CONCERNING THE GOOD TIDINGS OF SETH, TO WHICH WE MUST GIVE EAR
And the Lord grew compassionate toward Adam, and sent his angel unto him, saying: Know thy wife that thou mayest have a son instead of Abel.
Adam said: I cannot know my wife, for I knew her twice, and that was a greater punishment than my expulsion from the Garden. For as long as I see Abel covered with blood, my heart is grieved and vexes me; and when I turn and see Cain's punishment, my tears run down. And if I know my wife again, that might be the cause of another grief and affliction.
The angel said: Fear not, Adam; for God shall give thee a son and thou shalt call his name Seth, which being interpreted is, consolation. He shall be the blessed seed, and the head of patriarchs, and shall be a comfort unto thee; forasmuch as Cain's wickedness has caused thee sorrow, so much comfort shall Seth afford thee. And thy seed and the seed of Seth shall multiply, and the world shall be filled with it. But let not the seed of Seth, or the seed of others of thy children, be mixed with that of Cain's generation; for if they mix themselves with that generation, thy good children shall become wicked, and then all shall be punished together.
Now when the angel gave unto Adam the good tidings regarding Seth, he had no other child of the seed of Cain. When Seth was born, there were three hundred and ninety women, and twenty four men. Cain, thirty years after he was married, murdered Abel, who would have been married in the same year; but this did not take place, and so he became a virgin martyr. When Seth and others of his brothers were born, his parents were comforted on account of him, according to the tidings of the angel. So the seed of Seth and of his brethren multiplied; but they chased away the seed of Cain and did not mix with them, and they lived virtuously.
And the son of Seth, Enoch, the good Fruit, asked his father, saying: Why is Adam, our grandfather, grieved?
Seth said: He is afflicted for having tasted of the fruit, for which he was expelled from the Garden.
And Enoch said unto his father: The debt of the father must be paid by the son.
Wherefore Enoch did not marry; He planted a vineyard. It was a large vineyard, filled with all good things, and he worked in it sixty-four years. Every man tasted of its fruits, but he, Enoch, did not taste at all. He wore on his head an iron helmet, that he should not look up into the fruits of the trees; and for sixty-four years he was a vine-dresser, but he did not eat of the vineyard. And God commanded His angels, and they took him up in his body, and placed him in Paradise, where he is until this day.
And when the other children of Seth and Adam saw that Enoch, on account of his purity and fasting, was taken up into Paradise, many of them departed and retired to mountains, and devoted themselves to purity and mortification.
But in Cain's seed the maidens multiplied exceedingly; so that one hundred women walked after one man, and for one man they quarreled, and they snatched him from one another; for the men were few in number, but the women and the maidens were numerous. The seed of Seth and his brethren did not mix with them, but lived piously. There were many good men among them; there were five hundred and twenty single men devoted to an austere life, and there was no possibility of their mixing with the seed of Cain.
But the young women of Cain's seed, invented the artifice of carmine and of flake-white, with which they made their faces red and white; they dyed their eyebrows, and painted their eyes, and put on antimony; they decked their hair with curls, and invented different kinds of musical instruments. They reddened their feet and their hands with alkanet, and with other ornaments they decked and embellished their persons. And with trimmed garments, and with all kinds of music dancing joyfully, they went into the mountain; and with clapping of hands and sounding trumpets, and making long gyrations, and singing all kinds of songs, they mixed with the children of Seth and deceived them. There were five hundred and twenty solitary men, and only Noah remained a virgin; all the others mixed up with them and became more wicked than they, and more lascivious than dogs. Neither the father discerned his daughter, nor the mother distinguished her son, nor the sister her brother. In this way they continued to live an adulterous life, and bore not God in mind.
Wherefore God, on account of the multitude of their sins, was wroth with them, and willed to destroy them by water. Therefore God commanded Noah to build an ark, and to marry. But when the angel came and told Noah to take a wife, Noah would not do so, for he was five hundred years old.
And the angel said: Thou must fulfill the command of God, for He is going to destroy all the world by water; all shall be drowned, and thou shalt become a new Adam, and from thy seed all the world shall be filled.
Noah said: How long shall I live in this world?
The angel said: .. Thou hast lived five hundred years, and thou shalt live four hundred years more.
Noah said: ..Four hundred years pass away like a dream in the night; why then for a transitory dream should I contaminate my virginity?
The angel said: It is the Lord's command, thou canst not go against it.
Noah said: I know not whether there is any pure woman left that I may take her to wife.
The angel said: There is a pure virgin, whose name is Noamzarah, take her to wife; then begin to construct an ark, its length an hundred and fifty cubits, its breadth fifty, and its height thirty cubits.
And the angel departed from him, therefore Noah took a wife. And while he was building the ark, the hatchet cried out, the axe cried out, the saw cried out, and so did the wood, saying: Behold, the flood is coming up and it shall destroy the world.
When Noah heard that voice, melting in tears he entreated God to be patient and wait for him twenty-seven days. And when Noah went up to the upper story, he placed two planks one upon the other; and the planks cried out that the flood was coming up. All the beasts came up two by two, and went into the ark; and of clean beasts in sevens and sevens. So the irrational animals understood the coming of the flood, but men did not understand.
And Noah went into the ark, he and his sons; he shut up the door, and pitched and cemented its sides with pitch. And the windows of heaven were opened, and the water came out from beneath, and fell down from above. Many made an attempt to escape and go into the ark, but they were drowned on the way. During forty days the waters increased and covered the tops of the mountains. And about a year the ark remained upon the waters, and then drifted and rested upon mount Massis.
And at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven, that he might bring him back some sign; and he went and found the dead bodies to feed upon and came back no more. Then he sent forth a dove; and the dove flew and wandered upon the tops of the mountains and found three flowers and brought them as a sign, and presented them unto Noah. Then Noah let loose all the birds.
And when three months had expired, he opened the ark and saw that the mountains and the hills were dry, but the plain was covered with water, he then sent forth all the beasts. But of the clean animals and of the fowls, which went into the ark seven and seven, he offered unto God, as a portion, one of every seven, and entreated God to destroy the world no more by water. And his offering was accepted, and the Lord heard his prayer.
And he requested the Lord saying: Give me a sign of reconciliation.
And the Lord said: Look towards the east.
And Noah saw the sign of a bow in red and green that had come down.
And God said unto Noah: This shall be a token of my reconciliation with thy children. When they see the bow, they shall know that the Lord is compassionate to them; so this shall be my covenant with thee and with thy children, that I will no more cause the flood to come upon the earth; and if they commit evil, I will reprove them with another punishment.
And Noah being blessed by God, descended the mountain, and dwelt in Agori. When his seed multiplied, they went down to Itchevan and there they dwelt three hundred years. And his two sons, Andoon and Manetoon, as well as the other children, were fruitful and multiplied, and populated Nakhitchevan, and from there they re-populated the whole world. And the name of the place was called Nakhitchevan, and there is Noah's tomb.
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