Genesis 11:10

When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two nations, we cannot affirm that while they had but one tongue, that is, one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God. Nor can we conclude that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations that descend from Shem through Arpachshad and reach to Abraham. But from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only disguised before or nonexistent, whether both cities remained after the flood—the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed and in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord—is not easily determined.

But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the number of years each member of this series lived but only the year of his life in which he gave birth to his heir, that we may thus reckon the number of years from the flood to Abraham and may at the same time leave room to touch briefly and cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our argument. In the second year, then, after the flood, Shem when he was 100 years old begat Arpachshad; Arpachshad when he was 135 years old begat Cainan; Cainan when he was 130 years begat Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age when he begat Eber. Eber lived 134 years and begat Peleg, in whose days the earth was divided. Peleg himself lived 130 years and begat Reu; and Reu lived 132 years and begat Serug; Serug 130, and begat Nahor; and Nahor 79, and begat Terah; and Terah 70, and begat Abram, whose name God afterwards changed into Abraham. There are thus from the flood to Abraham 1, years, according to the common or Septuagint versions. In the Hebrew copies far fewer years are given, and for this either no reason or a not very credible one is given.

WHY DOES GOD EXPRESS HIMSELF THUS: "MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT ABIDE IN MEN, BECAUSE THEY ARE FLESH, AND THEIR DAYS SHALL BE NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS? — The giants who were then on the earth, superb and wicked men, proud of the size of their stature, obeying the desires of their flesh, and apostates from birth, displeased sovereignly in God. It was then that he declared that mankind would perish by the deluge, and he set the time to allow time for correction to those whom the just threats of his indignation would touch with repentance. It was for this reason that the construction of this ark lasted a hundred years. Twenty years elapsed before Noah began to build it. But the narrative seems to throw obscurity on what it adds after speaking of the years of Noah. The sentence of God was carried before Noah had reached the age of five hundred years. And he said, "My Spirit shall not abide in these men," and he adds: “Because iniquity has increased on the earth, I will cut off from the earth, from man up to the animals (Gen. 6:3),” the prediction that the flood undertook to accomplish. Now we know that after the flood the life of men was prolonged for a great number of years; Aaron, the brother of Moses, lived a hundred and twenty-three years. If Moses had not lived beyond a hundred and twenty years, it is because he did not glorify God (Num. 38:38), for without this sin of definition he entered in the promised land. (Num. 27:14.) Some believe that the fact of the high priest Jo'ada, who lived a hundred and thirty years, is related to the time of Moses (Il Paral. 24:15). [Questions on the Old and New Testaments, PL 35,