From the Creation to the Giants

The world was created by God nearly six thousand years ago, as we will show in the course of this book, although those who have taken up the calculation of the dates and published it agree very little among themselves. But since this disagreement comes either from the will of God or from the fault of ancient times, it ought not to be blamed. After the world was formed, man was created: the male was named Adam and the female Eve. They were placed in Paradise, but they ate from the tree they had been forbidden, and so they were thrown out as exiles into this earth of ours. [a]

To them were born Cain and Abel; but Cain, a wicked man, killed his brother. Cain had a son called Enoch, by whom a city was first built, and it was called after the name of its founder. From Enoch came Irad, and from Irad came Mehujael. Mehujael had a son called Methuselah, and Methuselah in turn fathered Lamech. Lamech is said to have killed a young man, though the name of the man he killed is not mentioned; wise men think this foreshadowed a mystery still to come.

Adam, then, after the death of his younger son, fathered another son, called Seth, when he was already two hundred and thirty years old; he lived eight hundred and thirty years in all. Seth fathered Enosh, Enosh fathered Kenan, Kenan fathered Mahalalel, Mahalalel fathered Jared, and Jared fathered Enoch, who because of his righteousness is said to have been taken away by God. Enoch’s son was called Methuselah, and he fathered Lamech; and from Lamech came Noah, remarkable for his righteousness, and dear and pleasing to God above all other mortals.

By this time the human race had grown to a great multitude, and certain angels whose home was in heaven were captivated by the looks of some beautiful virgins. They conceived unlawful desires for them, so much so that, falling below their own proper nature and origin, they left the higher regions where they lived and joined themselves to them in earthly marriages. Little by little these angels spread wicked ways and corrupted the human family, and from their unions giants are said to have sprung; for, as one would expect, the mixing of beings of a different nature with human beings gave birth to monsters.