Chapter seven. Chronology of the forefathers of antediluvian times

Remember the forefathers: do not touch what is reserved!

This article about the environmental reforms of Peter the Great, brought to the attention of readers, was written by Konstantin Nikolaevich BLAGOSKLONOV (1910–1985). Zoologist, associate professor at Moscow University, he stood at the origins of the environmental movement in our country, devoting his half-century of work as a scientist to it.

“Command” or “command” - command, prescribe, punish for unfailing, constant fulfillment.

To command a forest is to prohibit logging in it; this is done solemnly: a priest with images or even banners walks around it in front of the people and elders, they sing “Glory in the highest” and prohibit entry for a certain number of years.

A reserve is a reserved forest, a grove where felling is prohibited. Do not touch the reserved one. C'mon, it's commanded. Remember your forefathers: do not touch what is reserved!”

V. I. Dal

Even in ancient times, the need arose to streamline the use of natural resources. In our country, it has been known at least since the time of Yaroslav the Wise’s “Russian Truth,” which discussed restrictions on the hunting of wild animals and birds, and their illegal hunting was severely punished.

The concept of conservation has existed in Rus' since the time of Alexei Mikhailovich, since it was he who declared the Seven Islands in the Barents Sea (now part of the Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve) a sovereign commandment in order to preserve the nesting grounds of falcons and gyrfalcons.

Only special “greyfowl washers” were allowed to harvest chicks here, who kissed the cross that all the birds caught would be delivered to the king. In our modern understanding, this form of territory protection can be called a reserve.

However, much greater attention to many issues of nature conservation in Russia, and in the national interests, was paid in the reforms of Peter the Great.

The tsar’s breadth of outlook is amazing; his decrees provide for the protection of forests, animals, birds and fish, water resources, mineral resources; even urban landscaping was not forgotten. But problems of soil and air protection did not exist then, fortunately.

“Prohibition for indispensable, constant execution”

The first reserves, in which the territory, the forest itself, was protected, were created by Peter. There were many protected forests along the Volga, below the mouth of the Oka, and fines for cutting down trees in them were set two to three times higher than in other places. While in Kazan, the tsar himself inspected the local forests and established the Kazan vice-governor in charge of them.

Peter commanded not only forests and groves, but also certain types of trees: oak, elm, elm, ash, elm, larch, pine from 12 vershoks. These trees were not allowed to be cut in a zone 50 versts from large rivers and 25 from small ones.

The instruction “On the storage of protected forests” (1732) states that for each illegally felled oak tree, you must be fined 15 rubles, “and for many protected forests, if you cut them down... you will be sent to hard labor.”

Most of the population of that time was illiterate. Therefore, “so that in future no one would excuse themselves by ignorance of the decrees,” Peter the Great ordered that “this decree be read in churches on all Sundays to parish people.” And in villages and villages near which there are protected forests, “put up high pillars, nail to them copies of the decree on penalties for cutting in protected forests,” and nail them in such a way “so that these sheets are not wasted by water from rain and in winter from snow.”

“...Don’t cut too much”

In Peter's environmental decrees, both passed through the Senate and personal, that is, drawn up and signed by the Tsar individually, most of all, everything is said about the same forest. It is often believed that the Tsar Carpenter cared for Russian forests solely as a shipbuilder. Indeed, it took up to 4,000 oak trees to build one ship.

It is known that of all European countries, forest reserves were undermined first and most severely in Spain. This is the price of the country’s maritime power, which lasted almost until the end of the 16th century. The Invincible Armada alone cost Spain half a million selected oak trees. And to this day, this country, which has become semi-desert, is making efforts to restore its forestry, destroyed in past centuries.

D. Shmarinov. Frontispiece for the book “Peter the Great”

But Peter, apparently, also understood the water conservation significance of the forest. By the time the king traveled through Europe, most of the forests here had already been cut down, especially along the rivers, and the consequences of this were visible. In any case, Peter constantly paid attention to the preservation of riverine forests, regardless of whether they were suitable for shipbuilding or not. Here, for example, is one of the instructions of this kind: “From St. Petersburg to the Slavyanka River, on both sides of the Neva River, do not cut down forests... leaving a thousand fathoms from the banks.”

The “little by little” forest saving regime that Peter carried out steadily is also surprising. His decrees required the complete use of wood and, where possible, the replacement of more valuable wood with less valuable wood. There were plenty of forests in Rus' at that time. However, the tsar severely limited the supply of timber abroad. For the complete, so to speak, integrated use of wood, a state monopoly on potash and resin was declared, and it was ordered to extract them from logging waste.

It was confirmed several times (decrees of 1715 and 1718) “to cut down pine and spruce wood for firewood and charcoal burning, which is dry and crooked, and dead wood, and which is not suitable for ships and for any ship and mansion buildings.” “And for cutting for runners, for axles, and for wheels, and for hoops, and for other needs, order to cut from unusable oak.”

The king forbade making tes in the old way. Previously, a log was split in half with wedges and one board was cut out of each half with an ax; most of the wood was turned into chips. The orders were to only saw the boards.

“Have care and attention over forests”

The importance of forests in the country's economy was so great that Peter established the Waldmaster's Office at the Admiralty College (1722). For the first time, an independent forestry management system was created, the prototype of the ministry. The office was headed by the Chief Waldmeister; subordinate to him were the Waldmeisters, who were in charge of the protected forests along the Volga, Oka, Dnieper and other rivers. Each had a staff of non-commissioned Waldmeisters under their command. The lower ranks were overseers or supervisors. A special decree stipulated: “...where ship scaffolding is found, assign supervisors in those places.”

All officials of this system were given greater rights, for example, to levy a fine, but they themselves, caught in harboring violators or other abuses, were punished harshly: by having their nostrils pulled out and being sent to hard labor.

Peter also signed a “blasphemous”, from the point of view of large landowners, Decree, which prohibited, under threat of punishment, landowners from cutting down oak forest on their own land without the permission of an official of the Waldmeister Chancellery, which caused discontent among them as an encroachment on property.

Instructions were drawn up on the procedure for cutting down forests. All of them were divided into reserved and non-reserved; logging was allowed only in forests of the second category. Peter himself once allocated forests to the breeders as a fuel reserve. Now it was ordered to divide all these forests into 25-30 cutting areas and cut down no more than one per year. Forest felling was prohibited from being transferred to another type of land, plowed under a field, or built up. It was necessary to “start” it with forest growth and “not to give that young forest for any needs, but to preserve it until it comes into use.”

