(Verse 6.) And the Lord said to Cain: Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. We are compelled to linger longer on each individual. For even now the meaning is very different in the Hebrew than in the translators of the Septuagint. For the Lord said to Cain: Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. And to you is his alliance: but you must rule over him more. But, he says: Why are you angry, and why are you tormented by envy towards your brother, with the bitterness of jealousy, you turn your face to the ground? If you do well, will not your sin be forgiven you? Or, as Theodotion says, will it be acceptable: that is, I will accept your offering, as I have accepted your brother's? But if you do evil, then sin will immediately sit before your doorstep, and you will be accompanied by such a guardian. But because you have free will, I advise you to not be conquered by sin, but to conquer sin. The mistake that the Septuagint interpreters made is this: that the word for sin, which is 'Attath' in Hebrew, is masculine gender, but in Greek it is feminine gender. And those who translated it, translated it with the masculine gender (as it was in Hebrew).
4:8
(Verse 8) And Cain said to his brother Abel. It is understood what the Lord said. Therefore, it is superfluous, what is found in the Samaritan and our volume, Let us go to the field.
4:15
(Verse 15.) Everyone who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold vengeance. Aquila interpreted it sevenfold. Symmachus, the seventh. Theodotion, by the week. On this chapter, our letter to Bishop Damasus exists.
4:16
(Verse 16.) And he dwelt in the land of Naid. Which the Septuagint translated as Naid, but in Hebrew it is called Nod, meaning 'shaking', that is, unstable and fluctuating, with an uncertain dwelling place. Therefore, it is not the land of Naid, as our common people think, but the divine sentence is fulfilled, that he wandered and fled here and there.
4:25
(Verse 25) And he called his name Seth. For God has provided me another offspring in place of Abel, whom Cain killed. Seth, properly θέσις, that is, position, is called because God had set him in place of Abel. Finally, Aquila says: And he called his name Seth, saying: For God has placed another offspring for me.
4:26
(Verse 26) And he called his name Enos: this one hoped to invoke the name of the Lord God. Just as Adam () is interpreted as 'man': so also Enos () according to the variety of the Hebrew language is called 'man' or 'vir'. And it is beautiful because he had this word, it is written about him, 'Then was the beginning of invoking the name of the Lord God': although many Hebrews interpret it differently, that at that time idols were first made in the name of the Lord and in his likeness.
5:2
(Chapter 5 - Verse 2) He created them male and female, and blessed them. And he named them Adam, that is, man. The name man applies equally to both men and women.
5:3
(Verse 3.) Adam lived for two hundred and thirty years, and he begot in his own image and likeness, and he called his name Seth. It should be known that until the Flood, where it is said that somebody is said to have begotten two hundred and something years in our codices, in the Hebrew it has one hundred years and the rest that follow.
5:4
(Verse 4) Now the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were seven hundred years. And he fathered other sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
5:25
(Verse 25.) And Methuselah lived for 167 years and begot Lamech. And Methuselah lived, after he begot Lamech, for 802 years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Methuselah, that he lived, were 969 years, and he died. The famous question, and the subject of dispute among all the churches, is that, according to careful calculation, Methuselah is said to have lived fourteen years after the flood. For when Methuselah was sixty-seven years old, he begot Lamech. And again, Lamech, when he was eighty-eight years old, begot Noah. And they lived together until the day of Noah's birth, which was three hundred and fifty-five years after Methuselah's birth. But in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, the flood occurred. And by this calculation, it is proven that the flood happened in the nine hundred and fifty-fifth year of Methuselah's life. However, since he is said to have lived for more than 969 years, there is no doubt that he lived for 14 years after the flood. And how is it true that only eight souls were saved in the ark? Therefore, it remains that just as there is an error in number in many things, there is also an error in this. For in both the Hebrew and Samaritan books, I found it written: And Methuselah lived 187 years and fathered Lamech. And Methuselah lived, after he begot Lamech, seven hundred eighty-two years and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, and he died. And Lamech lived one hundred eighty-two years and begot Noah. From the day of the birth of Methuselah to the day of the birth of Noah, there are three hundred sixty-nine years. Add to these six hundred years of Noah's life: because in the six hundredth year of his life the deluge occurred: and so it happens that in the nine hundred and sixty-ninth year of his life Methuselah died, in that year when the deluge began.
5:29
(Verse 29.) And he called his name Noah, saying: This one shall bring us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
6:2
(Chapter VI - Verse 2) But the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair. The Hebrew word Elohim (), is of common gender: and both God and gods are called by this name. Hence, Aquila, in the plural number, dared to call them Sons of gods, understanding them to mean the Holy Ones or Angels. For God stands in the assembly of gods: but in the midst of them He judgeth gods. (Alternate reading: judgeth). (Psalm LXXXI, 1). Therefore, Symmachus, following a similar interpretation, says: The sons of the powerful saw the daughters of men, and so on.
6:3
(Version 3.) And the Lord God said: My spirit will not dwell in these men forever, because they are flesh. In Hebrew, it is written, My spirit will not judge these men forever, because they are flesh: that is, because the condition of man is fragile, I will not subject them to eternal torment; but here I will restore to them what they deserve. Therefore, it signifies not severity, as it is read in our codices, but rather the mercy of God, while the sinner is visited here for his crime. And an angry God speaks to some: I will not visit their daughters, when they have fornicated, and their wives, when they have committed adultery (Hosea IV, 14). And in another place: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with scourges: nevertheless, I will not take away my mercy from them (Ps. LXXXVIII, 33). Furthermore, so that it does not appear cruel on His part for not giving a place of repentance to sinners, He added: But their days shall be one hundred and twenty years. This is, they will have 120 years to do penance. Therefore, human life, as many err, is not condensed into 120 years: but to that generation, 120 years were given for penance. For we find that after the flood, Abraham lived for 175 years, and others for over 200 and 300 years. But because they refused to do penance, God did not want to wait for the appointed time: but with 20 years cut off, He brought about the flood in the 100th year designated for doing penance.