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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Sixteen — the tower of Babel and the division of tongues

{Upon those words, Genesis ch. 11: Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and bitumen instead of mortar.}

LatineEnglish

{Upon those words, Genesis ch. 11: Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and bitumen instead of mortar.}1

Super illis verbis, Genes. cap. 11: Venite, faciamus lateres et coquamus eos igni: habueruntque lateres pro saxis, et bitumen pro caemento.

POSTQUAM aliquandiu in casis sparsisque domiciliis habitaverant, incessit eos homines ambitiosa quaedam et vesana cupido aggrediendi et perficiendi magna quaedam opera et in omne posteritatis aevum famosa, id est amplissimam construendi civitatem et incredibilis turrim altitudinis excitandi. His autem verbis significatur materia qua usi sunt ad construendum illud aedificium: usi enim sunt lateribus coctis igni, loco saxorum vel lapidum, et bitumine, vice calcis vel luti. SED cur usi sunt lateribus? Quatuor causae afferri possunt. Prima causa fuit penuria saxorum in campo Sennaar: nam cum sit terra campestris et plana, non abundat saxis; neque enim omnis fert omnia tellus. Audi Vitruvium: „De ipso,“ inquit, „muro, e qua materia struatur aut perficiatur, ideo non est praefiniendum, quod non in omnibus locis, quas optamus copias, eas possumus habere. Sed ubi sunt saxa quadrata, sive silex, sive caementum, aut coctus later sive crudus, his erit utendum. Non enim, ut Babylone abundantes liquido bitumine, pro calce et arena ex latere cocto factum habent murum, sic item possunt omnes regiones seu locorum proprietates habere tantas eiusdem generis utilitates, ut ex his comparationibus ad aeternitatem perfectus habeatur sine vitio murus.“
After they had dwelt for a while in huts and scattered dwellings, there came upon those men a certain ambitious and frenzied desire of undertaking and accomplishing certain great works, famous for all the ages of posterity — that is, of constructing a most ample city and raising a tower of incredible height. By these words is signified the material they used to construct that building: for they used bricks baked with fire, in place of rocks or stones, and bitumen, instead of lime or mud. But why did they use bricks? Four causes can be brought forward. The first cause was the lack of rocks in the plain of Sennaar: for since it is a level and flat land, it does not abound in rocks; for not every soil bears all things. Hear Vitruvius: „Concerning the wall itself, of what material it should be built or finished, it is therefore not to be prescribed beforehand, because we cannot have in all places the supplies we wish. But where there are squared stones, or flint, or rubble, or baked brick or unbaked, these must be used. For not, as at Babylon, abounding in liquid bitumen, they have a wall made of baked brick instead of lime and sand, can all regions or properties of places likewise have such great utilities of the same kind, that from these provisions a wall may be had, perfect unto eternity, without fault.“2
ALTERA causa fuit commoditas faciendi plurimos et optimos lateres. Quod autem genus laterum maxime idoneum sit aedificiis, breviter indicat Plinius illis verbis: „Lateres non sunt e sabuloso neque arenoso, multoque minus calculoso, ducendi solo, sed e cretoso et albicante aut ex rubrica; vel, si iam ex sabuloso, masculo certe. Finguntur optime vere, nam solstitio non sunt. Aedificiis non nisi bimos probant.“ Sic Plinius. Eadem fere ad verbum de lateribus disputat Vitruvius, ut ex Vitruvio sumpsisse Plinium non temere existimari queat. Quoniam igitur terra Babyloniae talis est quali opus est ad fingendos optimos lateres, idcirco aedificatores illi merito usi sunt lateribus.
