FIRST DIVISION. The matter of the first division is full and complete, and remarkably confirmed by general history and the present state of the world. But we notice in limine a wide difference between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible in one im portant particular: viz., the length of the genera lions,f both of the antediluvian and the postdiluvian patriarchs, the Hebrew text making six of the ante diluvians, and seven of the postdiluvians, one hun dred years younger than the Septuagint at the birth of their respective sons, the effect of which curtail ment of the generations is to shorten the whole time from Adam to Terah by 1300 years. Without entering upon the discussion of the question, it may be stated that although the reckoning of the IIebrew Bible is the one adopted in our A. V., the best modern authorities concur with Eusebius and other Fathers of the Church in holding that the Septua gint expresses what was originally recorded by the inspired penman, and that the text of the Hebrew Bible was purposely altered within the first century after the death of Christ Whatever other reasons there may be for accepting the longer in preference to the shorter generations, there can be no doubt that, viewed with reference to the long lives of the patriarchs, they are the morc natura/. The longer the life, the longer would be the period of attaining to maturity, and it would seem as unlikely for a man whose natural duration of life was 900 years, to have a son at go, as for one whose natural dura tion of life is 8o to have a son at 8. If this principle holds good, the Septuagint account must be preferred, especially in reference to the post diluvian patriarchs, as the disproportion between their ages at begetting sons, and the length of thei: lives is still greater, according to the Hebrew text, than in the case of the antediluvians. Viewed in relation to the usefulness of the study of genealog,y this is an important consideration, for, if a reason able time is fixed as the probable length of a generation, it supplies us with a rough but very useful time-measure to settle on the one hand the probable number of years between one event and another, if we know the number of generations between them, or on the other, to form a probable opinion as to the number of generations if we know the number of years.
The fact of highest importance which the Bible records in reference to the antediluvian race, besides the death of Abel, the translation of Enoch, and the inventive genius of the sons of Lamech, is the grand contrast between the families of Seth and of Cain, the one being called children of God, the other children of men—a contrast which runs through the whole history of man, and is the great subject matter of divine revelation. It also gives us the account of the moral degeneracy of the sons of God in consequence of the alliances which they formed with the daughters of men. But we obtain some interesting traditions respecting this time from Arabian and other sources, as, for instance, that the family of Seth, under the name of Egregori or Watchers, inhabited the mountainous regions of Armenia; that Enos, the son of Seth, in whose time men began to call themselves by the name of the Lord (•Gen. i. 26, marg.) was a great philo sopher and astronomer, and forbade the mixture of his race with that of Cain ; that Cainan his grandson was a king, sage, and prophet, who fore told the flood, and left his prophecy written on tables of stone ; that Mahaleel, the next in descent, made his children swear by the blood of Abel that they would not descend from their mountain ous abode to form alliances with the posterity of Cain, who dwelt in the plains of Chusistan or Susiana, and that about ro7o years after the creation, in the days of Jared, and in spite of his remon strances, too Sethites descended from theirhills, and by their union with the female Cainites, became the fathers of that violent and heaven defying race* which was eventually swept away by the deluge.