Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2013, Síða 20

qu. 1,13 (to Gen 8,6-9)
quod scriptum est dimissum esse
coruum nec redisse et dimissam post
eum columbam et ipsam redisse,
quod non inuenisset requiem
pedibus suis, quaestio solet oboriri,
utrum coruus mortuus sit an aliquo
modo uiuere potuerit.
quia utique, si fuit terra ubi
requiesceret, etiam columba requiem
potuit inuenire pedibus suis.
unde conicitur a multis, quod
cadaueri potuit coruus insidere,
quod columba naturaliter refugit.
A second example concerns the story
qu. 1,1 (to Gen 4,17)
quomodo Cain potuerit condere
ciuitatem, cum ciuitas alicui utique
constituatur hominum multitudini,
illi autem duo parentes et duo filii
fuisse referantur.
Regarding the biblical text that says
that a raven was sent out and did
not return and that afterwards a
dove was sent out and it returned
because it found no place to rest its
feet, the question is raised, whether
the raven had died or had managed
to survive in some way.
For, had there been some ground,
where the raven was able to rest,
then the dove also should have been
able to find a resting-place for its
feet.
For that reason, many suppose that
the raven was able to land on a
cadaver, whereas the dove instincti-
vely recoiled from doing this.
of Cain. Augustine writes:
How was Cain able to found a
city? Self-evidently, founding a city
requires a large number of people,
but, according to the biblical story,
there were only the two parents and
the two sons at this time.
Here, Augustine, always a lover of number games, hits upon the following
solution. He assumes that Cain had lived as long as the other patriarchs
before the Deluge, and then he compares the average length of their lives,
some 800 years, with the number of years during which the family of Jacob
grew into the people of Israel, namely 430 years according to Exodus 12:40
or 400 years according to Genesis 15:13:
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