Flood as punishment (1)

Text
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 1.3:
After the fashioning and adornment of this world, man, whom God had made upright and immaculate, became defiled by sin. As a consequence, the human race, because it had become deprived by its lusts, was also corrupted. A just punishment then followed directly upon man’s unlawful use of his liberty. This sentence of God, Creator and Judge, delivered against man because of his sin and against the earth because of man, and lasting as long as the human race shall inhabit this earth, we all, even though unwilling, affirm by our very denials and sustain by our admissions. And even those who would reject its truth because they are unwilling to hearken to the words of faith confirm it by that weakness which is born of their obstinacy. Subsequently, as the truthful writers of the Scripture declare, the sea overflowed the land, a flood covering the entire earth was let loose, only sky and sea remained, and the whole human race was destroyed. Only a few, because of their faith, were saved in the Ark, so that they might be the founders of a new race. Other writers, too, have testified to this truth. Though ignorant of the past and even of the very Creator of the ages, they have nevetheless learned about the flood by drawing logical inferences from the evidence offered by stones which, encrusted with shells and often corroded by water, we are accustomed to see on far-away mountains. Although I could bring forward other arguments of this sort, which are worthy of mention and accurate in point of truth, let these two principal ones suffice concerning the transgression of the first man and the condemnation of his offspring and his life, and thereafter concerning the destruction of the whole human race.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 1.3

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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