Author of the drawing: I. Glazunov

Peter himself monitored the implementation of his decrees; in 1716, he wrote to the governor of Nizhny Novgorod an order for investigation: “Inflict cruel punishment and ruin on those who disobey the decree by taking away all their property, and then confirm with decrees with a cruel fine, so that oak forests are protected, not cut down and didn’t dry it out.”

The Russian Tsar introduced a certain order in forest management, but the very fact of showing such care indicated that even then the forest reserves did not seem limitless to him. The forest needed to be restored. Peter not only wrote about this in decrees, but also planted many trees with his own hands. The first oak grove was founded by him at the end of the 17th century near Taganrog, and shortly before his death, in 1723, he took care of planting forests in Astrakhan. These were the first attempts at steppe afforestation.

In 1709, by order of Peter, the Shipov Forest in the Voronezh region was classified as a protected ship oak forest; about 30% of it is still oak trees. It is assumed that the name of the forest itself comes from the English ship - ship, that is, it was precisely a ship's forest. There is reason to believe that here, too, the Russian Tsar had a hand in planting oak trees.

Peter was also involved in urban planting, so to speak, urban greening. Under him and, apparently, with his direct participation, the first public parks were founded in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the spring of 1712, the tsar personally sowed oak acorns in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. In 1717, he intended to plant beech trees in the vicinity of his new capital.

“On July 16, Peter set off to sea with the entire fleet. On the 19th he arrived in Revel. On the 22nd, Peter laid the foundation for a country garden in Revel” - this is how A.S. Pushkin spoke about these days of 1718.

To protect urban plantings, a special decree prohibited “grazing livestock without a shepherd, since these livestock, walking along the streets and other places, damage roads and trees; and if those cattle continue to walk the streets and in other places without shepherds, then those cattle will be taken without money to the hospital.”

Peter's botanical interests were much wider than just forestry and landscaping. In 1702, they were ordered to bring herbs from Siberia to the “Moscow Pharmacy”, and by the Decree of 1724, an apothecary garden was established in Moscow (now the Botanical Garden of Moscow University).

“Hunting, where ordered, would have been stored”

Even under Ivan the Terrible, the Tsar’s brother-in-law Nikita Romanov produced some devices for the Tsar’s hunts near the village of Izmailovo. From this time, apparently, the name “Izmailovsky Menagerie” arose. It was here that Peter intended to breed mulberry trees and silkworms; various animals caught in the Caucasus and other places were released here. Since 1700, the reserve regime of the Izmailovsky Forest was established.

And when Peter found out that poachers were rampant there, destroying the fruits of his labors, he burst out with a Decree (April 18, 1708): “Nowadays, the Great Sovereign knows that it has happened that in those Izmailovo meadows, along the rivers, and along the ponds, and on the lakes all kinds of ranks of people with birds of prey (- K.B.) and with arquebuses, they catch birds and shoot at them from arquebuses ... "

The manager of the village of Izmailovo, Voivode Afrosimov, was ordered to deliver “those people who will be caught” to the Preobrazhensky Prikaz. For illegal hunting, people of higher ranks were charged 100 rubles, and lower ranks were threatened with punishment “cruel without any mercy” and “exile to Azov with their wives and children for eternal life.”

I. Glazunov. Illustration for the story “Scarecrow” by N. Leskov

Peter the Great was not a hunter like his father Alexei Mikhailovich. A. S. Pushkin even ascribes the following words to young Peter: “Know that it is fitting for a king to be a warrior, and hunting is a servile occupation.” Nevertheless, Peter took part in the hunts and, without a doubt, took a businesslike interest in the fur, personal and fishing industries of Russia.

It is known from the chronicle that in 1552 there were many moose in the Moscow state. In this year, when young Ivan IV went to Kazan, the moose, according to the chronicler, “like an impostor to the parishioner for slaughter...”

The huge Russian army had enough meat. Three centuries later, in 1843, the largest Russian zoologist of that time, Professor of Moscow University K. F. Roulier, in a speech dedicated to the animal world of the Moscow province, stated that there were absolutely no moose left in it.

When did the population decline begin? Apparently, under Peter it already took place, if the tsar considered it necessary to ban the shooting of moose in the St. Petersburg province (1714). This was the first ban on elk hunting.

Another animal that needed protection was the beaver. A particularly rapid extermination of beavers began in the 17th century, when the steel trap was invented. Even Peter’s grandfather, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, sent a letter to the “Great Perm” governor, “so that all people who catch beavers and otters with traps would not catch and beat them, but that beavers and otters would still be caught without traps.”

Overhunting has sharply reduced the number and distribution of beavers. Since the skins and “down” for making the best felt went abroad, the king, not being able to control the fishery itself, put a barrier to it in another place. This was the Decree “On the non-release of beaver fluff overseas.” The export of such goods abroad could be strictly controlled.

At the beginning of his reign, Peter became convinced of the decline in sable procurement in Siberia, and a series of decrees followed to regulate the production of this truly precious animal. Already in 1696, sables and “other junk” were declared a monopoly of the treasury.

By decree of Peter the Great, for the first time around 1716, an attempt was made to acclimatize small birds. Here is what the same K. F. Roulier wrote about this in 1846: “Travelers say that forty years before 1756 there were at least as many small and songbirds near Moscow as mosquitoes, and that the first ones were exported at that time by the government with more than 1,500 rubles for the population of the outskirts of St. Petersburg.”

Peter had a good understanding of the names of birds, especially southern ones, which were not found near Moscow or St. Petersburg. We can judge this from the tsar’s letter to the Voronezh vice-governor S.A. Kolychev with an order to catch and send various birds to St. Petersburg. Attached to the letter was his own handwritten “Painting of Birds of Different Kinds.”

Peter ordered to deliver: “Small cranes, that is, belladonnas (K.B.); storks such that the feathers are black and gray, and their noses and legs are red, or as if scarlet (the now rare black stork is described - K.B). Terek ducks, spearheads, geese, drokhvas, chapuroks, bluebirds, which have good feathers, and all sorts of other genera, except women (pelicans - K.B.), and swans, and cormorants.” A few years later (1718), the tsar sent a similar Decree on the capture of birds to the Astrakhan governor.

Biotechnically, the instructions for the temporary keeping of various waterfowl in captivity and their transportation by water from Astrakhan to St. Petersburg were written quite competently. We can only assume that these decorative birds were ordered to acclimatize them in St. Petersburg, to decorate the new capital.

