Annotation CXLIII

”Who was [the son] of Cainan.” — Luke 3:36

Whether the generation of Cainan is superfluous in the genealogy of Christ.

The exposition of Thomas Cajetan, Ambrose [Catharinus], in book 1, annotated with these words: “This I judged must be noted as intolerable — that he admitted, as though a possible thing, that Luke in the genealogy of Christ added one superfluous generation. But he excuses him, [saying] that he followed the Seventy, who were of great authority. Very well. Do, then, the authors of sacred Scripture follow [mere] interpreters? and do those who found the sea — whence the streams flow out — receive from the streams, so as to create the sea? He adds: ‘And thus the Holy Spirit provided, lest it be imputed to the holy doctors that they expounded the text of sacred Scripture according to the commonly received interpretation — since it was permitted to the Evangelist to have done the same without an error of his own.’ These [things] he [says] toward the excusing of Luke: but it would then be necessary also to excuse the Holy Spirit — that he permitted his amanuensis to be led by the authority of men, or even, [being] led, to err, and thus by a remarkable providence to leave an error in the gospel. Besides, was Luke devoid of the Hebrew tongue, so that he had need to follow the Septuagint? And even if he had been, [were] at least the Apostles, who saw and approved this gospel — were they too ignorant of the tongue, so as not to see this error? But if the Apostles did not approve this gospel, then, according to Cajetan’s doctrine, it does not have the authority of Scripture.” These [things] Ambrose [Catharinus says].

This passage once so vehemently tormented the mind of Bede the presbyter, that in the preface to the Acts of the Apostles he wrote thus: “I especially wonder — and, struck with the most vehement stupor on account of the slowness of my wit, I know not [how] to search out — by what reasoning [it is] that, whereas in the Hebrew Verity ten generations are found from the Flood to Abraham, Luke himself — who, the Holy Spirit ruling [his] pen, could in no way write a falsehood — chose rather to put eleven generations, according to the Seventy interpreters, Cainan being added, in the gospel.” See what we have written about this matter in book 7, heresy 4, and in book 5, Annotation 88.