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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Fifteen — the multiplication of mankind after the flood

FOURTH DISPUTATION. Whether Nemrod was the first founder and builder of Babylon

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FOURTH DISPUTATION. Whether Nemrod was the first founder and builder of Babylon.1

QUARTA DISPUTATIO. Utrum Nemrod primus Babylonis fundator et conditor fuerit.

POSTQUAM Moses dixit primum in terris propter fortitudinem ac potentiam famosum ac celebrem fuisse Nemrod, proxime subdidit: „Fuit,“ inquit, „principium regni eius Babylon, et Arach et Achad et Chalanne in terra Sennaar.“ Quorum verborum hic videtur planus et rectus sensus atque intellectus: Nemrod a principio regnare coepisse Babylone aliisque urbibus terrae Sennaar; sed postea longius progressum alias quoque urbes et gentes regno suo adiecisse. Arach interpretatur Hieronymus Edessam; Achad, Nisibim; Chalanne, Seleuciam vel Ctesiphontem; terram Sennaar, ipsammet regionem sive terram in qua aedificata est turris Babylon quae proprie dicta est Babylonia.
After Moses had said that Nemrod was the first in the lands famous and renowned for fortitude and power, he next subjoined: {The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Arach and Achad and Chalanne in the land of Sennaar.} Of which words this seems the plain and straight sense and meaning: that Nemrod from the beginning began to reign at Babylon and the other cities of the land of Sennaar; but afterward, having advanced farther, added to his kingdom other cities and nations as well. Arach Jerome interprets as Edessa; Achad as Nisibis; Chalanne as Seleucia or Ctesiphon; the land of Sennaar as that very region or land in which was built the tower of Babylon, which was properly called Babylonia.2
MULTI tamen superioribus illis verbis Mosis significari putant Nemrod fuisse primum molitorem aedificatoremque Babylonis. Utramque certe sententiam complexus est Augustinus, ita scribens: „Ex ipsa Scriptura colligitur gigantem illum Nemrod fuisse Babylonis conditorem, quod superius breviter fuerat intimatum, ubi cum de illo Scriptura loqueretur, ait: Initium regni eius fuit Babylon, id est, qua civitatum aliarum gereret principatum, ubi esset tanquam metropolis habitaculum regni, quamvis perfecta non fuerit usque in tantum modum quantum superba cogitabat impietas.“ Nec monere nos debet, ait Augustinus, quomodo potuerit gigas Nemrod ad illud aetatis occurrere quo Babylon condita est et confusio facta linguarum atque exinde divisio gentium: „Non enim quia Heber sextus est a Noe, Nemrod autem quartus, ideo non potuerunt ad id tempus convenire vivendo: hoc enim contigit, cum plus viverent ubi pauciores sunt generationes, minus vero ubi plures, aut serius nati essent ubi pauciores, maturius ubi plures.“ Sic Augustinus.
Many, however, think that by those earlier words of Moses it is signified that Nemrod was the first contriver and builder of Babylon. Both opinions Augustine certainly embraced, writing thus: „From Scripture itself it is gathered that that giant Nemrod was the founder of Babylon, which had been briefly intimated above, where, when Scripture spoke of him, it says: The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon — that is, by which he held the chief place over the other cities, where, as a metropolis, was the dwelling of the kingdom; although it was not completed to such a degree as proud impiety conceived.“ Nor ought it to trouble us, says Augustine, how the giant Nemrod could reach the age at which Babylon was founded and the confusion of tongues made and thence the division of nations: „For it is not because Heber is the sixth from Noah, and Nemrod the fourth, that they could not on that account meet at that time by living: for this happened, since they lived longer where the generations are fewer, but less where they are more; or were born later where there were fewer, earlier where there were more.“ So far Augustine.3
ADEST huic opinioni et ipsa scriptura: ea quippe narrat capite undecimo Geneseos ab iis qui aedificabant turrim simul quoque aedificatam esse civitatem: ter enim eo loco mentionem facit civitatis quae ab illis aedificaretur; ea vero civitas propter confusionem ibi factam…
Scripture itself also supports this opinion: for it relates in the eleventh chapter of Genesis that by those who were building the tower the city too was built at the same time: for three times in that place it makes mention of the city which was being built by them; and that city, on account of the confusion made there…4
…appellata est Babel, haec est Babylon. Iosephus porro auctor est inter eos qui aedificaverunt turrim ducem ac principem fuisse Nemrod. Ille igitur princeps conditor fuit Babylonis. Orosius quidem certe libro secundo capite sexto scribit Nemrod primum Babylonis aedificatorem a multis celebrari; et apud Eusebium libro nono de Praeparatione Evangelica capite ultimo Alexander Polyhistor firmat testimonio Eupolemi Babylonem esse post diluvium a gigantibus aedificatam: atqui Septuaginta Interpretes hoc loco Nemrod appellant gigantem: isque, ut placet Iosepho, aedificantium Babylonem incitator et dux fuit.
