על צאצאי קין י״בOn the Posterity of Cain and his Exile 12
א׳
1[40] Now since Cain is said to have begotten Enoch, and there is afterwards a descendant of Seth with the name of Enoch again (Gen. 4:17, 5:18), we must consider whether they were two different persons or the same person. While we are engaged with these, let us investigate also the difference between others who have the same name. Like Enoch, Methuselah and Lamech appear as descendants of Cain, and descendants no less of Seth (Gen. 4:18, 5:21, 25).
ב׳
2[41] It is important, then, that we should know that each of the names mentioned has a meaning that can be taken in two ways. “Enoch,” as I have already said, means “thy gift,” “Methuselah” “a sending forth of death,” and “Lamech” “humiliation.” Take the first. Thy gift is, on some people’s lips, an address to the mind within us; on the lips of the better kind of men it is addressed to the universal Mind.
ג׳
3[42] Those who assert that everything that is involved in thought or perception or speech is a free gift of their own soul, seeing that they introduce an impious and atheistic opinion, must be assigned to the race of Cain, who, while incapable even of ruling himself, made bold to say that he had full possession of all other things as well. But those who do not claim as their own all that is fair in creation, but acknowledge all as due to the gift of God, being men of real nobility, sprung not from a long line of rich ancestors but from lovers of virtue, must remain enrolled under Seth as the head of their race.
ד׳
4[43] This sort is very hard to find, since they make their escape from a life beset with passions and vices, with its treachery and unscrupulousness, its villainy and dissoluteness. For those who have been wellpleasing to God, and whom God has translated and removed from perishable to immortal races, are no more found among the multitude.