De Abrahamo

For which reason, being desirous to deliver an admirable panegyric on the hopeful man, the sacred historian tells us, first, that "he hoped in the father and creator of the universe," [*](Genesis iv. 26. ) and adds in a subsequent passage, "This is the book of the generation of men," [*]( Genesis v. 1. ) and of their fathers, and grand-fathers who had existed previously; but he conceived that they were the ancestors of the mixed race, that is to say, of that purer and thoroughly sifted race which is the really rational one;

for, as the poet Homer, though the number of poets is beyond all calculation, is called "the poet" by way of distinction, and as the black [ink] with which we write is called "the black," though in point of fact everything which is not white is black; and as that archon at Athens is especially called "the archon," who is the archon eponymus and the chief of the nine archons, from whom the chronology is dated; so in the same manner the sacred historian calls him who indulges in hope, "a man," by way of pre-eminence, passing over in silence the rest of the multitude of human beings, as not being worthy to receive the same appellation.

And he has very properly called his first volume, the Book of the Generation of the Real Man, speaking with perfect correctness; because the man who is full of good hope is worthy [*](Genesis iv. 26. ) [*]( Genesis v. 1. )

If then any one were to reckon the generations, from the first man, who was made out of the earth, he will find him who, by the Chaldaeans is called Enos, and in the Greek language ἄνθρωπος (the man), to be the fourth in succession,