…was called Babel, which is Babylon. Josephus, moreover, is the authority that among those who built the tower Nemrod was the leader and chief. He, therefore, was the chief founder of Babylon. Orosius indeed, in the second book, chapter six, writes that Nemrod is celebrated by many as the first builder of Babylon; and in Eusebius, book nine of the Preparation for the Gospel, the last chapter, Alexander Polyhistor confirms, on the testimony of Eupolemus, that Babylon was built after the flood by giants: and the Septuagint translators in this place call Nemrod a giant: and he, as it pleases Josephus, was the instigator and leader of those building Babylon.5
AT enim Belum patrem Nini fundatorem Babylonis fuisse, multis visum est. Certe Quintus Curtius libro quinto id proditum a plerisque esse affirmat. Apud Eusebium eo loco quem proxime anteposui, Alpheus narrat, cum terra Babylonis propter magnas et crebras Euphratis inundationes tecta et obruta esset aquis, primum omnium patrem Nini Belum siccasse aquas, urbemque Babylonem moliri aggressum. Idemque senserunt quicumque fecerunt Belum primum Babylonis regnatorem.
But many have held that Belus the father of Ninus was the founder of Babylon. Certainly Quintus Curtius in the fifth book affirms that this was handed down by most. In Eusebius, in the place which I cited just before, Alpheus relates that, when the land of Babylon was covered and overwhelmed with waters on account of the great and frequent inundations of the Euphrates, Belus the father of Ninus first of all dried up the waters and undertook to build the city of Babylon. And the same was the view of whoever made Belus the first ruler of Babylon.6
CETERUM fere omnium Graecorum atque Latinorum pervulgata est sententia Babylonem esse conditam a Semiramide: id nempe prodidit Herodotus libro primo, Diodorus libro tertio, Strabo libro decimo sexto, Mela libro primo, Iustinus libro primo et S. Hieronymus super secundum caput Oseae. Addit Orosius libro secundo capite tertio Semiramidem quadraginta duobus annis regnasse, et medio imperii tempore Babylonem caput regni sui condidisse.
But the widely-spread opinion of almost all the Greeks and Latins is that Babylon was founded by Semiramis: this Herodotus handed down in the first book, Diodorus in the third, Strabo in the sixteenth, Mela in the first, Justin in the first, and Saint Jerome on the second chapter of Hosea. Orosius adds, in the second book, chapter three, that Semiramis reigned forty-two years, and in the middle period of her empire founded Babylon as the head of her kingdom.7
VERUM apud Iosephum in priori libro adversus Appionem, Berosus Graecos molitionem illius urbis Semiramidi assignantes mendacii arguit, tradens eam civitatem a rege Nabuchodonosor aedificatam esse. Certe Daniel capite quarto inducit eum regem gloriantem et sese iactantem de Babylonis aedificatione illis verbis: „Nonne haec est Babylon civitas magna, quam ego aedificavi in domum regni,“ etc.
