Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be two in one flesh. And they were both naked,* to wit, Adam and his wife and were not ashamed.

SECT. III. OF THE FALL OF OUR FIRST PARENTS.

The Fall.-Now the serpent was more subtle than any of Gen. III. the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And 1-14. he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?

And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.

And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened; and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig-leaves, and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.

And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou?

And he said: I heard Thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.

And He said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?

And Adam said: The woman, whom Thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

And the Lord said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done

* 'There is nothing shameful in the human form. The shame we feel arises from the irregular passions to which we are subject in consequence of original sin.' KENRICK.

†The old serpent which is the Devil and Satan. Apoc. xx.

Gen. III.

this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle and beasts of the earth upon thy breast shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

:

First Promise of a Saviour.-I will put enmities between thee 15-24. and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.* To the woman also He said I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee. And to Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them. And He said: Behold Adam is become as one of Us, knowing good and evil now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And He cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Gen. IV.

SECT. IV. THE HISTORY OF CAIN AND ABEL.

And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and

1-2. brought forth Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God. And again she brought forth his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd, and Cain a husbandman.

Gen. IV. The First Sacrifice. And it came to pass after many days, 3-7. that Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord.† Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat : and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings. But to

*This is the first promise of a Saviour of the world, who should be born of a woman, and so the Blessed Virgin, as the Mother of Christ, is said to crush the head or power of the Devil.

This is the first instance of the offering of a sacrifice. Some of the Fathers thought that God showed His acceptance of Abel's sacrifice by sending fire from heaven. Perhaps the sacrifice was more acceptable than Cain's, as being a sacrifice for sin. S. Paul says (Heb. xi.): By faith Abel offered a sacrifice exceed

Cain and his offerings He had no respect: and Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell.

And the Lord said to him: Why art thou angry? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? but if ill, shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? but the lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.

Murder of Abel.-And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let Gen. IV. us go forth abroad. And when they were in the field, Cain 8-16. rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: Where is thy brother Abel? And he answered : I know not am I my brother's keeper? And He said to him : What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the earth. Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.

And Cain said to the Lord: My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon. Behold Thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from Thy face, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth : every one, therefore, that findeth me shall kill me. And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not be so: but whosoever shall kill Cain shall be punished seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him.

And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth, at the east side of Eden.

SECT. V. THE HISTORY OF NOE.

1-11.

The Wickedness of Men.-And after that men began to be Gen. VI. multiplied upon the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God* seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to themselves wives of all which they chose. And God said: My spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

ing that of Cain, by which he obtained testimony that he was just, God giving testimony to his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Abel was a type of our Lord in his innocence, in the acceptable sacrifice that he offered, and in being slain by his brother.

*By this is understood the descendants of Seth who served God, and by the daughters of men the descendants of Cain.

Gen. VI.

Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown. And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, it repented Him* that He had made man on the earth. And being grieved at heart, He said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth Me that I have made them.

But Noe found grace before the Lord. These are the generations of Noe: Noe was a just and perfect man in his generations, he walked with God. And he begot three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth. And the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity.

The Building of the Ark.—And when God had seen that 12-22. the earth was corrupted (for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth), He said to Noe: The end of all flesh is come before Me, the earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of timber planks; thou shalt make rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without. And thus shalt thou make it. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits,† the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. Thou shalt make a window in the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish the top of it; and the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side: with lower, middle chambers, and third stories shalt thou make it. Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life under heaven. All things that are in the earth shall be consumed. And I will establish My covenant with thee, and thou shalt enter into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and the wives of thy sons with thee. And of every living creature of all flesh thou shalt bring two of a sort into the ark, that they may live with thee: of the male sex, and the female. Of fowls according to their kind, and of beasts in their kind, and of every thing that creepeth on the earth according to its kind; two of every sort shall go in with thee, that they may live.

*It repented Him, &c. God, who is unchangeable, is not capable of repentance, grief, or any other passion. But these expressions are used to declare the enormity of the sins of men, which was so provoking as to determine their Creator to destroy these His creatures, whom before He had so much favoured.' DOUAY BIBLE.

†There were several sorts of cubits. The shortest was equal to half a yard. The cubit here spoken of was probably nearly twenty-two inches.

NOE.

Thou shalt take unto thee of all food that may be eaten, and thou shalt lay it up with thee: and it shall be food for thee and them. And Noe did all things which God commanded him.

1-4.

And the Lord said to him: Go in, thou and all thy house, Gen. VII. into the ark: for thee I have seen just before Me in this generation. Of all clean beasts take seven and seven, the male and the female. But of the beasts that are unclean two and two, the male and the female. Of the fowls also of the air seven and seven, the male and the female: that seed may be saved upon the face of the whole earth. For yet a while, and after seven days, I will rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the earth.

5-24.

The Deluge. And Noe did all things which the Lord had Gen. VII. commanded him. And he was six hundred years old, when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. And Noe went in and his sons, his wife and the wives of his sons B.C. 2348. with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. And of beasts clean and unclean, and of fowls, and of every thing that moveth upon the earth. Two and two went in to Noe into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had commanded Noe.

And after the seven days were passed, the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. In the six hundredth year of the life of Noe, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood-gates of heaven were opened: and the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the self-same day Noe, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth his sons; his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark: they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle in their kind, and every thing that moveth upon the earth according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, all birds, and all that fly, went in to Noe into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him and the Lord shut him in.

And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the earth. For they overflowed exceedingly, and filled all on the face of the earth and the ark was carried upon the waters. And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the earth: and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The * By the clean beasts was meant such as were fit for sacrifice or for food.