Biblical Antiquities of Philo: The Biblical Antiquities of Philo: Chapter I.

75:1 I. 1. Initium mundi appears to be the best reading. It is perhaps in the nature of a title: the proper LXX name for Genesis is γένεσισ κόσμου.

1., etc. It will be observed that almost all the names of sons and all those of daughters are imaginary. They do not agree with other legendary names, e.g. those of Jubilees. For the rest, the first three chapters are to a very large extent simply copied from Genesis iv-xi.

The spelling of the names is very uncertain in many cases. Where "ph" occurs, it is very often substituted by Sichardus for "f" in the MSS.; but of course the "f" must represent a φ, seeing that the text has come to us through Greek. I have therefore allowed "ph" to stand.

The chronology, according to Dr. Colin, was originally that of the Hebrew text, but has been to some extent modified by reference to the LXX. The Hebrew numbers (from Adam to the Flood) add up to 1656, those of the LXX to 2262, those of Philo to 2256; but Philo says (III. 6) that the Flood was in the 1652nd year of the world, which only requires the change of secundus to sextus to make it agree exactly with the Hebrew.