But in Josephus, in the earlier book against Apion, Berosus convicts of falsehood the Greeks who assign the building of that city to Semiramis, handing down that the city was built by king Nabuchodonosor. Certainly Daniel in the fourth chapter brings in that king boasting and vaunting himself over the building of Babylon in these words: {Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the house of the kingdom,} etc.8
BEROSUS Annianus tres facit Babylonis conditores, Nemrod, Belum et Semiramidem: de Nemrod quidem ita scribens: „Nerod assumpto filio Iove Belo, cum coloniis venit in campum Sennaar ubi designavit urbem, et fundavit maximam turrim anno post diluvium centesimo trigesimo primo, eamque turrim ad altitudinem et magnitudinem montium excitavit, in signum et monumentum quod primus in orbe terrarum esset populus Babylonicus, et regnum regnorum dici deberet. Verum nec turris aedificationem complevit nec designatam urbem fundavit: quia post quinquaginta sex annos subito non comparuit. Iuppiter autem Belus, filius eius quem diximus Nemrod, secundo loco regnavit Babylone annis sexaginta duobus, et fundamenta Babylonis a patre suo designata in formam et magnitudinem oppidi magis quam urbis excitavit. At vero Semiramis uxor Nini, quae eius imperio successit quarto loco, idque duobus et quadraginta annis obtinuit, ut priores omnes bellica gloria, victoriis atque triumphis divitiisque antecessit, ita urbem Babylonem ex oppido tantam et talem fecit…“
Berosus Annianus makes three founders of Babylon: Nemrod, Belus, and Semiramis; writing thus of Nemrod: „Nerod, having taken his son Jupiter Belus, came with colonists into the plain of Sennaar, where he marked out a city, and founded a very great tower in the 131st year after the flood, and raised that tower to the height and bulk of mountains, as a sign and monument that the Babylonian people was the first in the world, and ought to be called the kingdom of kingdoms. But he neither completed the building of the tower nor founded the city he had marked out: because after fifty-six years he suddenly did not appear. But Jupiter Belus, his son whom we have called Nemrod, reigned at Babylon in the second place for sixty-two years, and raised the foundations of Babylon, marked out by his father, into the form and bulk of a town rather than a city. But Semiramis the wife of Ninus, who succeeded to his empire in the fourth place, and held it for forty-two years, as she surpassed all her predecessors in military glory, victories, triumphs, and riches, so she made the city of Babylon, out of a town, so great and such…“9
„…ut verius dici possit eam urbem a Semiramide conditam quam amplificatam vel exornatam fuisse.“
„…that it may more truly be said that that city was founded by Semiramis than that it was enlarged or adorned.“10
EGO ita sentio: primum omnium conditorem Babylonis fuisse Nemrod, ut supra probatum est; sed hunc Nemrod non fuisse alium quam Belum patrem Nini, paulo ante ostensum est. Quare qui Belum faciunt conditorem Babylonis a nobis minime discordant, quemadmodum Eupolemus aiens aedificatam esse a gigantibus id ipsum quod nos sentimus significare voluit. Sed quia eam urbem exiguam, et inundationibus Euphratis paene dirutam et vastatam, postea Semiramis amplissimam, munitissimam et ornatissimam fecit, propterea non immerito aedificatrix eius urbis celebratur. Sed enim cum post Semiramidem qui consecuti sunt reges Assyriorum, posthabita Babylone, coluerint Niniven, eamque fecerint Regiam, id est sedem caputque imperii Assyriorum, ut narrat Diodorus libro tertio, hinc accidit ut Babylon a regibus deserta, et insuper Euphratis eluvionibus et hostium incursionibus vastata, diu obscura et ignobilis fuerit; quoad post, eversa Niniue, rex Nabuchodonosor Babylonem de integro instauraverit et latissime amplificatam magnificentissimis operibus adornaverit, eoque sedem imperii, ut quondam fuerat, restituerit. Ex his apparet, si quis rem ipsam bene perpendat, non esse discordes scriptores, licet diversa de Babylonis conditore scripsisse videantur.
I myself think thus: that the very first founder of Babylon was Nemrod, as proved above; but that this Nemrod was no other than Belus the father of Ninus, was shown a little before. Wherefore those who make Belus the founder of Babylon by no means disagree with us; just as Eupolemus, in saying it was built by giants, meant to signify the very thing we think. But because Semiramis afterward made that city — small, and almost ruined and laid waste by the inundations of the Euphrates — most ample, most fortified, and most adorned, on that account she is not undeservedly celebrated as its builder. But since, after Semiramis, the kings of the Assyrians who followed, neglecting Babylon, cultivated Niniue and made it the Royal seat — that is, the seat and head of the Assyrian empire, as Diodorus relates in book three — it came about hence that Babylon, deserted by the kings and moreover laid waste by the floods of the Euphrates and the incursions of enemies, was long obscure and ignoble; until afterward, Niniue being overthrown, king Nabuchodonosor restored Babylon anew and adorned it, enlarged most widely, with most magnificent works, and there restored the seat of empire, as it once had been. From these things it appears, if one weighs the matter well, that the writers are not at odds, although they seem to have written diversely about the founder of Babylon.11
PRIMUS igitur regnator Babylonis fuit Nemrod vel Belus, qui secundum Eusebium regnavit annis sexaginta quinque, et qui hunc proxime secutus est Ninus annis quinquaginta duobus, cuius imperii anno quadragesimo tertio, qui fuit post diluvium annus ducentesimus nonagesimus secundus, natus est Abraham: ex his manifestum fit exordium regni Babylonici competere in annum a diluvio centesimum octogesimum quartum. Si autem divisio linguarum incidit in ortum Phaleg, ut significat scriptura, id est, in annum a diluvio centesimum primum, necesse est primordia regni Babylonici anno tertio et octogesimo post divisionem linguarum esse constituta.
