between wayfarers and the Blessed, namely in a state of rest and contemplation: hence just as they do not labor or suffer, so neither do they merit: but they will merit very greatly when they return and fight against the Antichrist.
In the Life of Saint Pachomius it is reported that a certain philosopher proposed these three riddles to Theodore, a disciple of Saint Pachomius, to which he cleverly responded. The first: Who died without being born? Theodore answered: Adam. The second, who was born and yet did not die? He answered: Enoch, who was translated. The third, who died and yet was not corrupted? He answered: Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt.
Enoch and Elijah will return against the Antichrist
Note: At the end of the world, Enoch and Elijah will return to the common life, to oppose the Antichrist through preaching, disputations, and miracles: and therefore they will be subjected to martyrdom by the Antichrist at Jerusalem, who will cast their bodies unburied into the street; but after three and a half days, alive and glorious, with the whole city watching, they will rise again and ascend into heaven, as is clear from Apocalypse chapter 11, verse 7 and following. So the Fathers generally teach here, and on Apocalypse chapter 11, and this is the common belief and tradition of the faithful. Hence Saint Augustine, in Book 20 of the City of God, chapter 29, says this is most celebrated in the words and hearts of the faithful.
Finally, Enoch was the great-great-grandfather of Noah, and consequently was the father of all of us; for all men, and consequently the Antichrist too, descend from Enoch just as from Noah. Hence it follows that when Enoch returns to us, he will remain celibate, for no woman (since all descend from him and are his daughters) will be able to contract marriage with him, because in the direct lines of ascendants and descendants, even if they were separated by infinite degrees, marriage is void by natural law, if ascendants wish to be joined to descendants, as the more common opinion of the Doctors holds, whom Sanchez reviews in volume 2 of On Matrimony, book 7, disputation 51, although he himself with others teaches the contrary. Therefore Enoch, when he returns, will preach to all his children, that is, to all men, and will be killed by one of his children, namely the Antichrist, who is a spurious Enoch. Furthermore, Enoch was taken up in the year of the world 987. Therefore since in this year of Christ 1615 we are in the year of the world 5,563, it follows that Enoch is this year in the 4,578th year of his rapture, and the 4,943rd year of his life.
Verse 27: Methuselah
27. The days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years. -- He was the longest-lived of all mortals; yet Adam can be said to have been longer-lived than he for this reason, that Adam was created at a perfect age and stature, which is already thirty, and would then have been 60 years old at minimum; but Methuselah was born an infant, and grew for 60 years, and matured to the state and stature in which Adam was created: therefore if you subtract 60 years from Methuselah, or add the same to Adam, Adam will surpass Methuselah by 21 years. So says Pererius. Methuselah was born in the year of the world 687; and since he lived 969 years, it follows that he died in the year of the world 1656, that is, in the same year in which the flood occurred, a few (seven, if we believe the Hebrews) days before it inundated the earth. So says Saint Jerome. Therefore Saint Augustine, in Book 1 of his Questions on Genesis, is not correct when he thinks Methuselah died 6 years before the flood; for it was not Methuselah who died in the sixth year before the flood, but Lamech his son, who was the father of Noah, as is clear from Genesis chapter 5, verses 30 and 31. But hear Saint Augustine, at the beginning of Questions on Genesis: "It is often asked," he says, "how Methuselah, according to the computation of years, could have lived after the flood, when all, except those who entered the ark, are said to have perished? But the corruption of many manuscripts has generated this question. For not only is it found differently in the Hebrew, but also in the Septuagint translation. In fewer but more truthful manuscripts, Methuselah is found to have died six years before the flood." He also explains this in Book 15 of the City of God, chapter 13.
Verse 29: Noah
29. His name was Noah, saying: This one shall comfort us. -- From these words it is clear that Lamech was a prophet. Note that Noah in Hebrew signifies two things: first, rest, from the root noach, that is, "he rested"; for hence Noah is called in Hebrew Noach, that is, rest, or resting, and causing to rest: hence the Septuagint translates, "this one shall cause us to rest from our works and the sorrows of our hands": so also the Arabic; second, it signifies consolation or consoler, from the root nacham, that is, "he was consoled," so that Noah is derived from nacham, by apocope of the letter mem; and thus Scripture derives it here saying, ze ienachamenu, "this one shall console us," as the Hebrew, Chaldean, and our Vulgate have it; but both amount to the same thing: for consolation from work and labor is nothing other than rest from work and labor.