“If they catch young fish, then there’s nothing to be big about”

During the time of Peter the first statements appeared in the press about the need to protect nature. Russian economist and publicist Ivan Tikhonovich Pososhkov wrote for Peter the Great “The Book of Poverty and Wealth,” proposing many government reforms (1724). It also spoke about the need to take measures to protect forests and fish resources: “Nowadays, many people complain about fish, saying: “The fish are doing badly.” But they don’t teach him why it became bad, nor why the fishing has become so bad, only because young fish are caught, then there is no reason to be great.”

Peter’s “Charter on Fishing” greatly limited fishing in the country’s inland waters, prohibited some destructive fishing methods, and limited the timing. One of the most destructive methods of fishing is the construction of fences - blocking the river with a fence with a top, into which all the fish that went upstream in the spring to spawn were caught. Predatory fishing - using hauling hooks without bait (also “hooking”), in which many fish left wounded. The Decree ordered that such poachers be dealt with in the most severe ways.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the Russian pearl fishery had fallen into decline: the river mollusk - the pearl mussel - was caught in many northern rivers, and this was the reason for the appearance of Peter the Great's Decree of 1721, which greatly limited and in some places prohibited the fishery. However, it was not possible to save the pearl mussel - the mollusk had already disappeared from most rivers.

“So that these rivers do not become littered”

The king's concern for the cleanliness of the environment is simply amazing. The prohibition of cutting wood along the banks is quite understandable, but Peter forbade the processing of imported wood near rivers, “so that the rivers would not be littered from those chips and rubbish.”

The Neva and other rivers of the capital were the subject of special concern of the tsar. The Senate in 1718 prohibited throwing garbage into rivers and canals or leaving it on ice. But when it turned out that the Decree was being implemented poorly, Peter in 1719 replaced it with a new, personalized one, which, among other things, said: “People of all ranks did not dare to take any droppings and rubbish from their yards on the Neva and to other rivers, and in those days the rivers were not thrown, so that those rivers would become littered with such droppings,” and further: “and for such His Royal Majesty’s Personal Decree, the opposition (for exporting and for throwing droppings and garbage into the rivers) of senior persons to the servants, and the lower ones themselves will be punished “They will be beaten with a whip and exiled to eternal hard labor.”

The instructions for Moscow, which repeated almost verbatim the St. Petersburg one, were, however, more merciful: those who littered the rivers were only supposed to be beaten with batogs.

The famous “Marine Regulations of Peter the Great,” written by him, speaks many times about the non-pollution of rivers. The captain over the port (such a position was established) was obliged to observe “so that ballast or any rubbish was not thrown.”

In all harbors, rivers, roadsteads and marinas of the Russian state, ballast from ships could only be thrown out in specially designated convenient places.

According to Peter, it is important “to have cleanliness at the shipyard and other things that are necessary for good economy.” Even the position of prafos was established, who monitored the cleanliness of this place; for pollution with ballast or other rubbish, violators were punished with fines, whipping, cats, or exile to hard labor, and foreigners - the first time with a fine of 100 efimki for each shovel of ballast, and the second - confiscation of the ship.

Cleanliness in the port had to be observed during all types of work. The masons were required “to ensure that no crushed stone gets into the water, but onto the scaffolding, from which the crushed stone should be cleaned as often as possible and carried ashore to a convenient place under a fine of fifty rubles.” When there was carpentry work near the ships, it was necessary to do so “so that the wood chips did not fall into the water, but onto rafts or scaffolds, and to have nets on poles with which to remove wood chips from the water, and in winter to clear them from the ice and transport them on all days at a convenient time.” place".

According to Peter, it is important “to have cleanliness at the shipyard and other things that are necessary for good economy.” Even the position of praphos was established to oversee cleanliness.

Grandfathers of Mazai of all rivers, unite! Author of the drawing: L. Tishkov

“The essence is the fruits of an extensive mind...”

A year before his death, Peter began planning the work of the Academy of Sciences. He communicated with major European scientists on Academy affairs and corresponded with the great mathematician and philosopher Leibniz. The Academy's main task was to study Russia. By 1709, the Russian general map and a number of maps of “circumstances” of Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Azov and other cities were published for the first time.

In 1724, Peter ordered to describe the Baltic Sea, although 14 maps of the Baltic, good for that time, had already been compiled. A detailed study of Siberia began, and immediately upon discovering any necessary natural resources, Peter sought to use them. As soon as the Greek A. Levendiad found silver ore in Siberia, he was granted a royal charter for the plant. The same thing happened with the construction of factories by Nikita Demidov.

Peter was not alien to the interests of education in the field of natural history. He opened the first Russian natural history museum in St. Petersburg - the “Kunstkamera”.

Alas, in many of his affairs Peter was not understood either by his contemporaries or his descendants. This, in any case, also applies to his concerns about preserving the country’s natural resources.

From the magazine “Ural Pathfinder” and based on materials provided by the family of K. N. Blagosklonov

TAG?

Magazine "Socium" 1992 No. 6 (18)

Russian Orthodox Church

A significant part of the biblical events took place on Syrian soil, but today we regret to say that there are fewer and fewer Christians there. Biblical scholar, doctor of theology, representative of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' to the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Hegumen Arseny (Sokolov) tells how the Christmas holiday is celebrated in Syria.

— Father Arseny, you have been engaged in Old Testament research for a long time. One of the Sundays before Christmas is called the Week of the Holy Forefathers. At the All-Night Vigil of this day, a beautiful canon was read, which lists the names of the Old Testament righteous. Why is it important for modern people to know these names and the feat of their forefathers? Why do Christians even need to read the Old Testament if there is a New Testament?

— We have some uncertainty with our forefathers. Who are considered forefathers? The righteous before Abraham or all the pre-Christian saints? Among the Jews, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve patriarchs are called fathers. It turns out that all the righteous before Abraham are forefathers. Our forefathers, for example, include Jonathan, the son of Saul.

The names and exploits of the antediluvian and post-flood righteous people must be known and remembered because they remained faithful to the One God in the most difficult circumstances, in the midst of a godless and idolatrous environment, sometimes in an atmosphere of general apostasy. The New Testament sets them as examples for Christians, whose first generations suffered persecution at the hands of the cruel, idolatrous Roman authorities and needed encouragement and strengthening by these examples. And in our age of growing apostasy and impending global catastrophe, the examples of such righteous people as Noah, Eber, and Abraham can strengthen and inspire us to fight.

