LatineEnglish
{And Abram and Nachor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nachor's wife, Melcha, the daughter of Aran, the father of Melcha and the father of Iescha. And Sarai was barren, and had no children. And Thare took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Aran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Chanaan: and they came as far as Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Thare were two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran.}1
Duxerunt autem Abram et Nachor uxores: nomen uxoris Abram Sarai, et nomen uxoris Nachor Melcha filia Aran patris Melchae et patris Ieschae. Erat autem Sarai sterilis nec habebat liberos. Tulit itaque Thare Abram filium suum et Lot filium Aran filii sui et Sarai nurum suam, uxorem Abram filii sui, et eduxit eos de Ur Chaldaeorum ut irent in terram Chanaan: veneruntque usque Haran et habitaverunt ibi. Et facti sunt dies Thare ducentorum quinque annorum, et mortuus est in Haran.
PRAEFATIO. Tres praecipue res hoc undecimo capite narrat Moses. Primo exponit studium et conatum eorum qui aedificare aggressi sunt civitatem et turrim Babel, et eius operis eventum atque exitum. Deinde describit progeniem omnem Sem usque ad Abraham, inter utrumque percensendo octo generationes. Quanquam, si ipsum Sem atque Abraham comprehendere velis, decem generationes (plerique faciunt) numerari oportet, has videlicet: Sem, Arphaxad, Sale, Heber, Phaleg, Reu, Sarug, Nachor, Thare et Abram. Tertio loco agit de ortu Abrahae, de coniugio eius, et de migratione ex Chaldaea in Mesopotamiam. Docet enim ortum esse Abraham anno septuagesimo patris sui Thare; duxisse uxorem Saram, alio nomine appellatam Iescham, quae filia erat Aran fratris Abrahae; derelicta vero Ur Chaldaeorum, venisse eum in urbem Haran Mesopotamiae extremam, una cum uxore sua et patre et Lot filio Aran fratris sui.
PREFACE. Three things in particular Moses narrates in this eleventh chapter. First, he sets forth the zeal and endeavor of those who undertook to build the city and tower of Babel, and the outcome and end of that work. Then he describes the whole progeny of Sem down to Abraham, counting between the two eight generations. Although, if you wish to include Sem and Abraham themselves, ten generations (as most reckon) must be counted, namely these: Sem, Arphaxad, Sale, Heber, Phaleg, Reu, Sarug, Nachor, Thare, and Abram. In the third place he treats of the birth of Abraham, of his marriage, and of his migration from Chaldea into Mesopotamia. For he teaches that Abraham was born in the seventieth year of his father Thare; that he married Sara, called by another name Iescha, who was the daughter of Aran the brother of Abraham; and that, Ur of the Chaldees being left behind, he came to the city Haran, the farthest of Mesopotamia, together with his wife, his father, and Lot the son of Aran his brother.2
QUANTUM ad primam huius capitis partem, quae est de aedificatione turris et confusione linguarum, sciendum est Mosem eam rem brevissime quidem, sed admodum distincte et expresse narrasse, declaratis nempe quinque eius rei circumstantiis…
As to the first part of this chapter, which is about the building of the tower and the confusion of tongues, it must be known that Moses narrated that matter very briefly indeed, but quite distinctly and expressly, declaring namely five circumstances of the matter…3
…id est: qui fuerint illi homines qui opus illud facere voluerunt; qua materia usi sint ad effectionem eius operis; quodnam fuerit opus et quantum ex consilio et mente eorum esse debebat; ad quem finem illud opus facere voluerint; denique quomodo eorum audaciam et superbiam Deus punierit per confusionem linguarum et dispersionem eorum in diversas mundi partes: cuius tam memorabilis rei perpetuum deinde indicium et monimentum mansit, eius loci nomen Babel, significans confusionem. Quoniam autem supra cap. 10, volens docere Moses a tribus filiis Noë multiplicatum esse omne genus hominum, dixit ex illis tribus Noë filiis profectam esse omnem hominum divisionem secundum varias gentes, nationes, linguas ac regiones — quae quidem divisio proculdubio facta est post aedificationem turris Babel et confusionem linguarum — idcirco recte monent Augustinus libro 16 de Civitate Dei cap. 4 et Rupertus libro 4 Commentariorum in Genesim cap. 41, quae narrantur hoc 11 capite de confusione linguarum et dispersione hominum, commemorata hic esse per recapitulationem. Redit enim Moses ad id quod supra significaverat de divisione hominum secundum varias linguas et regiones, a prima repetens origine causam eius divisionis, videlicet docens qua ex occasione factum sit ut, dum antea una fuisset omnium hominum lingua, in tam multas deinde tamque dissonas divisa sit.