The first ruler of Babylon, then, was Nemrod or Belus, who according to Eusebius reigned sixty-five years; and the one who next followed him was Ninus, for fifty-two years, in the forty-third year of whose empire — which was the 292nd year after the flood — Abraham was born: from these it becomes manifest that the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom falls in the 184th year from the flood. But if the division of tongues fell at the birth of Phaleg, as Scripture signifies — that is, in the 101st year from the flood — it is necessary that the beginnings of the Babylonian kingdom were established in the 83rd year after the division of tongues.12

Translator’s notes

  1. Liber XV, Disputation 4 (title): was Nemrod the first founder of Babylon? ↩
  2. §68. Disp. 4 opens with Gen 10:10. Plain sense: Nemrod first reigned at Babylon and the cities of Sennaar, then extended his rule. Jerome's identifications: Arach = Edessa; Achad = Nisibis; Chalanne = Seleucia or Ctesiphon; the land of Sennaar = the region of the tower (Babylonia). Margin: Jerome. ↩
  3. §68 (cont.). Many: Moses' words mean Nemrod was the first builder of Babylon. Augustine (City of God 16.4) embraces both senses — Scripture shows the giant Nemrod founded Babylon as the metropolis/seat of his kingdom (unfinished as impiety wished); and the generation-gap (Heber 6th from Noah, Nemrod 4th) is no obstacle, since lifespans/birth-timing varied. Margins: Augustine, City of God bk. 16 ch. 4. ↩
  4. §68 (cont.). Scripture supports it: Gen 11 says the city was built along with the tower (mentioned three times), and that city, from the confusion there… (continues p. 429). ↩
  5. §68 (concl.). The city was called Babel/Babylon. Josephus: Nemrod was the leader of the tower-builders, hence chief founder of Babylon. Orosius (bk. 2 ch. 6): Nemrod celebrated as first builder; Alexander Polyhistor (in Eusebius, Preparation bk. 9, on Eupolemus): Babylon built by giants after the flood; the LXX call Nemrod a ‘giant.’ Margins: Josephus; Orosius; Alexander Polyhistor. ↩
  6. §69. Many: Belus, father of Ninus, founded Babylon (Quintus Curtius bk. 5; Alpheus in Eusebius — Belus dried the Euphrates floods and built Babylon). Consistent with all who made Belus Babylon's first ruler. Margins: Q. Curtius; Babylon first built by Belus; Alpheus. ↩
  7. §70. The common Greek/Latin view: Babylon founded by Semiramis (Herodotus bk. 1, Diodorus bk. 3, Strabo bk. 16, Mela bk. 1, Justin bk. 1, Jerome on Hosea 2; Orosius bk. 2 ch. 3: she reigned 42 yrs, founded Babylon mid-reign). Margins: Semiramis; Herodotus; Diodorus; Strabo; Mela; Justin; Jerome; Orosius. ↩
  8. §71. Berosus (in Josephus, Against Apion bk. 1) convicts the Greeks of error in crediting Semiramis: Babylon was built by king Nabuchodonosor — confirmed by Daniel 4, where the king boasts {Is not this great Babylon, which I have built…}. Margins: Nabuchodonosor founder of Babylon per Berosus; Josephus. ↩
  9. §72. Berosus Annianus makes three founders: Nemrod (marked out the city and tower in yr 131, raised the tower mountain-high as a monument of Babylonian primacy, but left it unfinished, vanishing after 56 yrs); Jupiter Belus his son (reigned 62 yrs, raised it to a town); Semiramis wife of Ninus (reigned 42 yrs, surpassing all, made it a great city — continues p. 430). Margin: Berosus Annianus. ↩
  10. §72 (concl.). End of the Berosus Annianus quotation: Semiramis so transformed Babylon that she may be called its founder rather than its enlarger. ↩
  11. §73. Pererius reconciles all the accounts: the first founder was Nemrod = Belus; those naming Belus agree with him (so does Eupolemus's ‘giants’). Semiramis is rightly called builder for greatly enlarging the small, flood-ruined city; later kings preferred Nineveh as capital (Diodorus bk. 3), so Babylon decayed until Nabuchodonosor restored it as the seat of empire. So the writers are not really at odds. Margins: the author's opinion on the founder of Babylon; Eupolemus; Diodorus. ↩
  12. §74. Chronology: first ruler Nemrod/Belus reigned 65 yrs (Eusebius), then Ninus 52 yrs; Abraham born in Ninus's 43rd yr = yr 292 after the flood. Hence the Babylonian kingdom began in yr 184 after the flood; and since the division of tongues was at Phaleg's birth (yr 101), the kingdom began 83 yrs after the division. Margin: Eusebius in the Chronicle. ↩