Cainan (II)

II. CAINAN, the Son of Arphaxad, and Father of Salah, is neither in the Hebrew Text nor in the Vulgate, Genes. xi. 12, 13, 14. But he is named in S. Luke iii. 36. who places him betwen Salah and Arphaxad, which was the Son of Salah, which was the Son of Cainan, which was the Son of Arphaxad.

The Septuagint, Genes. x. 24. and xi. 12. admit him as well as S. Luke. Some have been of opinion, that the Jews suppressed the word Cainan, and expunged it out of their Copies with a design of rendring the Septuagint and S. Luke suspected, who had received it. Others have thought, that Moses purposely omitted Cainan, because he had a mind to reckon ten Generations only from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham. Others will have it, that Arphaxad was the Father of both Cainan and Salah, of Salah in a natural way, and of Cainan according to the Law. Lastly, others have asserted, that Cainan and Salah were the same person mentioned in the Septuagint and S. Luke by the two names belonging to him. This is what some say to support that opinion, which maintains Cainan to be really the Son of Arphaxad, and Father of Salah. We shall not stay here to confute these different rent opinions; but refer the Reader to our Comment upon Genesis x. 24. and those Authors who have written particularly on Cainan¹.

They who assert, that Cainan was surreptitiously inserted into the Septuagint, and from thence was taken by S. Luke, pretend, that the Authority of the Hebrew, Vulgate, Chaldee, and Syriac is much preferable to the Septuagint: that S. Luke having only copied these Interpreters, his Text in this place can be of no greater authority than the Septuagint: that the defalcations and changes which have been made in the years of the Patriarchs, are alone sufficient to destroy their Authority, wherever they contradict the Hebrew: and that upon comparing the Editions of the Septuagint, they are found not to agree with one another. Lastly, there are some, who affirm, that the name of Cainan is new and strange in the Text of the Septuagint; that these Interpreters did not put it there, and the most ancient of the Fathers did not read it there. And indeed neither Josephus, nor Philo knew any thing of Cainan’s being the Son of Arphaxad; and the old Fathers generally reckon no more than ten Generations from Noah to Abraham. But there would be eleven, if Cainan were to be included in the number. If S. Luke therefore inserted his name in the Gospel, which he wrote, it was certainly at that time in some Copies of the Septuagint; and many learned men believe, that this name was not to be met with in the first Texts of S. Luke, but that it is an addition which has been made by the Transcribers.

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