Now Adam, who was the first man, and made out of the earth, (for
our discourse must now be about him,) after Abel was slain, and Cain fled
away, on account of his murder, was solicitous for posterity, and had a
vehement desire of children, he being two hundred and thirty years old;
after which time he lived other seven hundred, and then died. He had indeed
many other children, The
number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition was thirty-three sons,
and twenty-three daughters. 
but Seth in particular. As for the rest, it would be tedious to name them;
I will therefore only endeavor to give an account of those that proceeded
from Seth. Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years
in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as
he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind
him who imitated his virtues. The
number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition was thirty-three sons,
and twenty-three daughters. 
All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same
country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes
falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that
peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and
their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were
sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed
at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and
quantity of water, they made two pillars, Of Josephus’s mistake here, when he took Seth the son of Adam, for Seth
or Sesostris, king of Egypt , the erector of this pillar in the land of
Siriad, see Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, p. 159, 160. Although
the main of this relation might be true, and Adam might foretell a conflagration
and a deluge, which all antiquity witnesses to be an ancient tradition;
nay, Seth’s posterity might engrave their inventions in astronomy on two
such pillars; yet it is no way credible that they could survive the deluge,
which has buried all such pillars and edifices far under ground in the
sediment of its waters, especially since the like pillars of the Egyptian
Seth or Sesostris were extant after the flood, in the land of Siriad, and
perhaps in the days of Josephus also, as is shown in the place here referred
to. 
the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries
on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the
flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries
to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick
erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day. CONCERNING THE FLOOD; AND AFTER WHAT MANNER NOAH WAS SAVED IN AN ARK, WITH HIS KINDRED, AND AFTERWARDS DWELT IN THE PLAIN OF SHINAR, NOW this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of
the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations;
but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of
their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed
them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what
degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their
actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their
enemy. For many angels This notion, that the fallen angels were, in some sense, the fathers of
the old giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity. 
of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers
of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own
strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts
of those whom the Grecians call giants. But Noah was very uneasy at what
they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change
their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not
yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid
they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they
had married; so he departed out of that land. Now God loved this man for his righteousness: yet he not only condemned
those other men for their wickedness, but determined to destroy the whole
race of mankind, and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness;
and cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they
formerly lived, but one hundred and twenty only, Josephus here supposes that the life of these giants, for of them only
do I understand him, was now reduced to 120 years; which is confirmed by
the fragment of Enoch , sect. 10, in Authent. Rec. Part I. p. 268. For as
to the rest of mankind, Josephus himself confesses their lives were much
longer than 120 years, for many generations after the flood, as we shall
see presently; and he says they were gradually shortened till the days
of Moses, and then fixed [for some time] at 120, ch. 6. sect. 5. Nor indeed
need we suppose that either Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these
120 years for the life of men before the flood, to be different from the
120 years of God’s patience [perhaps while the ark was preparing] till
the deluge; which I take to be the meaning of God when he threatened this
wicked world, that if they so long continued impenitent, their days should
be no more than 120 years. 
he turned the dry land into sea; and thus were all these men destroyed:
but Noah alone was saved; for God suggested to him the following contrivance
and way of escape : - That he should make an ark of four stories high,
three hundred cubits A cubit is about 21 English inches. 
long, fifty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high. Accordingly he entered
into that ark, and his wife, and sons, and their wives, and put into it
not only other provisions, to support their wants there, but also sent
in with the rest all sorts of living creatures, the male and his female,
for the preservation of their kinds; and others of them by sevens. Now
this ark had firm walls, and a roof, and was braced with cross beams, so
that it could not be any way drowned or overborne by the violence of the
water. And thus was Noah , with his family, preserved. Now he was the tenth
from Adam, as being the son of Lamech, whose father was Mathusela; he was
the son of Enoch , the son of Jared ; and Jared was the son of Malaleel,
who, with many of his sisters, were the children of Cainan, the son of
 Enos . Now Enos was the son of Seth , the son of Adam. This calamity happened in the six hundredth year of Noah ’s government,
[age,] in the second month, Josephus here truly determines, that the year that the Flood began, our
Hebrew and Samaritan, and perhaps Josephus’s own copy, more rightly placed
it on the 17th day, instead of the 27th, as here; for Josephus agrees with
them, as to the distance of 150 days to the 17th day of the 7th month,
as Genesis 7. ult. with 8:3. 
called by the Macedonians Dius , but by the Hebrews Marchesuan :
for so did they order their year in Egypt . But Moses appointed that
 Nisan , which is the same with Xanthicus, should be the
first month for their festivals, because he brought them out of Egypt in
that month: so that this month began the year as to all the solemnities
they observed to the honor of God, although he preserved the original order
of the months as to selling and buying, and other ordinary affairs. Now
he says that this flood began on the twenty-seventh [seventeenth] day of
the forementioned month; and this was two thousand six hundred and fifty-six
[one thousand six hundred and fifty-six] years from Adam, the first man;
and the time is written down in our sacred books, those who then lived
having noted down, Josephus here takes notice, that these ancient genealogies were first set
down by those that then lived, and from them were transmitted down to posterity;
which I suppose to be the true account of that matter. For there is no
reason to imagine that men were not taught to read and write soon after
they were taught to speak; and perhaps all by the Messiah himself, who,
under the Father, was the Creator or Governor of mankind, and who frequently
in those early days appeared to them. 
with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men. For indeed Seth was born when Adam was in his two hundred and thirtieth
year, who lived :nine hundred and thirty years. Seth begat Enos in his
two hundred and fifth year; who, when he had lived nine hundred and twelve
years, delivered the government to Cainan his son, whom he had in his hundred
and ninetieth year. He lived nine hundred and five years. Cainan, when
he had lived nine hundred and ten years, had his son Malaleel, who was
born in his hundred and seventieth year. This Malaleel, having lived eight
hundred and ninety-five years, died, leaving his son Jared, whom he begat
when he was in his hundred and sixty-fifth year. He lived nine hundred
and sixty-two years; and then his son Enoch succeeded him, who was born
when his father was one hundred and sixty-two years old. Now he, when he
had lived three hundred and sixty-five years, departed and went to God;
whence it is that they have not written down his death. Now Mathusela,
the son of Enoch, who was born to him when he was one hundred and sixty-five
years old, had Lamech for his son when he was one hundred and eighty-seven
years of age; to whom he delivered the government, when he had retained
it nine hundred and sixty-nine years. Now Lamech, when he had governed
seven hundred and seventy-seven years, appointed Noah, his son, to
be ruler of the people, who was born to Lamech when he was one hundred
and eighty-two years old, and retained the government nine hundred and
fifty years. These years collected together make up the sum before set
down. But let no one inquire into the deaths of these men; for they extended
their lives along together with their children and grandchildren; but let
him have regard to their births only.