…that is: who those men were who willed to do that work; what material they used for the effecting of that work; what the work was, and how great it was to be according to their counsel and intent; to what end they willed to do that work; and finally, how God punished their audacity and pride by the confusion of tongues and their dispersion into the various parts of the world — of which so memorable a matter there afterward remained a perpetual token and monument: the name of that place, Babel, signifying confusion. Now since above, in chapter 10, Moses, wishing to teach that the whole race of men was multiplied from the three sons of Noah, said that from those three sons of Noah proceeded the whole division of men according to various peoples, nations, tongues, and regions — which division was without doubt made after the building of the tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues — therefore Augustine, in book 16 of the City of God, chapter 4, and Rupert, in book 4 of the Commentaries on Genesis, chapter 41, rightly observe that the things narrated in this eleventh chapter about the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of men are mentioned here by recapitulation. For Moses returns to what he had signified above about the division of men according to various tongues and regions, repeating from its first origin the cause of that division — namely, teaching from what occasion it came about that, whereas before there had been one tongue of all men, it was then divided into so many and so dissonant tongues.4
NOLO in praeteritis relinquere duo quae tradit Auctor Historiae Scholasticae super librum Genesis sub finem capitis 37 et initium 38, ne forte lectori non admodum intelligenti peritoque Sacrarum literarum imponant: et vero digna ea sunt correctione. Ait ille quae narrantur hic a Mose de aedificatione turris et confusione linguarum, ea contigisse post obitum Noë, in quo ille manifesto labitur errore Chronologiae. Siquidem Noë vixit post diluvium annos trecentos quinquaginta: divisio autem linguarum facta est eo anno quo natus est Phaleg, qui fuit unus et centesimus annus post diluvium. Secundum Hebraeos vero, qui divisionem linguarum reiiciunt in extremum annum vitae Phaleg (qui fuit trecentesimus quadragesimus post diluvium), ea linguarum divisio evenit decem annis ante mortem Noë: qua de re superiori libro decimo disputavimus. Quapropter istius auctoris sententia nullo modo a falsitate excusari potest.