Everywhere in the New Testament where we find the word “Scripture” or “Writings,” we are talking about that part of the Bible that we call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) was the Scripture of the first generations of Christians; they did not yet have the New Testament books. Even the Resurrection of Christ must be believed “according to the Scriptures,” that is, as the fulfillment of the ancient Israelite prophecies contained in the Scriptures. This “according to the Scriptures” is so important that it is even included in the Creed - a church document in which there are not and cannot be unnecessary words.

If from the New Testament we remove all direct and indirect Old Testament quotations, allusions to the Old Testament, themes, images, examples, motifs common to the Old Testament, and in general all intertextuality between the New and Old Testaments, then almost nothing will remain of the New Testament. The New Testament cannot be understood without the Old, and the New Testament does not exist without the Old.

The intrinsic value of the Old Testament is obvious. What would we know about the origin of the world and man if we did not have the book of Genesis? What reliable information could we know about the past and future of humanity if we did not have Scripture? How could we believe in the Resurrection of Christ “according to the Scriptures” if we did not have the Scriptures? How would we pray if we did not have the Psalter - this main prayer book of Israel and the New Testament Church? For us Christians, the psalms are also dear because (and above all) because they are the prayer book of Christ Himself. “Christ is the true prayer of the psalms,” said St. Augustine. Christ prays through psalms. Well, we are together with Him, His messianic people.

— You now live in Syria, which belongs to the Old Testament lands. Which righteous people of the Old Testament were associated with Syria? Are there any artifacts associated with them, especially given the recent military activities?

— In the biblical “ideal geography”, the territory in which the Syrian Arab Republic is now located should have belonged to the Holy Land of Israel. According to Deuteronomist history, Damascus was subject to David and Solomon. Later, in the 8th century BC, under Jeroboam II, perhaps the most successful king of the Northern Kingdom, Damascus again found itself in the orbit of influence of the Kingdom of Israel. It is unclear, however, whether Damascus was then included in Israel or only recognized vassal dependence on it.

Abraham's steward Eleazar (Genesis) and the Syrian military leader Naaman (4th Book of Kings) came from Syria (Aram), but they can hardly be called righteous. Of the prophets, Elijah was directly associated with Syria, or more precisely with Damascus, the capital of the South Syrian Union of city-states. The Lord God commanded him to go to Damascus and anoint Hazael (Hazael in the Synodal translation) king over Syria (see: 1 Kings 19:15). Subsequently, the prophet Elisha predicted Khazael (it is unclear whether he was the same or his namesake - they were all called Khazael and Ben-Haddad) to reign over Syria (see: 4 Kings 8). Written prophets, beginning with Amos, uttered prophecies against Damascus and Syria.

Mentioned in Scripture is Bozrah (Bozrah in the Synodal Version) - once this city in Gilead (not to be confused with southern Bozrah in Edom) belonged to the half-tribe of Manasseh, now it is Arab Busra in southern Syria, in the province of Deraa. Mention is made of Hamat (present-day Hama, in the Synodal translation Hamath), Tadmor (Palmyra), Arwad on the Mediterranean coast and other cities located on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.

— Tell us how life is in your parish in Damascus? How do you celebrate big holidays, such as Christmas? Is it peaceful in Damascus now? After all, just recently the city was shelled...

— There has been no parish at the representative office of the Russian Orthodox Church in Damascus for a long time. When the war began in Syria in 2011, everyone who could evacuated from here and are unlikely to ever return. There are only those left who have nowhere to go, who are not needed by anyone either in Russia, or in Ukraine, or anywhere else, a very small handful of Russian women, widows, who once married Syrians. Before the war, the representative office in Damascus had a medium-sized parish, there was a children's Sunday school, and there was a church choir. But that's all in the past.

The holidays are modest. After the Liturgy, celebrated in radical simplicity (there is no one to sing, read, or help at the altar), I conduct a Bible study with the faithful—three to five parishioners—then we drink coffee and go our separate ways until the next Sunday or holiday. There are sometimes terrorist attacks, but Damascus is generally calm now.

— The Antioch Church has already celebrated the birth of the Savior into the world. It is known that Christian Arabs celebrate their holidays quite actively. Please tell us how this happened in Damascus this year?

— On the morning of December 25, Christmas Matins and Liturgy took place in the Patriarchal Cathedral, located in the old part of Damascus. The services were performed by the Primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Patriarch John X, co-served by his vicars and cathedral clergy. Then everyone, accompanied by the drumbeat of the scout orchestra, marched to the coffee salon at the cathedral (in the Antiochian Church there is a coffee salon at every temple and monastery), where everyone drank coffee, and whoever wanted to, approached the Patriarch and congratulated him on Christmas.

There are fewer and fewer Christians in Syria, including Orthodox Christians. During the war years, from one third to half of Syrian Christians left their land, went wherever they looked - to Lebanon, Europe, Australia, South America. This is all very sad. After all, this is their home, and Christians in Syria and Iraq appeared six centuries earlier than Muslims. And now they found themselves strangers in their home. Once upon a time, in the 5th-6th centuries of the Christian era, Syria, like the entire Middle East, was almost one hundred percent Christian. Now Christians in Syria are a rapidly disappearing minority. And in Iraq it has almost melted away - over the past two decades, almost all Christians have left there: at the end of the 20th century there were about ten percent of the total population, now - barely one and a half. In Syria, this is happening less rapidly, but no less tragic. With the exodus of Christians from Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, these countries will lose the most essential component of their identity. Who will be interested in these countries if there are no Christians left in them, if the entire Middle East has the same monotonous religious landscape as in the Emirates, where there is only oil, sand, skyscrapers and mortal boredom?

— Now military operations in Syria are gradually fading away. It is known from the news reports that in previous years there was great persecution of Christians there. Do they exist now in a post-war country?

— You can no longer hear about the persecution of Christians in Syria in recent years. Radical militants were taken to the province of Idlib, closer to their Turkish patrons, most of the country was liberated from them, and Christians, fortunately, are not persecuted in the liberated territories.

Interviewed by Alexandra Kalinovskaya

Sretensky Monastery/ Patriarchia.ru

Chapter seven. Chronology of the forefathers of antediluvian times

Here is the genealogy of Adam: ...

(Gen. 5:1).

And further, the fifth chapter of the book of Genesis gives the genealogy of the antediluvian forefathers. There were ten of them. Ten generations of the human race passed from the creation of the world, or, more precisely, the expulsion of man from paradise, to the catastrophe of the global water flood. The Bible gives the number of years in which a son was born to the forefather, and the number of years of his entire life. This makes it possible to calculate the duration of the period from the creation of the world to the flood.