The second cause was the convenience of making very many and very good bricks. And what kind of brick is most suitable for buildings Pliny briefly indicates in these words: „Bricks are to be drawn not from gravelly nor sandy soil, and much less from pebbly, but from chalky and whitish, or from red ochre; or, if from sandy, at least from the coarse-grained kind. They are best fashioned in spring, for in midsummer they are not [good]. For buildings they approve none but two years old.“ So Pliny. Almost the same things, word for word, Vitruvius disputes about bricks, so that it may not rashly be thought that Pliny took them from Vitruvius. Since, therefore, the soil of Babylonia is such as is needed for fashioning the best bricks, on that account those builders rightly used bricks.3
TERTIA causa fuit, quo solidius et firmius ac diuturnius esset aedificium. Lateritia enim structura, si recte facta sit, incredibilem habet diuturnitatem, et ad aeternitatem quodammodo perdurat. „Struebant,“ inquit Iosephus libro 1 Antiquitatum, „coctis lateribus, ad firmitatem bitumine ferruminatis.“ Audi Plinium: „Graeci,“ ait, „praeterquam ubi e silice fieri poterat structura, parietes lateritios praetulere. Sunt enim aeterni, si ad perpendiculum fiant: ideo et in publica opera et in regias domos adduntur. Sic extruxere murum Athenis qui ad montem Hymettum spectat; sic Patris aedes Iovis et Herculis, quamvis lapideas columnas et epistylia circumdarent.“ Idem Plinius alio loco, Epigenis gravissimi auctoris testimonio, firmat apud Babylonios septingentorum viginti annorum observationes siderum, coctilibus laterculis inscriptas, conservatas esse.
The third cause was that the building might be more solid and firm and lasting. For brickwork structure, if rightly made, has an incredible durability, and in a manner endures unto eternity. „They built,“ says Josephus in book 1 of the Antiquities, „with baked bricks, soldered for firmness with bitumen.“ Hear Pliny: „The Greeks, except where the structure could be made of flint, preferred brick walls. For they are everlasting, if made to the plumb-line: therefore they are admitted both in public works and in royal houses. So they built the wall at Athens which looks toward Mount Hymettus; so the temples of Jove and Hercules at Patrae, although they surrounded them with stone columns and architraves.“ The same Pliny in another place, on the testimony of Epigenes, a most weighty author, affirms that among the Babylonians observations of the stars for seven hundred and twenty years, inscribed on baked tiles, were preserved.4
QUARTA causa a nonnullis illa traditur: eos homines auditione et traditione maiorum cognovisse, sicut antea fuerat generale excidium orbis per aquam, ita fore aliquando generalem totius orbis cladem per ignem; et, sicut adversus diluvii exitium saluti hominibus fuerat arca lignea, ita putasse adversus illud incendium remedio et praesidio esse posse maximum aliquod et altissimum aedificium lateritium; siquidem lateres, cum decocti sunt, validissime resistunt igni, lapides vero igne solvuntur in calcem.
The fourth cause is handed down by some thus: that those men knew, by hearing and the tradition of their elders, that, as before there had been a general destruction of the world by water, so there would one day be a general calamity of the whole world by fire; and, as against the destruction of the flood the wooden ark had been for the salvation of men, so they thought that against that conflagration the remedy and protection could be some very great and very high brick building — since bricks, when baked, most strongly resist fire, but stones are dissolved by fire into lime.5
SED quid sibi vult illud, „Et bitumen habuerunt pro caemento“? Certe vox caementi, si ea proprie sumatur, significat rudem materiam ex qua conficiuntur aedificia, uti sunt lapides nulla arte ad aedificium accommodati nec politi, quales inveniuntur temere congesti. „Caementa,“ inquit quodam loco Livius, „calce durata non erant, sed luto tantum intelita.“ Sed hoc loco nomen caementi positum est pro glutine quo materia structurae, sive lapides fuerint sive lateres, conglutinatur et cohaerescit, quo tenacior et firmior fit, ut est calx, lutum, argilla vel creta, denique etiam bitumen. Pro bitumine Hebraice est „Chomer,“ quam vocem quidam interpretati sunt argillam, ut habet versio Vatabli; vel lutum, ut expressit Pagninus; aut cretam vel rubrum bitumen quod fit ex calce et pulvere laterum, unde etiam rubrum colorem accipit, id quod placet Oleastro. Septuaginta Interpretes reddiderunt Graece ἄσφαλτον, id est bitumen, quos Latinus interpres secutus est.