I am unwilling to leave among things passed over two matters which the author of the Scholastic History hands down on the book of Genesis, toward the end of chapter 37 and the beginning of 38, lest perchance they impose upon a reader not very intelligent and skilled in the Sacred letters: and indeed they are worthy of correction. He says that the things here narrated by Moses about the building of the tower and the confusion of tongues happened after the death of Noah — in which he manifestly slips into an error of chronology. For Noah lived 350 years after the flood; but the division of tongues was made in the year in which Phaleg was born, which was the 101st year after the flood. And according to the Hebrews, who throw the division of tongues back to the last year of Phaleg's life (which was the 340th after the flood), that division of tongues happened ten years before the death of Noah: of which matter we disputed in the preceding tenth book. Wherefore the opinion of that author can in no way be excused from falsehood.5
AIT praeterea iste auctor toto eo tempore quo vixit Noë progeniem trium filiorum eius multiplicatam esse ad viginti quatuor millia virorum, quorum omnium tres illi Noë filii, Sem, Cham et Iaphet, principes ac duces erant. Ponam hic verba eius: „Narrat Philo Iudaeus (ait ille auctor), vel, ut alii volunt, Gentilis philosophus, in libro Quaestionum super Genesim, quod ex tribus filiis Noë adhuc ipso vivente sunt nati viginti quatuor millia virorum, extra mulieres et parvulos, habentes tres supra se duces quos praediximus.“ Sic ille. Verum nec Philo Iudaeus tale quiddam prodidit ullo in libro, nec id verum est aut verisimile. Etenim intra illos trecentos quinquaginta annos post diluvium quibus vixit Noë, non viginti quatuor millia hominum, sed plus ducentas myriades hominum exstitisse credendum est. Namque Abraham natus est extremo principatu Nini regis, in cuius regis exercitu et in eo quod Zoroaster rex Bactrianorum adversus Ninum comparaverat fuisse amplius vicies centena millia hominum auctor est Diodorus libro tertio. Et intra trecentos annos, ex uno Iacob gens Hebraea in Aegypto adeo propagata est ut habuerit sexcenta millia bellatorum, praeter parvulos, mulieres et senes, cum, duce Mose, Aegyptum egressa est. Verum, haec praefati, ad exponendam primam huius capitis partem in qua narratur aedificatio civitatis et turris et confusio linguarum aggrediamur.
This author says, moreover, that during the whole time in which Noah lived, the progeny of his three sons was multiplied to twenty-four thousand men, of all of whom those three sons of Noah — Sem, Cham, and Japheth — were the chiefs and leaders. I shall set down here his words: „Philo the Jew relates (says that author), or, as others will have it, a Gentile philosopher, in the book of Questions on Genesis, that from the three sons of Noah, while he was yet living, there were born twenty-four thousand men, besides women and little ones, having above them the three leaders we have mentioned.“ So he. But neither did Philo the Jew hand down any such thing in any book, nor is it true or likely. For within those 350 years after the flood in which Noah lived, it is to be believed that not twenty-four thousand men, but more than two hundred myriads of men, existed. For Abraham was born at the end of the reign of king Ninus, in whose army, and in that which Zoroaster king of the Bactrians had got ready against Ninus, there were more than two million men, as Diodorus is the author in the third book. And within three hundred years, from the one Jacob the Hebrew nation was so propagated in Egypt that it had six hundred thousand fighting men, besides little ones, women, and old men, when, under the leadership of Moses, it went out of Egypt. But, having said these things by way of preface, let us proceed to set forth the first part of this chapter, in which is narrated the building of the city and tower and the confusion of tongues.6
Explanatio primae partis capitis undecimi, de aedificatione turris Babel et confusione ac divisione linguarum, continens Disputationes decem. In explanatione huius primae partis capitis undecimi decem disputationes diligenter tractandae sunt, quibus explicatis, historia quam ea de re scripsit Moses — omni illustrata obscuritate enodataque difficultate quaecunque ex verbis eius exoriri posset — plana et manifesta erit. Prima Disputatio erit, qui fuerint illi homines qui aedificaverunt turrim Babel. Secunda, qua materia sint usi ad faciendum illud opus. Tertia, quantae magnitudinis opus illud facere voluerint, aut etiam fecerint. Quarta, quae causae moverint eos homines ad illud aedificium construendum. Quinta, quid sit illud quod narrat Moses, Deum descendisse ad videndum opus illud quod fiebat. Sexta: quia Moses Deum inducit loquentem cum aliis, quaeritur qui fuerint illi quibuscum locutus est Deus, et quorum societatem et operam exegit ad disturbandum consilium et conatum illorum hominum. Septima…
Explanation of the first part of the eleventh chapter, on the building of the tower of Babel and the confusion and division of tongues, containing ten Disputations. In the explanation of this first part of the eleventh chapter, ten disputations must be diligently treated; which being unfolded, the history which Moses wrote on this matter — every obscurity illuminated and every difficulty that could arise from his words untied — will be plain and manifest. The First Disputation will be, who those men were who built the tower of Babel. The Second, what material they used to make that work. The Third, of how great a size they willed to make that work, or even did make it. The Fourth, what causes moved those men to construct that building. The Fifth, what that is which Moses relates — that God came down to see that work which was being made. The Sixth: since Moses brings in God speaking with others, it is asked who they were with whom God spoke, and whose fellowship and aid He required to disturb the design and endeavor of those men. The Seventh…7
…Septima Disputatio est de confusione linguarum, qua Deus, tanquam convenienti eorum culpae supplicio, insanam eorum audaciam et superbiam punire voluit. Octava disputatio, an lingua illa quae ab initio erat communis omnium hominum fuerit Hebraea. Nona, qualis fuerit illa confusio linguarum et quemadmodum facta sit. Decima, de numero illarum linguarum, utrum fuerint septuaginta duae.