There is some problem in that various ancient Torah texts differ in the numbers given, mainly regarding the time of the son's birth. Below is a table of the years of life of the antediluvian forefathers according to the Masoretic, Samaritan and Greek (LXX) texts.

The Vulgate is exactly the same as the Masoretic Hebrew text. The Slavic text follows the Septuagint in everything, except in one case. Methuselah gives birth to Lamech at the age of 187 and lives after this for 782 years, which corresponds not to the Septuagint, but to the Vulgate. The Russian Synodal text follows the Masoretic text, and gives the Septuagint numbers in brackets. In the case of Methuselah, the Septuagint numbers are not given, apparently, because in the Slavic text the numbers according to the Vulgate (Masoretic text) are given here. Accordingly, in the Slavic and Russian texts the date of the flood is 2262 AD. (and in the biblical story of A.P. Lopukhin), which does not correspond to anything. One should, nevertheless, specifically adhere to the chronology of either the Hebrew (Masoretic) Bible or the Greek Septuagint, as is done, for example, by Prof. N.N. Glubokovsky293.

So, adding up the years of life of the forefathers before the birth of their son, we get three options for the date of the global flood.

– According to the Hebrew, Masoretic text, the global flood took place in 1656 from the creation of the world, or in 2348 BC.

– According to the Samaritan text, the worldwide flood occurred in 1307. This date places the flood at an earlier time, compared to the time determined by other texts. According to this calculation, only less than four centuries pass from the death of Adam to the flood that destroyed the first world and its civilization.

– According to the Greek text and, from it, the chronology adopted by Christians, from the creation of the world294 the global flood was in 2242. This corresponds to 3266 BC.

Prof. N.N. Glubokovsky, based on disagreements in the chronologies of the antediluvian forefathers of various ancient biblical texts, considers their historical significance to be uncertain and admits their symbolic meaning. According to the Hebrew text, he gives the following reasoning. If you combine the 1656 years from the creation of the world to the flood with the time from the flood to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, you get 2666 years, or 2/3 of 4000 years. And four thousand years, according to one Jewish legend, were supposed to pass from the creation of the world to the Messiah. Two-thirds of this period occurs at the time of the Exodus and the Sinai Covenant with Israel, and one-third of the time (1333 years) was to last for the Jewish theocracy295.

The chronology of the Hebrew text is often considered original, and is preferred by many modern biblical scholars, in addition to the Jews themselves. The testimony of the Samaritan Torah, however, also has its defenders, although, of course, much less. The testimony of the Septuagint was accepted by the Hellenistic Jews, and then by the ancient Christian church. The chronology from the creation of the world, according to the Septuagint, was (for a long time) accepted in many Christian countries. This chronology is more consistent with the antiquity of man and the antiquity of early human civilization.

What are the reasons why the data on antediluvian chronologies in various ancient biblical texts disagree? Modern biblical scholarship does not yet have a definitive answer to this question. All explanations are, to one degree or another, speculative. The following explanations are offered:

– Differences in the chronologies of ancient texts arose as a result of random errors of copyists. Such an explanation can hardly be exhaustive.

– The Samaritan text tries to shorten the supposedly incredible longevity of the forefathers. The years of life of the forefathers in the Samaritan Torah are less than in the Hebrew and Septuagint, but still very long, so this opinion hardly explains anything, and is unlikely.

– Seventy interpreters in the Septuagint tried to bring the biblical chronology into the Egyptian form.

– The Masoretes, or even earlier rabbis, deliberately shortened the time calculated before the flood, wanting to show that the fullness of time (the middle of the sixth day, i.e. 5500 years) had not yet arrived when Jesus of Nazareth preached and lived, and the Messiah had yet to should come. According to the Masoretic text, Jesus Christ was born in 4004. With this logic, the Jews should have expected the Messiah in the 16th century. according to R.H. Such expectations in the 17th century, indeed, led to the appearance among the Jews in 1648 of the false messiah Sabbatai Zevi. By the way, it is an interesting fact that both Jewish traditions about the coming of the Messiah four thousand years from the creation of the world and about his coming in the middle of the sixth day (millennium) found confirmation, one in the Jewish Masoretic text, the other in the Greek Septuagint.

The last hypothesis raises a serious question: could the Jewish synagogue of Masoretic times really have committed such a grandiose forgery? After all, it would be necessary to confiscate and destroy all previously existing Torah scrolls and thus obtain not at all such convincing evidence against the messianic dignity of Jesus of Nazareth. After all, Christians who read the Bible according to the translation from the Masoretic text believe in Jesus Christ, and the Vulgate coincides with it. Or is this accusation against the synagogue groundless? The coincidence of the Vulgate with the Masoretic text already frees the Masorets from this accusation. This could have happened only in the 1st-3rd centuries. according to R.H. The final answer, one hopes, will yet be given by biblical archaeology. (See table 5).

Chronology of the life of the antediluvian forefathers

Table 5

The longevity of the forefathers who lived before the Flood is amazing. Their spiritual and physical strength had not yet been weakened to the same extent as now. And the very nature of the earth before the flood was richer, had more vitality in itself than now. In the places of the far north, in the lifeless deserts of Africa and Asia, there were once flowering forests and rich vegetation. All this changed after the flood.

St. discusses in detail the spiritual superiority of the righteous who lived before the flood in comparison with the righteous after the flood. Methodius Patarsky. In his “Feast of the Ten Virgins” the maiden Procilla speaks about this. Reflecting on the 60 queens, 80 concubines and the only beloved Song of Songs (Song 6:8–9), the maiden Procilla at St. Methodia says: “So, the bride is the Church, and the queens are those royal souls that pleased God who lived before the flood, i.e. the times of Abel and Seth and Enoch; the concubines are the souls of the prophets who lived after the flood... Therefore (Scripture) symbolically called these souls sixty queens, who, soon after the creation of the world, successively nurtured the love of God and were, so to speak, almost the creations of the first century and close to the six-day creation … For they enjoyed great honor by conversing with angels and often contemplating God in reality, and not in a dream. Look what boldness Seth had before God, what Abel, what Enos, what Enoch, what Methuselah, what Noah - the first lovers of righteousness and the first of the firstborn written in heaven (Heb. 12:23), who inherited the kingdom... It is also necessary to say about cohabitants. Those who lived after the flood had a more distant knowledge of God, and they needed another teaching that would serve them as a cure and help with the spreading idolatry... Therefore, a number of prophets from the time of Abraham, according to the importance of circumcision, which contains the octal number and on whom the law depends, is called eighty concubinages.”296 The direct communion with God of the antediluvian forefathers was, of necessity, replaced after the flood by circumcision, law and teaching. And in physical life, the longevity of the forefathers decreased, first to 120 years, and then to seventy to eighty years.

