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wherein Venus put his body newly killed. In short, there CHAP. I. is no doubt to be made, but the Garden of Eden planted by the hand of God, and that, in some respects, in a supernatural manner, hath been the pattern, out of which the poets have formed their Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields, the Meadows of Pluto, the Gardens (not only of Adonis already mentioned, but also) of the Hesperides, of Jupiter, and Alcinous.

35.

Of the city

learned

concerning

What we have to add further in reference to the situation of the country and Garden of Eden, falls in with of Enoch, what we have to offer concerning the situation of the land and the of Nod, and the city of Enoch. The learned Bishop of Huetius's Soissons has observed, that Ptolemy, in the description of opinion Susiana, places there a city called Anuchtha; and also its situathat the syllable tha, which endeth that word, is a termi- tion. nation pretty ordinary to the feminine nouns in the Chaldee tongue, and so is no part of the name itself. It then only remains Anuch, which is without difficulty the same as Enoch, or, as it is more agreeable to the Hebrew word, Anoch. And from hence the learned person afore mentioned infers, that this Anuchtha, mentioned by Ptolemy, is the same with the city of Enoch, mentioned by Moses; especially since Anuchtha is by Ptolemy placed on the east of Eden, which agrees very well to what Moses saith of the land of Nod, wherein the city of Enoch was built, namely, that it was on the east of Eden, Gen. iv. 16.

tius's opi

Now, though this conjecture seems very plausible, in- 36. somuch that I could not at first but readily embrace it; which atDifficulties, yet upon further deliberation there appeared some diffi- tend Hueculty, which seems to make the truth of it questionable, nion. and which in the upshot would not give me leave to acquiesce in the foresaid conjecture. For, first, though Anuchtha be no other than the city of Enoch, or Anoch; yet it is far from being certain, that there was no other city of that name, but that which was built by Cain, and called so by him from his son Enoch, or Anoch. It is most certain, that there was another Enoch, or Anoch, besides the son of Cain; namely, the son of Jared, and fa

PART I. ther of Methuselah, a person most remarkable for his piety in the antediluvian ages; insomuch that Moses particularly says of him, that he walked with God, and was not; for God took him: Gen. v. 18, 21, 24. By which words is to be understood, as we learn from Heb. xi. 5. that this Enoch was translated that he should not see death. It is then possible, not to say probable, that the city, mentioned by Ptolemy, might take its name from Enoch, not the son of Cain, but the son of Jared, and a descendant of Seth, the brother of Cain; and that it might be so named from him in respect to the illustrious character he bore for his piety, this being a very ancient and usual way of paying a veneration to the memory of persons. At least, it might take its name from some other Enoch or Anoch, different from both the former, and living many generations after; namely, after the Flood. And indeed, from the consideration of the Flood there do arise some objections, which make it still more questionable, whether the Anuchtha of Ptolemy could be the city of Enoch built before the Flood; or at least could be known to be the same, and so could retain, even after the Flood, the name it had before.

37.

est objec

But there is still behind another consideration, which The great- weighs most with me, as overthrowing what seems most tion against to favour the learned Huetius's opinion. For he espeopinion. cially observes, that the Anuchtha, so often mentioned, is

Huetius's

placed by Ptolemy on the east of Eden, exactly agreeable to the situation of the land of Nod according to the sacred text, Gen. iv. 16. But the word there rendered, on the east, is the very same, which is also rendered by some after the same manner, in the description Moses gives of the course of the Hiddekel or Tigris. Which interpretation, as the learned Huetius rejects in that place relating to the river Hiddekel, so he should likewise reject in this place relating to the land of Nod: because it may be fairly presumed, that Moses used the word in the same sense in both places. Hereupon the Seventy Interpreters judged it but reasonable to keep the same interpretation in both texts,

and accordingly rendered the original word, in this place, CHAP. I. as in the former, by the Greek word denoting, over-against, or on the side of Eden, not restraining it to the eastern side any more than to the western. And on the same account Arias Montanus also in his version renders the Hebrew word, (as in relation to the course of the Hiddekel, so) in reference to the situation of the land of Nod, by the same... Latin word, denoting before; which, as I have above observed, I take with him to be the plain and primary import of the original word.

