LatineEnglish
{And their habitation was from Messa, as one goes on, even to Sephar, the Eastern mountain.}1
Et facta est habitatio eorum de Messa pergentibus usque Sephar montem Orientalem.
HIS verbis Moses designat ac denotat terminos habitationis posterorum Iectan in parte orbis orientali, ut inde quam longa lataque fuerit regio quam inibi tenuerint illi facile aestimari queat. De Messa vero et Sephar hoc tantum reperi apud B. Hieronymum in libro de locis Hebraicis: Messam vult ille regionem esse Indiae in qua habitaverint filii Iectan; Sopheram autem esse montem Orientis in India, iuxta quem habitaverint iidem filii Iectan, quos Iosephus refert a Cophene fluvio et Indiae regionibus usque ad id locorum pervenisse ubi appellatur regio Ieria. Sed et classis Salomonis per triennium hinc quaedam commercia deportabat. QUAMQUAM autem posteri Sem in longinquas Indiae terras secesserint, ipsum tamen Sem putant Hebraei resedisse in ea terra quae postea appellata est Iudaea, et eo loco eius terrae ubi est urbs Hierusalem, multis post saeculis aedificata templum; quod Sem prophetico spiritu providisset eam terram a Deo promissum et traditum iri posteris suis, inibique et principatum eorum et veri Dei quem ipse colebat religionem atque cultum florentissimum et gloriosissimum fore. Verum hoc nec ratione ulla probatur ab istis, nec speciem habet probabilitatis. Cum enim terra illa habitata et possessa fuerit a posteris Chanaan, non est credibile vel Sem inter extraneos potius quam inter suos vivere voluisse, vel Chanaan eiusque posteros id passuros fuisse. Nam quod ait Epiphanius in Ancorato terram Iudaeae primum a Noë traditam esse ipsi Sem et posteris eius, sed eos postea inde per vim a posteris Chanaan eiectos esse, id profecto minime fit credibile: tum quia Moses aperte docet terram illam habitatam et possessam fuisse a posteris Chanaan; tum etiam quia terminos habitationis eorum in ea regione tam subtiliter et distincte descripsit, ut nullum relinquat locum suspicandi quod isti prodiderunt de eiectione posterorum Sem. ILLUD quoque mirum videri merito possit, si Sem in Palaestina et in monte Hierosolymitano residebat — cum triginta tribus annis supervixerit ipsi Abrahae, et pervenerit usque ad centesimum octavum annum Isaac et usque ad quadragesimum octavum annum Iacob — quomodo Moses in historia horum trium patriarcharum, quam perdiligenter scribit in hoc libro, nullum de ipso Sem verbum fecerit. Nar[rat…]
By these words Moses designates and denotes the bounds of the habitation of the descendants of Jectan in the eastern part of the world, so that thence how long and broad was the region which they held there may easily be estimated. Of Messa and Sephar I have found only this in Blessed Jerome's book On the Hebrew Places: he will have Messa to be a region of India in which the sons of Jectan dwelt; and Sophera to be a mountain of the East in India, beside which the same sons of Jectan dwelt, whom Josephus relates to have come from the river Cophene and the regions of India as far as that place which is called the region Ieria. But the fleet of Solomon, too, used to carry off certain merchandise hence every three years. But although the descendants of Sem withdrew into the far-off lands of India, the Hebrews think that Sem himself settled in that land which was afterward called Judaea, and in that place of that land where is the city Jerusalem, the temple being built many ages after; because Sem foresaw by a prophetic spirit that that land would be promised and delivered by God to his descendants, and that there both their sovereignty and the religion and worship of the true God, whom he himself worshipped, would be most flourishing and most glorious. But this is neither proved by any reason by these men, nor has the appearance of probability. For since that land was inhabited and possessed by the descendants of Chanaan, it is not credible either that Sem would have wished to live among strangers rather than among his own, or that Chanaan and his descendants would have suffered it. As for what Epiphanius says in the Ancoratus — that the land of Judaea was first delivered by Noah to Sem himself and his descendants, but that they were afterward driven out thence by force by the descendants of Chanaan — that is assuredly by no means credible: both because Moses plainly teaches that that land was inhabited and possessed by the descendants of Chanaan; and also because he described the bounds of their habitation in that region so subtly and distinctly that he leaves no room for suspecting what these men have handed down about the ejection of Sem's descendants. This too may with reason seem wonderful: if Sem was residing in Palestine and on the mount of Jerusalem — since he survived Abraham himself by thirty-three years, and reached down to the 108th year of Isaac and to the 48th year of Jacob — how Moses, in the history of these three patriarchs, which he writes most diligently in this book, made no word about Sem himself. He relates [indeed…]2
…rat quidem ille Abraham iuisse ad Melchisedech, Pharaonem et Abimelech, idemque tradidit de Isaac: de Sem autem nullam plane mentionem facit. Nam quod opinantur Hebraei ipsum Melchisedech fuisse Sem, nec verisimile est, et a nobis in tertio tomo horum Commentariorum (favente Deo) in explanatione 14 capitis huius libri manifestissimis firmissimisque rationibus confutabitur.
…He relates, indeed, that Abraham went to Melchisedech, to Pharaoh, and to Abimelech, and handed down the same of Isaac: but of Sem he makes no mention at all. For what the Hebrews think — that Melchisedech himself was Sem — is neither likely, and will be refuted by us in the third volume of these Commentaries (God favoring) in the explanation of the 14th chapter of this book, by the most manifest and firmest reasons.3
Translator’s notes
- Gen 10:30 (verse lemma). ↩
- §156. Gen 10:30. Moses bounds Jectan's descendants in the East (Messa = a region of India; Sephar/Sophera = an eastern mountain there — Jerome; Josephus: from the Cophene to ‘Ieria’; Solomon's fleet traded there triennially). The Hebrews' claim that Sem settled in Judaea/Jerusalem (foreseeing the Promised Land prophetically) Pererius rejects as unproven: the land was Chanaan's, Sem would not live among strangers, and Epiphanius's account (in the Ancoratus — Judaea first given to Sem, then seized by Chanaan) is incredible (Moses says it was Chanaan's, and bounds them precisely). It would also be strange, if Sem dwelt on Mt. Jerusalem (surviving Abraham by 33 yrs, into Isaac's 108th and Jacob's 48th year), that Moses says nothing of him in the patriarchal history (continues p. 467). Margins: Jerome; whether Sem settled in Judaea, and where the temple and Jerusalem afterward were; Epiphanius. ↩
- §156 (concl.). Moses tells of Abraham going to Melchisedech, Pharaoh, Abimelech (and the like of Isaac) but nothing of Sem. The Hebrews' view that Melchisedech was Sem is unlikely — to be refuted in vol. 3 (on Gen 14). Margins: Gen 14; below ch. 20; below ch. 26; the Hebrews think Sem was Melchisedech, but falsely. ↩