The lifespan of the forefathers exceeded nine hundred years, but none of them reached the age of a thousand. With God a thousand years are like yesterday when it has passed

(Ps. 89:5).
The Apostle Peter says that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day
(2 Pet. 3:8).
Adam was told that on the day he ate the forbidden fruit he would die
. In relation to grace and one's immaculate nature, capable of immortality, this happened immediately on the day of the Fall. In relation to earthly life - this also came true in a peculiar way - neither Adam nor his descendants lived a day, which with the Lord is like a thousand years.

In this regard, the aggadic legend is peculiar: “... And not only did Eve give Adam fruits from the forbidden tree to eat, but she fed them to animals, birds, and beasts. Only the Phoenix bird resisted temptation. This bird lives forever, every thousand years burning in the flames coming out of its nest, and again being reborn from the ashes.”297 Man and animals stricken by sin do not reach the day of the millennium, but the Phoenix bird lives forever, and its life is made up of days of a thousand years.

The Jewish sages also reflected on the specific ages of the forefathers. Adam lived 930 years, giving 70 years to his descendant, the anointed one, King David, and the longest-living one, Methuselah, lived 969 years, for at thirty years old the Messiah, the son of David, was supposed to appear to the world. The lives of Adam and David, Methuselah and the Messiah constitute the Divine Day of the Old and New Testaments.

If you pay attention to the time of birth of the first-born among the forefathers, especially according to the Septuagint, another peculiar thought may arise. Firstborns are born at 160, 180, 200 years old, and the forefathers die after living for more than seven and nine hundred years. It turns out just ten times more than now. Childbearing begins at 16, 18, 20 years old, and they live for 70 and even over 90 years. The thought arises: didn’t the forefathers have a kind of childhood and adolescence before they were 160 years old, and then a mature life? Those. everything remained as it was, only the life time was reduced ten times, or, one might say, it was, as it were, accelerated. One way or another, they got married at 160–200 years old. Even according to the Masoretic text - 60–180 years.

There is also extra-biblical evidence about the ten antediluvian forefathers and their amazing longevity. Other peoples have similar legends. For example, the records of the Egyptian priest Manetho, the Phoenician Moss. The legend that has come down to us from the historian and priest of the Babylonian god Marduk Beros (Belrush) (350–280 BC) is interesting. Berossus speaks of ten antediluvian kings. They ruled for 432,000 years. That is, on average, more than 40,000 years each. According to Berossus, the age of the antediluvian kings significantly exceeds the age of the biblical forefathers. Moreover, in contrast to or in addition to the biblical testimony, the forefathers are spoken of as kings. The number of forefathers coincides (ten). It is also said of the seventh of these kings that he was taken to the gods before his time and was initiated into their secrets, which corresponds to the biblical testimony of Enoch, the seventh from Adam.

And Adam again knew his wife (Eve), and she gave birth to a son, and called his name Seth; because (she said) God gave me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain killed

(Gen. 4:25).

This is how the Bible (Tanakh) tells about the beginning of the human genealogy. The time of this event is also described:

Adam lived one hundred and thirty (230) years, and begat (a son) in his likeness (and) in his image

(Gen. 5:3).

Ancient traditions complement and color the brief biblical testimony. Naturally, in our time there can be no talk of any reasoned evidence, as well as refutations. Therefore, let us listen to the legends - such as they are.

Here is the testimony of Josephus: “Adam... after Abel was stabbed to death, and Cain had to flee as a result of this murder, he began to think very much about new offspring. This strong desire to have children arose in him because he was already two hundred and thirty years old, although he died, having lived another seven hundred years. [Josephus follows the Septuagint calculus. – G.F.] And so, he had several other children, including Seth”299.

The testimony of Josephus corresponds to the Jewish tradition about the 130 years of repentant abstinence of Adam and Eve between the birth of their first two sons and then Seth and others. Midrashim relate that when Adam met Cain, he discovered that one side of the curse had been lifted from his son - he stopped wandering and began to lead a sedentary life in the land of Nod. This happened as a result of Cain’s belated repentance for what he had done. Then Adam repented before God and separated from his wife for a long time. After 130 years spent in the labors of redemption, Adam returned to the world and came to know Eve, his wife300.

This legend is fulfilled in a unique way in Arabic legends. According to their testimony, after the Fall, Adam and Eve were not only expelled from paradise, but also separated - Adam ended up on the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and Eve ended up on the Red Sea coast, not far from Mecca, where the port of Jeddah is now. There, in the Mecca area, they met only two hundred years later. Mount Arafat, where Adam and Eve first knew each other after such a long separation, is revered as one of the Muslim shrines301.

Mesopotamia should be considered the place of further residence of Adam. The place of his burial, according to Jewish tradition, is Jerusalem (Golgotha).

The Holy Fathers, without seeking to study these legends, reflected mainly on the spiritual meaning of biblical words. St. speaks about the spiritual and moral meaning of the biblical words about the birth of Seth. John Chrysostom: “Give birth,” he says, “Adam, and give birth... after your own kind, and after your own image, and he will call his name Seth.” But he didn’t say anything like that about the one born before, that is, about Cain, already making it known in advance about his inclination towards evil; and rightly so: Cain did not retain his fatherly morals, but immediately turned to evil. Here Moses says: “in his image and in his likeness,” that is, (Adam begat a son) homogeneous to the one who gave birth, with the same virtuous properties, revealing in himself through his deeds the image of his father, able with his virtue to reward the crime of the elder (son) "302.

