From the Creation to the Death of Isaac - Flavius Josephus

longer than 120 years, for many generations after the flood, as we shall
see presently; and he says they were gradually shortened till the days of
Moses, and then fixed [for some time] at 120, ch. 6. sect. 5. Nor indeed
need we suppose that either Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these
120 years for the life of men before the flood, to be different from the
120 years of God's patience [perhaps while the ark was preparing] till
the deluge; which I take to be the meaning of God when he threatened
this wicked world, that if they so long continued impenitent, their days
should be no more than 120 years.
3. A cubit is about 21 English inches.
4. Josephus here truly determines, that the year at the Flood began about
the autumnal equinox. As to what day of the month the Flood began, our
Hebrew and Samaritan, and perhaps Josephus's own copy, more rightly
placed it on the 17th day, instead of the 27th, as here; for Josephus
agrees with them, as to the distance of 150 days to the 17th day of the
7th month, as Genesis 7. ult. with 8:3.
5. Josephus here takes notice, that these ancient genealogies were first set
down by those that then lived, and from them were transmitted down to
posterity; which I suppose to be the true account of that matter. For there
is no reason to imagine that men were not taught to read and write soon
after they were taught to speak; and perhaps all by the Messiah himself,
who, under the Father, was the Creator or Governor of mankind, and
who frequently in those early days appeared to them.
6. This (GREEK), or Place of Descent, is the proper rendering of the
Armenian name of this very city. It is called in Ptolemy Naxuana, and
by Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, Idsheuan; but at the
place itself Nachidsheuan, which signifies The first place of descent, and
is a lasting monument of the preservation of Noah in the ark, upon the
top of that mountain, at whose foot it was built, as the first city or town
after the flood. See Antiq. B. XX. ch. 2. sect. 3; and Moses Chorenensis,
who also says elsewhere, that another town was related by tradition to
have been called Seron, or, The Place of Dispersion, on account of the
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