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| Chapter XXI. The answer to the question raised.
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Chapter XXI.
The answer to the question raised.
Serenus: You have
propounded two not unimportant questions, to which I will reply, to the
best of my ability, in the order in which you have raised them. We
cannot possibly believe that spiritual existences can have carnal
intercourse with women. But if this could ever have literally happened
how is it that it does not now also sometimes take place, and that we
do not see some in the same way born of women by the agency of demons
without intercourse with men? especially when it is clear that they
delight in the pollution of lust, which they would certainly prefer to
bring about through their own agency rather than through that of men,
if they could possibly manage it, as Ecclesiastes declares: “What
is it that hath been? The same that is. And what is it that hath been
done? The same that is done. And there is nothing new that can be said
under the sun, so that a man can say: Behold this is new; for it hath
already been in the ages which were before us.”1551
But the question raised may be resolved in
this way. After the death of righteous Abel, in order that the whole
human race might not spring from a wicked fratricide, Seth was born in
the place of his brother who was slain, to take the place of his
brother not only as regards posterity, but also as regards justice and
goodness. And his offspring, following the example of their
father’s goodness, always remained separate from intercourse with
and the society of their kindred descended from the wicked Cain, as the
difference of the genealogy very clearly tells us, where it says:
“Adam begat Seth, Seth begat Enos, Enos begat Cainan, but Cainan
begat Mahalaleel, but Mahalaleel begat Jared, Jared begat Enoch, Enoch
begat Methuselah, Methuselah begat Lamech, Lamech begat
Noah.”1552
And the genealogy
of Cain is given separately as follows: “Cain begat Enoch, Enoch
begat Cainan, Cainan begat Mahalaleel, Mahalaleel begat Methuselah,
Methuselah begat Lamech, Lamech begat Jabal and Jubal.”1553
And so the line which sprang from the seed
of righteous Seth always mixed with its own kith and kin, and continued
for a long while in the holiness of its fathers and ancestors,
untouched by the blasphemies and the wickedness of an evil offspring,
which had implanted in it a seed of sin as it were transmitted by its
ancestors. As long then as there continued that separation of the lines
between them, the seed of Seth, as it sprang from an excellent root,
was by reason of its sanctity termed “angels of God,” or as
some copies have it “sons of God;”1554
| 1554 In Gen. vi. 2 the mss.
of the LXX. fluctuate between ἄγγελοι τοῦ
θεοῦ and υἱοὶ τοῦ
θεοῦ. The interpretation of the passage
which Cassian here rejects is adopted by Philo and Josephus, the book
of Enoch, and several of the early fathers, including Justin Martyr,
Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius and others. The
explanation, which Cassian here gives, taking the “sons of
God” of the Sethites, and the “daughters of men” of
the line of Cain, is apparently first found in Julius Africanus
(οἰ ἀπό
τοῦ Σὴθ
δίκαιοι), and is adopted
among others by Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Book XV. xxiii., where the
passage is fully discussed. |
and on the contrary the others by reason of their own and their
fathers’ wickedness and their earthly deeds were termed
“children of men.” Though then there was up to this time
that holy and salutary separation between them, yet after this the sons
of Seth who were the sons of God saw the daughters of those who were
born of the line of Cain, and inflamed with the desire for their beauty
took to themselves from them wives who taught their husbands the
wickedness of their fathers, and at once led them astray from their
innate holiness and the single-mindedness of their forefathers. To whom
this saying applies with sufficient accuracy: “I have said: Ye
are Gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High. But ye shall
die like men, and fall like one of the princes;”1555
who fell away from that true study of
natural philosophy, handed down to them by their ancestors, which the
first man who forthwith traced out the study of all nature, could
clearly attain to, and transmit to his descendants on sure grounds,
inasmuch as he had seen the infancy of this world, while still as it
were tender and throbbing and unorganized; and as there was in him not
only such fulness of wisdom, but also the grace of prophecy given by
the Divine inspiration, so that while he was still an untaught
inhabitant of this world he gave names to all living creatures, and not
only knew about the fury and poison of all kinds of beasts and
serpents, but also distinguished between the virtues of plants and
trees and the natures of stones, and the changes of seasons of which he
had as yet no experience, so that he could well say: “The
Lord
hath given me the
true knowledge of the things that are, to know the disposition of the
whole world, and the virtues of the elements, the beginning and the
ending and the midst of times, the alterations of their courses and the
changes of their seasons, the revolutions of the year and the
disposition of the stars, the natures of living creatures and the rage
of wild beasts, the force of winds, and the reasonings of men, the
diversities of plants and the virtues of roots, and all such things as
are hid and open I have learnt.”1556
This knowledge then of all nature the seed of Seth received through
successive generations, handed down from the fathers, so long as it
remained separate from the wicked line, and as it had received it in
holiness, so it made use of it to promote the glory of God and the
needs of everyday life. But when it had been mingled with the evil
generation, it drew aside at the suggestion of devils to profane and
harmful uses what it had innocently learnt, and audaciously taught by
it the curious arts of wizards and enchantments and magical
superstitions, teaching its posterity to forsake the holy worship of
the Divinity and to honour and worship either the elements or fire or
the demons of the air. How it was then that this knowledge of curious
arts of which we have spoken, did not perish in the deluge, but became
known to the ages that followed, should, I think, be briefly explained,
as the occasion of this discussion suggests, although the answer to the
question raised scarcely requires it. And so, as ancient traditions
tell us, Ham the son of Noah, who had been taught these superstitions
and wicked and profane arts, as he knew that he could not possibly
bring any handbook on these subjects into the ark, into which he was to
enter with his good father and holy brothers, inscribed these nefarious
arts and profane devices on plates of various metals which could not be
destroyed by the flood of waters, and on hard rocks, and when the flood
was over he hunted for them with the same inquisitiveness with which he
had concealed them, and so transmitted to his descendants a seed-bed of
profanity and perpetual sin. In this way then that common notion,
according to which men believe that angels delivered to men
enchantments and diverse arts, is in truth fulfilled. From these sons
of Seth then and daughters of Cain, as we have said, there were born
still worse children who became mighty hunters, violent and most fierce
men who were termed giants by reason of the size of their bodies and
their cruelty and wickedness. For these first began to harass their
neighbours and to practise pillaging among men, getting their living
rather by rapine than by being contented with the sweat and labour of
toil, and their wickedness increased to such a pitch that the world
could only be purified by the flood and deluge. So then when the sons
of Seth at the instigation of their lust had transgressed that command
which had been for a long while kept by a natural instinct from the
beginning of the world, it was needful that it should afterwards be
restored by the letter of the law: “Thou shalt not give thy
daughter to his son to wife, nor shalt thou take a wife of his
daughters to thy son; for they shall seduce your hearts to depart from
your God, and to follow their gods and serve them.”1557
| 1557 Deut. viii. 3; Exod. xxxiv. 16: cf. 1 Kings xi.
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