Messianic meaning is found in this text by St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Adam may live one hundred and thirty years [St. Ephraim adheres to the Aramaic text, which is consonant with the Hebrew. – G.F.], and bear a son according to your own kind and in your own image. In Seth, who was in every way like Adam, we are presented with the likeness of the Son of God, who is the image of the Father who begat Him, just as Seth is the image of Adam who begat him.”303

Who did Cain marry when he left the presence of the Lord for the land of Nod (Gen. 4:16–17)? Did people already live there? Who did the first sons of Adam marry? Cain did not take his wife in the land of Nod, but went with his wife to the land of Nod, whom he came to know there. Tradition testifies that the first children were born as twins - brother and sister, and this is how they created their families. With reference to George Kedrin, writes St. Demetrius of Rostov: “And his sister Asvama was born together with Seth: (as with Cain of Kalman and with Abel of Delvor) so from the beginning human nature was created by the Creator, so that two people can be born - two, male and female, so that people may multiply by land. And then the brother mated with his sister, until the people multiplied.”304

Holy Scripture clearly distinguishes two clans in antediluvian humanity - the clan of Seth and the clan of Cain. Two kinds - two paths of human development, if according to the Gospel - the wide path and the narrow path. The path of development of human civilization and the path of pleasing God. Anthropocentric and God-centric world- and self-perception. The path leading away from God and the path leading to God. The path of the Cainites and the path of the forefathers.

“There are two paths: one is life and one is death; great is the difference between both paths,” - with these words begins the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles305.

Let us briefly trace these two paths.

Path of the Cainites

began with the fratricide of Cain. From his godless sacrifice. Cain was a farmer (Gen. 4:2), he actively participates in the transformation of nature, between him and nature there is no longer God, as He was between Adam and the animals, at their naming in the Garden of Eden.

After God's curse for fratricide, Cain went on behalf of Yahweh; and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden

(Gen. 4:16).

God is light (1 John 1:5), and in paradise man walked in the light. “In Your light we will see light,” is sung during the Divine service. Cain leaves from the presence of the Lord. He turned away from the light, and his face fell (Gen. 4:6). Words of the fifth verse: Cain was greatly saddened, and his face fell

transmitted in the German translation: Da ergrimmte Kain sehr und senkte finster seinen Blick, or: “Cain then became very angry and gloomily lowered his gaze.”
There was a shadow on his face, for he turned away from the light. He went from the face of Yahweh into darkness. From now on, he settled in the land of Nod, in the land of wandering, because the word Nod (נוד) means “wandering”, “wandering”
. St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Cain went out from the presence of God, and settled in the land of Nud directly to Eden. Cain withdrew from his parents and brothers; for he saw that they did not enter into marital unions with him. The earth was called Nud, because, like the earth of Cain, it shook and groaned.”306 St. thinks similarly. John Chrysostom: “When Cain heard the verdict, he went out, says Moses, on behalf of God (Gen. 4:16). What does it mean: came from the presence of God? This means that he lost the protection of God for his vile deed. And they settled in the land of Naid directly to Eden. Scripture also tells us about the place where Cain later settled, showing that he also settled not far from paradise, so that, while living opposite him, he would constantly remember what happened to his father for violating (the commandments), and about the importance of his own crime... And the very place where he lived constantly reminded not only him, but also all subsequent people, of shaking and trembling: the name Naid is a Hebrew word, and means: trembling”307. The Hebrew verb ניד means “to waver,” and the noun נוד (nod) means “to cast out.”

So, the path of Cain is the path into darkness, wandering and ungodly trembling, just as it is said about demons that they tremble (James 2:19).

The path of Cain is the path of the earthly city, the path of civilization.

And Cain knew his wife;
and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city; and he named the city by the name son : Enoch
(Gen. 4:17).

The beginning of town planning, urbanization. An earthly city instead of a garden in Eden. By the way, the Bible does not talk about the long, semi-wild existence of people, but about the original civilization. St. John Chrysostom: “And Cain knew his wife, and conceived Enoch; and build a city in the name of your son Enoch. Look how (people) are already managing little by little. Because They became mortal, then they want to forever preserve the memory of themselves, through their children, through the names of places to which they gave nicknames to the children. But, in all fairness, we can say that all these are monuments of their sins and the loss of that glory, which, using them, Adam and Eve did not need any of this, but were above everything.”308

And finally, in the seventh generation from Adam in the genus of Cain, there is a civilizational explosion. We are talking about Lamech, his sons and daughter.

And Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Ada and the name of the second was Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jobal: he was the father of those who lived in tents with flocks. His brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all those who played the harp and pipe. Zillah also gave birth to Tubalcain, who was a forger of all tools of copper and iron. And Tubalcain's sister Noema

(Gen. 4:19–22).

And then follows the song of Lamech. Polygamy, violence and the poetry of Lamech. Nomadism and possibly meat-eating of the descendants of Jobal. Hence the wild nomadic hordes and, perhaps, feral tribes, like the Neanderthals. Music and arts of the descendants of Jubal. Processing of copper and iron, metals, technological progress that led to the emergence of the science of Tubalcain. Noema Cosmetics and Entertainment (Noema means “beautiful”). There is no talk of any relationship to God in this kind of Cainites.

The Holy Scripture shows the race of Seth on a completely different path.

If we follow the testimony of Tradition, then Seth is already the fruit of the repentance of Adam and Eve.

And after repentance, Adam also knew his wife (Eve), and she gave birth to a son, and called his name Seth; because (she said) God gave me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain killed

(Gen. 4:25).

The name Abel means “breath”, “steam”, “vanity”. His life was like a brief breath and vanished like vapor. The sad story of the two brothers Cain and Abel showed the vanity of this earthly life. But now, instead of Abel, there is Seth. God gave Eve another seed. "Sif." The name שת (Sheth) is explained by Eve herself: שת לי (shat-li) “ laid for me

”, or “
delivered to me
”, i.e. foundation, foundation. Seth is the foundation of the one who has to continue, be and inherit the salvation of the human race. He himself was born in the image of his father Adam, and through him - in the image of God.

Josephus: “When he [Sif. – G.F.] grew up and reached the age at which a person has the opportunity to distinguish good [from evil], he began to lead a virtuous lifestyle and, being the best person himself, left behind offspring who imitated him in this”309.

Shem and Seth became famous among the people

(Sir. 49:18) - the ancestors of God’s race among people after and before the flood. This could be said about them: In their seed is a good inheritance; their descendants are in the covenants (the descendants of Shem in the covenant of Abraham, the descendants of Seth in the covenant of Noah, both of them in the covenant of Christ the Messiah). Their seed will be strong, and their children will be for their sake. Their seed will endure forever, and their glory will not be destroyed (Sir. 44:10-12). Instead of Abel's breath - the solid foundation of the Sethites. And in the promise of the continuance of the seed of Seth until eternity and the non-extermination of the glory of his descendants, messianic motives are clearly heard. The descendants of Seth followed the path of life.

Just as at the birth of the son of Cain (Enoch), earthly city planning began, a civilization began that turned its face from the Lord, so, in the son of Seth, people turned their faces to the Lord and began the construction of the city of God on earth.