But what does that mean, „And they had bitumen for mortar (caementum)“? Certainly the word ‘caementum,’ if taken properly, signifies the rough material of which buildings are made — such as stones not fitted by any art to a building, nor polished, such as are found heaped up at random. „The rubble (caementa),“ says Livy in a certain place, „were not hardened with lime, but only daubed with mud.“ But in this place the word ‘caementum’ is put for the glue by which the material of the structure — whether they were stones or bricks — is glued together and coheres, that it may become more tenacious and firm: such as lime, mud, clay or chalk, and finally also bitumen. For ‘bitumen’ the Hebrew has ‘Chomer,’ which word some interpreted ‘clay,’ as Vatablus's version has; or ‘mud,’ as Pagninus rendered; or ‘chalk’ or ‘red bitumen,’ which is made of lime and brick-dust, whence it also takes a red color, which pleases Oleaster. The Septuagint translators rendered it in Greek ἄσφαλτον, that is bitumen, whom the Latin translator followed.6
DIODORUS Tarsensis, magister S. Chrysostomi, qui cum in alios divinae scripturae libros tum etiam in Pentateuchum Mosis edidit Commentarios (qui etiamsi interciderunt, in Catena tamen nonnulla ex illis Commentariis deprompta commemorantur), hoc loco scriptum reliquisse traditur Hebraeam et Syram vocem in hoc loco non significare bitumen sed calcem; idque longe probabilius esse, propterea quod bitumen non sit idoneum aedificiis, calx vero maxime sit acco[mmodata]…
Diodorus of Tarsus, the teacher of Saint Chrysostom — who published Commentaries both on other books of the divine Scripture and also on the Pentateuch of Moses (which, even though they have perished, yet some things drawn from those Commentaries are recorded in the Catena) — is handed down to have left it written in this place that the Hebrew and Syriac word in this place does not signify bitumen but lime; and that this is far more probable, because bitumen is not suitable for buildings, but lime is most suited…7
…accommodata. Verum nec vox Hebraica neque Chaldaica, quae est hoc loco, significat calcem, sed bitumen vel lutum.
…suited. But neither the Hebrew word nor the Chaldaic, which is in this place, signifies lime, but bitumen or mud.8
QUOCIRCA Theodoretus, tacito Diodori nomine, sententiam eius egregie refellit, ante quinquagesimam nonam quaestionem in Genesim ita scribens: „Dixerunt quidam e magistris bitumen esse calcem vivam; ignorantesque (ut verisimile est) fontes bituminis in Assyria exsistentes, putaverunt ex calce viva turrem aedificatam esse. Ego vero diligenter didici ab iis qui illinc veniunt esse illic fontes qui hanc materiam cum aqua effundunt; et in aedificiis construendis et compingendis coctilem laterem componant; et hoc pacto turrim illam aedificatam esse aiunt. Namque ipsi qui mihi haec narrabant, non tantum spectasse turrim contenti, etiam particulam aliquam effringentes, reperisse se dixerunt bitumen ex coctilibus lateribus substratum. Addebant praeterea illi magnam eo loco penuriam esse lapidum, et idcirco aedificantes uti lateribus pro lapidibus. Atqui sine lapidibus quomodo calx viva confici possit?“ Sic Theodoretus.