Therefore Noah caused men to rest and consoled them, first, because, as Saint Jerome says, all past works, namely sins, were stilled through Noah, who buried them in the flood; second, as Rabbi Solomon, the Hebrews, Cajetan, and Lipomanus say, because Noah invented the plow and other instruments of agriculture, and an easier art of cultivating fields; third, as others say, because on account of Noah's holiness and sacrifice after the flood, God blessed the earth in chapter 8, verse 21, and chapter 9, verse 1 and following: which was done so that the earth, thus blessed, might yield greater fruits with less labor and cultivation; fourth, because Noah planted vines and invented wine, which is the comfort of the human heart. Furthermore, because the use of meat, by which the life of men is strengthened, was granted by God to Noah. Others add, because Noah through the flood brought death upon men, which is the end and rest of all our labors. But the death and drowning of the wicked is not rest, but the beginning of eternal pain and labor. Fifth and most importantly, by these words Lamech prophesies about his son Noah, that he will be the restorer of the human race, which was nearly consumed by the flood (for this was the great consolation and rest of Lamech and the fathers), says Hugo, and that he will reconcile the world to God and God's beneficence; and that from him the Messiah will be born, says Rupert, who is our rest and consolation; whose is that saying: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." Therefore Noah was a type of Christ.
Before the flood the sorrows and labors of the fathers were great and long, first, because they lived 900 years in continual labors; second, because they cultivated land cursed by God, and therefore barren; third, because they did not have those arts and instruments for plowing and cultivating the land; fourth, all these labors of theirs were going to perish in the flood: which was to be a great punishment and affliction for them. From these, therefore, Noah causes them to rest and consoles them, first, because through the ark he restored their labors, that is, the works made by their labor; second, because on account of his merits and the arts invented by him and his posterity, agriculture and all human labor is now easier, as I said a little before.
Note: Noah was born 600 years before the flood, which occurred in the year of the world 1656; hence it follows that Noah was born in the year of the world 1056, that is, 126 years after the death of Adam; for Adam died in the year 930 both of his own life and of the world.
Tropologically, Noah is a symbol of justice, which consoles all, "and causes them to rest from works of iniquity; this recalls from sadness: because when we do what is just, we fear nothing in the security of a pure conscience, we do not grieve with heavy sorrow; for there is nothing that causes greater sorrow than the guilt of sin," says Saint Ambrose, in his book On Noah, 1.
Verse 31: Noah and the Chronology
31. And Noah, when he was five hundred years old. -- Note that it does not seem (although Saint Chrysostom thinks so) that Noah abstained from marriage until the age of 500: therefore he begot other sons before Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who died before the flood; hence it follows that not all who are named here as first-begotten were in fact firstborn. So says Saint Augustine, Book 15 of the City of God, chapter 20.
In this year 500 Noah began the construction of the ark, and continued it for 100 years: for it was completed in the year 600. So say Origen, Augustine, Gregory, and Rupert.
Furthermore, after the year 500 Noah begot, that is, began to beget, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, so that he begot them in successive years, now Shem, now Ham, now Japheth: for these three were not begotten in the same year.
From this passage is gathered the chronology of the world, namely that from the creation of the world and of Adam to the flood, 1656 years elapsed; for Adam begot Seth when he was 130 years old, Seth begot Enos at 105, Enos Cainan at 90, Cainan Mahalalel at 70, Mahalalel Jared at 65, Jared begot Enoch when he was 162 years old, Enoch Methuselah at 65, Methuselah Lamech at 187, Lamech Noah at 182, Noah Shem, Ham, and Japheth at 500.
In the hundredth year after the generation of Shem, which was the 600th year of Noah's life, the flood occurred, Genesis chapter 7, verse 11. The flood lasted a full year, as is clear to anyone comparing Genesis 7:11 with Genesis 8:13 and 14. Therefore from the creation of the world to the end of the flood, 1,657 years elapsed.