This being so, what the learned Huetius in other cases particularly, and that reasonably too, insists upon, must likewise be remembered in the case before us; namely, that Moses in penning his history had regard to the place where he penned it. Whence it follows, that when Moses saith, that the land of Nod lay before Eden, he must thereby be reasonably understood to mean, that it lay before Eden in respect of the place where he was writing, and consequently on the west of Eden, namely, between Eden and the parts of Arabia Petræa, or else the parts of Syria adjoining to the Lacus Asphaltites, or Dead Sea.

38.

Grotius's

the land of

On these considerations I cannot but incline to the opinion of the learned Grotius, who supposes Cain to have opinion been doomed by God to withdraw into the deserts of Ara- concerning bia, which joins on to Eden westward, and so properly lay Nod, before Eden, in respect to the place where Moses wrote. Indeed, since one part of Cain's punishment was banishment, and since, banishment being designed as a punishment, it is more proper, and so more usual, for persons banished to be sent, not into a pleasant and fruitful country, as is Susiana, wherein Ptolemy places Anuchtha, but into some unpleasant and unfruitful country; these considerations do, I think, much favour the opinion of Grotius, that Arabia Deserta was the country, into which Cain was sentenced to withdraw. And to the barrenness of this part of Arabia may perhaps appertain the curse pronounced by God against Cain, Gen. iv. 11, 12. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth

PART I. to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. In short, if the reader sees cause to prefer Grotius's opinion, then he must of consequence look on the land of Nod to be Arabia Deserta, or at least to be seated therein, and so to be part of it. If he prefers Huetius's opinion, that the Anuchtha mentioned by Ptolemy is the same with the city of Enoch built by Cain, then he must of consequence look on the land of Nod to be seated in Susiana.

39.

tain, whe

ther the

word Nod is to be

I shall only observe further, that as to the name itself, It is uncer- there are no remainders of it to be found. Indeed it is not certain, that the word Nod should be taken for a proper name: nay, it is actually rendered by some intertaken for a preters as an appellative, denoting a fugitive, or one that proper is banished, which very well expresses the condition appellative. wherein Cain was, as appears from Gen. iv. 12. 14. A fu

name or an

40.

The conclusion.

gitive shalt thou be, &c. In a word, it is not to be doubted, but, if the word Nod is to be understood as a proper name, the land of Nod was so called, as being the land wherein the fugitive Cain lived.

And thus much for the places of the antediluvian earth, mentioned in sacred history.

CHAP. II.

Of the Mountains of Ararat, whereon the Ark of Noah rested, upon the abating of the Flood: together with some considerations concerning the Place where the Ark was made, the Wood it was made of, and the Form it was made in.

1. Noah's

Ark, upon

THE short account of the antediluvian world, given in the six first chapters of Genesis, is followed, in the seventh and eighth chapters of the same book, with an account the abating of the flood, of the Deluge or Flood: upon the abating whereof the rested on sacred historian tells us, that the Ark rested upon the the mounmountains of Ararat, Gen. viii. 4. It is therefore to be Ararat. enquired, which are the mountains of Ararat; and then, in what particular place of the said mountains the Ark did so rest.

tains of

The rise of

As to the first query, it may not be unuseful to take 2. notice, in the first place, of a palpable error, concerning the error, the situation of these mountains, which occurs in some that the verses, which go under the name of Sibylline Oracles. of Ararat

mountains

were in

mea, sur

botus.

There we are told, that the mountains of Ararat lay Phrygia, in Phrygia; which is no ways reconcileable to the sa- near the cred text. The learned Bochart has happily light on the city Apaground of this mistake; which arose in all likelihood named Cifrom the situation of a city in Phrygia, called Apamea Cibotus. The word Cibotus is a Greek word, denoting in that language an Ark; and it is the very same word, which the Seventy Interpreters make use of to denote the Ark of Noah. Now from the city Apamea having the surname of Cibotus given it, the author of those verses (falsely attributed to the Sibyls) inferred, that the Ark of Noah rested there on an adjoining hill, and that this was the occasion, that gave the surname of Cibotus to Apamea. But the inference is by no means conclusive, forasmuch as there might be other reasons for imposing that

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