After this he continues as follows: “They speak, in the next place, of a
deluge, and of a monstrous[656] ark, having within it all things, and of
a dove and a crow[657] as messengers, falsifying and recklessly
altering[658] the story of Deucalion; not expecting, I suppose, that
these things would come to light, but imagining that they were inventing
stories merely for young children.” Now in these remarks observe the
hostility—so unbecoming a philosopher—displayed by this man towards this
very ancient Jewish narrative. For, not being able to say anything
against the history of the deluge, and not perceiving what he might have
urged against the ark and its dimensions,—viz. that, according to the
general opinion, which accepted the statements that it was three hundred
cubits in length, and fifty in breadth, and thirty in height, it was
impossible to maintain that it contained [all] the animals that were
upon the earth, fourteen specimens of every clean and four of every
unclean beast,—he merely termed it “monstrous, containing all things
within it.” Now wherein was its “monstrous” character, seeing it is
related to have been a hundred years in building, and to have had the
three hundred cubits of its length and the fifty of its breadth
contracted, until the thirty cubits of its height terminated in a top
one cubit long and one cubit broad? Why should we not rather admire a
structure which resembled an extensive city, if its measurements be
taken to mean what they are capable of meaning,[659] so that it was nine
myriads of cubits long in the base, and two thousand five hundred in
breadth? And why should we not admire the design evinced in having it so
compactly built, and rendered capable of sustaining a tempest which
caused a deluge? For it was not daubed with pitch, or any material of
that kind, but was securely coated with bitumen. And is it not a subject
of admiration, that by the providential arrangement of God, the elements
of all the races were brought into it, that the earth might receive
again the seeds of all living things, while God made use of a most
righteous man to be the progenitor of those who were to be born after
the deluge?
Footnote 656:
ἀλλόκοτον.
Footnote 657:
κορώνη.
Footnote 658:
παραχαράττοντες καὶ ῥαδιουργοῦντες.
Footnote 659:
τῷ δυνάμει λέγεσθαι τὰ μέτρα.