Seth also had a son, and he named him Enos; then they began to call on the name of Yahweh (God)

(Gen. 4:26).

Just as nowhere is it said about the appeal of the descendants of Cain to God, but only about the earthly prosperity of their family, so, on the contrary, nothing is said about the earthly affairs of the Sethites, but only about their attitude towards God. It is quite possible that, like Abel, they were shepherds, protecting God's creation. But Scripture does not speak about this either. It seems to be not interested in the earthly affairs of the pious Sethites.

If under Enoch, the son of Cain, the Cainites began to build cities, then under Enos, the son of Seth, the Sethites began to call on the name of Yahweh. Didn’t Adam, Abel, Seth call on the name of Yahweh? Most likely, they called, but under Enos, as some interpreters think, the public calling on the name of God began, i.e. public worship. The Cainites laid the foundation for cities, the Sethites - churches, gatherings of believers. St. Philaret of Moscow: “Then the invocation of the name of Jehovah began. And they say that at the time of Enosh, with the increase of the pious tribe, public and open worship was established, the actions of which were previously performed by each family and individual, privately and without agreement with others.”310 And based on the translation of Akila: τότε ήρχθη w καλείσθαι έν όνόματι Κυρίυ, which means: then they began to be called by the name of the Lord. St. Philaret also gives another meaning: “the tribe of the pious began to be distinguished by the name sons of God.” In the future, the Sethites will indeed be called the sons of God, in contrast to the daughters of men from the Cainites (Gen. 6:2).

And further, the parallel continues between the ascension of the descendants of Seth to God and the self-assertion of the descendants of Cain on earth. If during the seventh, from Adam, in the descendants of Cain there was an “explosion of civilization” (the family of Lamech), then in the descendants of Seth, the seventh from Adam was taken alive into heaven.

Enoch lived sixty-five (165) years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred (200) years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him

(Gen. 5:21–24).

In the seventh descendant from Adam, a certain overcoming of Adam took place. Adam sinned - Enoch was righteous, Adam hid from God - Enoch walked with God. Adam was expelled from paradise, Enoch was taken to heaven.

Enoch pleased the Lord and was taken to heaven - an image of repentance for all generations. There was no one created on earth like Enoch, for he was caught up from the earth (Sir. 44:15; 49:16).

St. Ephraim the Syrian: “ The Scripture says: Enoch pleased God, and he was not found. Others interpret that Enoch, in view of Adam, was transferred to paradise, both so that Adam would not think that Enoch was killed, like Abel, and would not grieve, and so that he would be comforted about his righteous son Abel and understand that everyone like him, either before death or after resurrection, will land in heaven

«311.

St. Philaret of Moscow speaks about the spiritual significance of Enoch’s virtue of walking before God. After all, that's all that is said about him. There is no talk about virtues, or exploits, or miracles - he walked with God, and that’s all! St. Philaret: “The detailed concepts contained in this are: walking before God, or in a living feeling of the presence of God; walking with God, or uniting with Him by faith and love; walking after God, or imitating Him and striving for perfection, consistent with the perfection of the Heavenly Father; finally, walking in the face of God as a guide and ruler of the path, i.e. staying under the special cover of His providence and grace”312.

Bible commentators also paid attention to the number of years of Enoch when he was taken into heaven - three hundred and sixty-five. This is the number of days in the solar year. Hidden in this is the teaching about the Divine light and walking in it; Man is like planet Earth around the Sun. This is the illumination and sanctification of the earth by the sun of righteousness - Christ. But for you, who revere My name, the Sun of righteousness will rise and healing in His rays (Mal. 4:2). These are the mysteries of God in the movement of the heavenly bodies and human destinies. Enoch's whole life is like one year, a year turning into eternity.

Later Jewish tradition considers Enoch the inventor not only of writing, to which, in some respects, the books of Enoch can go back, but also of mathematics and astronomy [3, p. 12]. In the Koran, Enoch is called Idris (Sura 19, 57), which means “scholar”. We have no reason to reject these traditions, but they go beyond the testimony of the book of Genesis, which says nothing about the attitude of the Sethites to the civilization, only tells about their attitude towards God.

In the children of Lamech (Cainite) there is civilization, life for oneself in passions, in the son of Enoch Methuselah - the blessing of the utmost many years of life. Methuselah lived 969 years, surpassing all the forefathers in age.

And one last look at the finale - what the path of the Cainites led to and what the path of the Sethites led to.

The Cainites created a great antediluvian civilization. Others of them degenerated into wild primitive communal tribes, and, possibly, Neanderthals. Among the Sethites were shepherds of sheep, the great forefathers of the first world: Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Maleleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah and those who listened to them. From the heights of Amana (Song 4:8) they looked at God, called on His name, and laid the foundation for faith on earth. There lived a glorious tribe of the sons of God (Gen. 6:2). But the majority of them also deviated from the Creator.

Then the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took them as wives, whichever one chose

(Gen. 6:2).

St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Having seen the sons of God, the daughters of men, as if they were good, they girded for themselves wives from all those whom they had chosen. The sons of Seth are called the sons of God. They, like the children of righteous Seth, are called the people of God. The good-looking daughters of men whom the sons of God saw are the daughters of Cain; their beauty and decoration served as a snare for the sons of Seth. The words: they girded their wives from everyone, even choosing them, show that when they took them as wives, then they were proud of them, they made a choice from them; the poor was proud of the rich, the old was proud of the young, the ugliest was proud of the most beautiful.”313 Noema's art eclipsed the God-created beauty. They quenched the spirit because they are flesh (Gen. 6:3). The tribes of Sethites and Cainites mixed from the time when the sons of God began to come to the daughters of men and they began to give birth to them. Whom? Moses says in sparse words; At that time there were giants on earth, giants of sin. Are they not remembered by the legends of many peoples of the world as heroes, giants and terrible giants? In this world, these are strong, glorious people from ancient times. But before God they are flesh. The Lord takes His spirit away from them. The mixing of good and evil gives rise to giants. And Yahweh (God) saw that the wickedness of men was great on earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was evil continually. And Yahweh repented that he created man on earth...

(Gen. 6:5–6)

And another opinion of the ancients even allows for the understanding that then people and demons mixed. One way or another, the world has come to its end.

The Cainites who left the presence of Yahweh had to disappear.

And of the Sethites, only one righteous man remained before the face of Yahweh God - Noah, with his family.

The clouds were gathering.

The earth was bursting with the waters of a great abyss.

The flood was approaching.