Wherefore Theodoret, the name of Diodorus being suppressed, excellently refutes his opinion, writing thus before the fifty-ninth question on Genesis: „Some of the teachers said that bitumen is quicklime; and, being ignorant (as is likely) of the springs of bitumen existing in Assyria, they thought that the tower was built of quicklime. But I have diligently learned from those who come from there that there are springs there which pour forth this material with water; and in constructing and joining buildings they lay the baked brick; and in this way they say that tower was built. For those who told me these things, not content to have only looked at the tower, breaking off some small particle too, said they had found bitumen laid under the baked bricks. They added besides that there is a great lack of stones in that place, and therefore the builders used bricks instead of stones. And yet, without stones, how could quicklime be made?“ So Theodoret.9
ERGO recte Latinus interpres vocem Hebraeam convertit Latine „bitumen,“ sic enim verterunt etiam Septuaginta Interpretes; et cum terra illa Sennaar, quae postea fuit Babylonia, magnam et perennem suppeditet copiam bituminis, quod optimum sit maximeque accommodatum aedificiis, cumque propter hanc causam certum sit Semiramidem cocto latere et bitumine Babylonem urbem incredibili magnitudine ac magnificentia aedificasse, profecto credibile admodum est primos illos aedificatores civitatis Babylonis et turris Babel eadem usos esse materia. Quod dixi de copia bituminis Babylonici et usu eius in aedificiis, testem eius rei laudare possum Strabonem, cuius haec sunt verba: „In Babylonia bitumen multum nascitur, cuius duplex genus est (auctore Eratosthene), liquidum et aridum. Liquidum vocant Naphtam, in Susiano agro nascens; aridum vero, quod etiam congelascere potest, in Babylonio fonte propinquo Naphthae. Ex hoc arido bitumine glebae maximae concrescunt, per quae idonea aedificiis quae ex coctilibus lateribus fiunt.“ Ita Strabo. Cum quo etiam Vitruvius consentit: „Babylone,“ inquit, „lacus est amplissima magnitudine, habens supra natans liquidum bitumen; quo bitumine et latere testaceo structum murum Semiramis Babyloni circumdedit.“ Idem testatur Diodorus libro 3 cap. 4.
Therefore the Latin translator rightly turned the Hebrew word into Latin „bitumen,“ for so the Septuagint translators too rendered it; and since that land of Sennaar, which afterward was Babylonia, supplies a great and perennial abundance of bitumen, which is excellent and most suited to buildings, and since for this cause it is certain that Semiramis built the city Babylon, of incredible size and magnificence, with baked brick and bitumen, it is assuredly quite credible that those first builders of the city of Babylon and the tower of Babel used the same material. What I said about the abundance of Babylonian bitumen and its use in buildings, I can cite Strabo as a witness, whose words are these: „In Babylonia much bitumen is born, of which there is a double kind (Eratosthenes being the author), liquid and dry. The liquid they call Naphtha, growing in the Susian territory; the dry, which can also congeal, in the Babylonian spring near Naphtha. From this dry bitumen the greatest lumps grow together, by which [it is] suitable for buildings which are made of baked bricks.“ So Strabo. With whom Vitruvius too agrees: „At Babylon,“ he says, „there is a lake of very great size, having liquid bitumen floating on top; with which bitumen and earthen brick Semiramis surrounded Babylon with a built wall.“ The same Diodorus testifies in book 3, chapter 4.10
MOSES porro, scribens illos aedificatores turris habuisse „lapides pro saxis et bitumen pro caemento,“ significat talis materiae usum in aedificiis non fuisse suo tempore, sed ex lapidibus et calce vel luto. Quanquam ipsemet scripsit in libro Exodi cap. 1 et 5 Aegyptios in aedificiis construendis luto et lateribus esse usos. Sed fortasse in aedificiis publicis et regiis utebantur illis, non autem promiscue in quibuslibet, ut in privatis et vulgaribus; namque id etiam Plinius indicavit.