…The Seventh Disputation is about the confusion of tongues, by which God, as by a punishment fitting their fault, willed to punish their insane audacity and pride. The Eighth disputation, whether that tongue which from the beginning was common to all men was Hebrew. The Ninth, of what kind that confusion of tongues was, and how it was made. The Tenth, about the number of those tongues — whether they were seventy-two.8
Translator’s notes
- Gen 11:29–32 (verse lemma, concluding the chapter). ↩
- Praefatio §1. The three chief matters of Gen 11: (1) the building of Babel and its outcome; (2) Sem's progeny to Abraham — 8 generations between them, or 10 counting both (Sem, Arphaxad, Sale, Heber, Phaleg, Reu, Sarug, Nachor, Thare, Abram); (3) Abraham's birth (Thare's 70th yr), marriage (Sara, also called Iescha, daughter of his brother Aran), and migration from Ur to Haran with his wife, father, and Lot. ↩
- Praefatio §2. The Babel narrative, though very brief, sets out five circumstances of the affair (continues p. 473). ↩
- Praefatio §2 (cont.). The five circumstances Moses declares: (1) who the builders were; (2) the material; (3) the work and its intended size; (4) its purpose; (5) how God punished their pride by confounding tongues and dispersing them — the name Babel (‘confusion’) a lasting monument. Since Gen 10 already said the nations divided from Noah's three sons (a division surely after Babel), Augustine (City of God 16.4) and Rupert (on Genesis bk. 4 ch. 41) rightly note that Gen 11 is told by recapitulation — Moses returns to explain the cause of that division. Margins: Augustine; Rupert. ↩
- Praefatio §2 (cont.). First error of the Scholastic History (Comestor, Gen ch. 37–38): that Babel happened after Noah's death — a chronological blunder, since Noah lived 350 yrs after the flood, while the division was at Phaleg's birth (yr 101), or even by the Hebrews at Phaleg's last year (yr 340 = 10 yrs before Noah's death; treated in his ‘tenth book,’ i.e. Liber XV). Margin: the author of the Scholastic History is refuted. ↩
- Praefatio §2 (concl.). Second error of the Scholastic History: that in Noah's lifetime his sons' progeny grew to only 24,000 men (falsely ascribed to Philo's Questions on Genesis) — Philo wrote no such thing, and it is incredible: in the 350 post-flood yrs more than 2,000,000 men existed (Ninus's and Zoroaster's armies alone exceeded 2 million, Diodorus bk. 3; Jacob's line grew to 600,000 fighting men in 300 yrs, by the Exodus). With this preface done, Pererius turns to the first part — Babel. Margins: Diodorus; Exod 12. ↩
- Praefatio (structural outline). The first part of Gen 11 (Babel) will be treated in ten disputations: (1) who the builders were; (2) the material used; (3) the intended size; (4) the causes; (5) the meaning of ‘God came down to see’; (6) with whom God spoke (continues p. 475). ↩
- Praefatio (outline, concl.). The remaining disputations: (7) the confusion of tongues as fitting punishment; (8) whether the first common tongue was Hebrew; (9) the nature and manner of the confusion; (10) the number of tongues — whether 72. ↩