Moses, moreover, in writing that those builders of the tower had „bricks for stones and bitumen for mortar,“ signifies that the use of such material in buildings was not [usual] in his own time, but [buildings were made] of stones and lime or mud. Although he himself wrote, in the book of Exodus chapters 1 and 5, that the Egyptians used mud and bricks in constructing buildings. But perhaps they used them in public and royal buildings, and not indiscriminately in any whatsoever, as in private and common ones; for Pliny too indicated this.11
SUPERIORA huius capitis verba, quae adhuc exposuimus, ad mysticam intelligentiam pulchre accommodans, B. Gregorius nonnulla tradit utilia disciplinae ac vitae spirituali monita ac documenta; docens eos qui, abiecta cura studioque rerum caelestium, totos dederunt se amandis et consectandis bonis terrenis, summum bonum in comparanda praesentis vitae felicitate collocantes, persimiles esse eorum qui, ex Oriente profecti et in campum Sennaar venientes, lateribus et bitumine altissimam aedificare turrim conati sunt. Ponam hic verba Gregorii ex Commentario eius in quartum Psalmum Poenitentialem excerpta. Exponens enim penultimum illius Psalmi versiculum, „Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Syon, ut aedificentur muri Hierusalem,“ ad hunc modum scribit:…
The earlier words of this chapter, which we have hitherto expounded, beautifully accommodating them to a mystical understanding, Blessed Gregory hands down some useful warnings and lessons for spiritual discipline and life; teaching that those who, the care and zeal of heavenly things being cast off, have given themselves wholly to loving and pursuing earthly goods, placing the highest good in the gaining of the felicity of the present life, are very like those who, having set out from the East and coming into the plain of Sennaar, tried to build a very high tower with bricks and bitumen. I shall set down here the words of Gregory, excerpted from his Commentary on the fourth Penitential Psalm. For, expounding the penultimate verse of that Psalm, „Deal favorably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up,“ he writes in this manner:…12
„Unusquisque hominum aut Hierusalem aut Babylonis civis est. Sicut enim per amorem Dei sanctus quisque Hierusalem civis efficitur, ita per amorem saeculi omnis iniquus in Babylonia structura operatur. Ad construendum autem spiritalis Babyloniae aedificium, perversi omnes exemplum illius antiquae Babel imitantur. Cuius civitatis, ut inquit Scriptura, auctores pro saxis lateres et pro caemento bitumen habuerunt. Per quod intelligitur mundi amatores carnalis vitae construere municipium, quod ad vim ventorum et impetus fluviorum facili impulsu velociter sit subruendum. Legimus porro venisse homines illos ex Oriente et in campo Sennaar habitasse: cum autem Christum propheta quidam appellaverit Orientem dicens, Ecce vir Oriens nomen eius, constat de Oriente venisse qui a Christo male vivendo recesserunt. Sennaar autem interpretatur excussio dentium sive faetor eorum. In campo igitur Sennaar habitant qui, positi non in celsitudine virtutum sed in planitie vitiorum, et detractionum morsibus proximos lacerant, et in otiosae vitae volutabro iacentes infamia sua circumquaque faetorem exhalant; quorum dentes tum Deus excutit, cum illorum facta simul et verba confundit: de eo quippe scriptum est, Dentes peccatorum contrivisti, et iterum, Dominus conteret dentes eorum in ore ipsorum. Nam de faetore eorum per alium prophetam scriptum est, Computruerunt iumenta in stercore suo. Computrescere iumenta est carnales homines in faetore luxuriae vitam finire. Merito autem qui in Sennaar habitant de lateribus civitatem aedificant: quia qui voluptatibus carnis inserviunt, de fragili materia mentis mutationem attollunt. Qui autem, carnalis vitae abdicatis illecebris, per opera sanctitatis virtutum in se ipsis sanctificationem aedificant, hi profecto lateres in lapides mutant; qui cum Isaia possunt dicere, Lateres ceciderunt, sed quadris lapidibus aedificabimus. Lateribus quippe cadentibus ille aedificat lapidibus quadris, quicunque carnis lasciviam disciplinae strictioris rigore castigat; qui membrorum legem mentis lege superat; qui corporis fortitudinem spiritus virtute commutat. Quisquis igitur infirmam carnis fortitudinem in virile spiritus robur excitat, quasi lateres in saxa, quibus muri Hierusalem aedificentur, commutat.“ Sic Gregorius.
„Every one of men is a citizen either of Jerusalem or of Babylon. For as, through the love of God, each holy person is made a citizen of Jerusalem, so, through the love of the world, every wicked one labors in the structure of Babylon. And to construct the building of spiritual Babylon, all the perverse imitate the example of that ancient Babel. Of which city, as Scripture says, the builders had bricks for stones and bitumen for mortar. By which it is understood that the lovers of the world construct the township of carnal life, which by the force of winds and the assault of rivers is to be quickly overthrown by an easy impulse. We read, moreover, that those men came from the East and dwelt in the plain of Sennaar: and since a certain prophet called Christ the East, saying, Behold a man, the East is his name, it is clear that those came from the East who departed from Christ by living ill. And Sennaar is interpreted the shaking-out of teeth, or their stench. In the plain of Sennaar, therefore, dwell those who, placed not on the height of virtues but on the plain of vices, both lacerate their neighbors with the bites of detractions and, lying in the wallowing-place of an idle life, breathe out the stench of their infamy all around; whose teeth God then shakes out, when He confounds at once their deeds and words: for of this it is written, Thou hast broken the teeth of sinners, and again, The Lord shall break their teeth in their mouth. For of their stench it is written through another prophet, The beasts have rotted in their dung. For beasts to rot is for carnal men to end their life in the stench of luxury. Rightly do those who dwell in Sennaar build a city of bricks: because those who serve the pleasures of the flesh raise the change of their mind from fragile material. But those who, the enticements of carnal life renounced, build sanctification in themselves through the works of the holiness of the virtues, these indeed change bricks into stones; who with Isaiah can say, The bricks are fallen, but we will build with square stones. For when the bricks fall, he builds with square stones whoever chastises the wantonness of the flesh with the rigor of stricter discipline; who overcomes the law of the members by the law of the mind; who exchanges the strength of the body for the virtue of the spirit. Whoever, therefore, rouses the weak strength of the flesh into the manly vigor of the spirit, changes, as it were, bricks into stones, with which the walls of Jerusalem may be built.“ So Gregory.13

Translator’s notes

  1. Gen 11:3 (verse lemma, for Disputation 2). ↩
  2. §18. Disp. 2. After dwelling a while, an ambitious, frenzied desire seized them to build a vast city and an incredibly tall tower. Their material: fire-baked bricks (for stone) and bitumen (for lime/mud). Why bricks? Four causes. (1) Lack of stone in the flat plain of Sennaar (not every soil bears all). Vitruvius (bk. 1 ch. 5): material depends on local supply — squared stone, flint, rubble, or brick; Babylon, abounding in bitumen, walls with baked brick instead of lime and sand. Margins: four causes why Babel was built of brick; Vitruvius bk. 1 ch. 5. ↩
  3. §19. (2) The ease of making very many and excellent bricks: Pliny (bk. 35 ch. 14) on the right brick-clay (chalky/whitish or red ochre, not gravel/sand; best made in spring; two years old for building) — Vitruvius (bk. 1 ch. 3) nearly verbatim. Babylonia's soil being ideal for brick, the builders rightly used it. Margins: Pliny bk. 35 ch. 14; Vitruvius bk. 1 ch. 3. ↩
  4. §20. (3) Durability: well-made brickwork lasts almost forever. Josephus (Antiquities bk. 1): they built with baked bricks soldered with bitumen. Pliny (bk. 35 ch. 14): the Greeks preferred brick walls (everlasting if plumb), used in public works and temples (the Athens wall toward Hymettus; the temples of Jove and Hercules at Patrae); and (bk. 7 ch. 56) Epigenes attests the Babylonians kept 720 years of star-observations inscribed on baked tiles. Margins: the durability of brick structure; Pliny bk. 35 ch. 14; Pliny bk. 7 ch. 56. ↩
  5. §21. (4) Some say: knowing by tradition that, as the world was once destroyed by water, so it would one day be destroyed by fire — and as the wooden ark saved men from the flood — they thought a vast, tall brick building could be a refuge against the fire, since baked bricks resist fire (while stones dissolve into lime). ↩
  6. §22. ‘Bitumen for caementum’: ‘caementum’ properly = rough unworked building-stone (Livy: ‘caementa not hardened with lime but daubed with mud’); here it means the cement binding the material (lime, mud, clay, chalk, or bitumen). The Hebrew ‘Chomer’ is variously rendered: clay (Vatablus), mud (Pagninus), chalk/red bitumen of lime and brick-dust (Oleaster); the LXX ‘asphalt’ (bitumen), followed by the Vulgate. Margin: what ‘caementum’ signifies here; Livy. ↩
  7. §23. Diodorus of Tarsus (Chrysostom's teacher; his Pentateuch Commentaries survive only in catena-fragments) held that the Hebrew/Syriac word here means not bitumen but lime — more probable, he said, since bitumen is unsuited to building while lime is most suited (continues p. 483; to be refuted). Margin: Diodorus of Tarsus refuted. ↩
  8. §23 (concl.). But in fact neither the Hebrew nor the Chaldaic word here means lime — it means bitumen or mud. ↩
  9. §24. Theodoret (before Question 59 on Genesis), without naming Diodorus, refutes him: some, ignorant of Assyria's bitumen springs, thought the tower built of quicklime; but travelers report springs there pouring out bitumen (with water), used to lay the baked bricks — they even broke off a fragment and found bitumen under the bricks; and stone being scarce, they used brick (and without stones, how make quicklime?). Margin: Theodoret. ↩
  10. §25. So the Vulgate (with the LXX) rightly has ‘bitumen.’ Sennaar/Babylonia yields abundant bitumen, ideal for building; Semiramis built Babylon of baked brick and bitumen, so the first builders of Babel likely used the same. Witnesses: Strabo (bk. 16, citing Eratosthenes — liquid bitumen ‘Naphtha’ in Susiana, dry near Babylon, in great lumps for brick buildings); Vitruvius (bk. 8 ch. 3 — the Babylonian bitumen lake, Semiramis's wall); Diodorus (bk. 3 ch. 4). Margins: Strabo bk. 16; Vitruvius bk. 8 ch. 3; Diodorus. ↩
  11. §25 (cont.). By noting ‘brick for stone, bitumen for mortar,’ Moses implies such material was not the usual building practice in his day (which used stone and lime/mud) — though he himself records the Egyptians using mud and brick (Exod 1, 5); perhaps only in public/royal buildings, not private ones (Pliny too noted this). Margins: whether brick was used in buildings in Moses's time; Pliny bk. 35 ch. 14. ↩
  12. §26. Gregory's mystical reading (on the 4th Penitential Psalm, Ps 50:20 ‘that the walls of Jerusalem be built’): those who cast off heavenly things and give themselves wholly to earthly goods, placing their highest good in this life's felicity, are like the builders of Babel (continues p. 484). ↩
  13. §26 (concl.). Gregory's allegory: every man is a citizen of Jerusalem (by love of God) or Babylon (by love of the world); the perverse imitate ancient Babel. ‘Brick for stone, bitumen for mortar’ = worldly men building carnal life on fragile material, soon overthrown. ‘From the East’ = departing from Christ (the ‘Orient,’ Zach 6); ‘Sennaar’ (shaking-out of teeth / stench) = those on the plain of vices, tearing neighbors by detraction and reeking of infamy — God ‘shakes out their teeth’ (Ps 3, Ps 57) by confounding their deeds and words; their ‘stench’ (Joel 1, rotting beasts) = ending life in the stench of luxury. Those who chastise the flesh ‘change bricks into stones’ (Isa 9, ‘the bricks are fallen, but we will build with squared stones’), building the walls of Jerusalem. Margins: Zach 6; Ps 3; Ps 57; Joel 1; Isa 9. ↩