When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there. Notice how the human race, instead of managing to keep to its own boundaries, always longs for more and reaches out for greater things. This is what the human race has lost in particular, not being prepared to recognize the limitations of its own condition but always lusting after more, entertaining ambitions beyond its capacity. In this regard, too, when people who chase after the things of the world acquire for themselves much wealth and status, they lose sight of their own nature, as it were, and aspire to such heights that they topple into the very depths. You could see this happening every day without others being any the wiser from the sight of it. Instead, they pause for a while but immediately lose all recollection of it and take the same road as the others and fall over the same precipice. This is exactly what you can see happening to these people in the present instance: When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there. See how in gradual stages it teaches us the instability of their attitude. When they saw the open country (the text says), they packed up and left their previous dwelling and settled down there.

This city named Confusion was none other than Babylon, to whose marvelous construction pagan history brings testimonies. For Babylon means confusion. It would seem that the founder of the city was the giant Nimrod, as was noticed above.^[1] In mentioning him, the Scripture tells us that Babylon was the head of his kingdom, meaning at the head of all the other cities, the capital where the government of the kingdom had its seat. However, the city never reached the kind of completion that the pride of impious men had dreamed. The actual plan called for an immense height—it was meant to reach the sky. This perhaps refers to one of its towers, which was to be higher than all the others, or perhaps the word tower may mean all the towers much as horse can mean thousands of horsemen.

After the flood, as if striving to fortify themselves against God, as if there could be anything high for God or anything secure for pride, certain proud men built a tower, ostensibly so that they might not be destroyed by a flood if one came later. For they had heard and recalled that all iniquity had been destroyed by the flood. They were unwilling to abstain from iniquity. They sought the height of a tower against a flood; they built a lofty tower. God saw their pride, and he caused this disorder to be sent upon them, that they might speak but not understand one another, and tongues became different through pride.

What about the war of the giants, described in Genesis? It is said, God was afraid of those powerful men and tricked them, even though they were building their tower not to harm anyone but for their own preservation.

It is conceivable that here there may have been an allusion to the Trinity, if we suppose that the Father said to the Son and the Holy Spirit, Come, let us descend and confound their tongue. The supposition is sound. But if so, we must rule out the possibility that angels were meant. And surely it is more proper for the angels to come to God unbidden, moved by grace, that is, by the thoughts that make them devoutly submissive to unchanging truth, as to the eternal law that rules their heavenly court. The angels are not their own criterion of truth, but, depending on creative truth, they move unbidden toward it as toward a fountain of life from which they must imbibe what they do not have of themselves. And their motion is without change, since they keep coming, never to depart.

Moses represents God as descending to the tower that the sons of men were building, seeking to inspect it and saying, Come, let us go down quickly, and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech. Who do the heretics think was the God that descended to the tower in this passage and then sought to visit these men? Was he God the Father? In that case, God is enclosed in a place. If so, how then does he embrace all things? Or is it possible that he speaks of an angel descending with other angels and saying, Come, let us go down quickly, and there confuse their language? On the contrary, we note in Deuteronomy that it was God who recounted these things and God who spoke, where it is written: When he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set up the boundaries of the people according to the number of the angels of God.^[1] Therefore the Father did not descend, nor did an angel command these things, as the narrative clearly indicates. Accordingly, the only remaining conclusion is that he descended of whom the apostle Paul says, He who descended, he it is who ascended also above all heavens, that he might fill all things,^[2] that is, the Son of God, the Word of God.

This in fact is the way the Lord is accustomed to behave. This is what he did in the beginning in the case of the [first] woman as well. She had abused the status conferred on her, and for that reason he subjected her to her husband. Again, too, in the case of Adam, since he drew no advantage from the great ease he enjoyed and from life in the garden but rather rendered himself liable to punishment through the fall, God drove him out of the garden and inflicted on him everlasting punishment in the words thorns and thistles let the earth yield.^[1] So when the people in the present case, who had been dignified with similarity of language, used the privilege given them for evil purposes, he put a stop to the impulse of their wickedness through creating differences in language. Let us confuse their speech, he says, so that they will be unable to understand one another’s language. His purpose was that, just as similarity of language achieved their living together, so difference in language might cause dispersal among them.

They foolishly began to build a tower that touched the stars and thought they might be able to climb the skies with it. But God, seeing that their work proceeded because they spoke the same language, intervened and caused them to speak different languages. Then he scattered them by isolating them in the islands of the earth, so that nations speaking different tongues arose.

It is likely that they lost their common language when they received these new languages. For if their original language had not perished their first deed would not have come to nothing. It was when they lost their original language, which was lost by all the nations, with one exception, that their first building came to nought. In addition, because of their new languages, which made them foreigners to each other and incapable of understanding one another, war broke out among them on account of the divisions that the languages brought among them. Thus war broke out among those who had been building that fortified city out of fear of others. And all those who had been keeping themselves away from the city were scattered throughout the entire earth. It was Nimrod who scattered them. It was also he who seized Babel and became its first ruler. If Nimrod had not scattered them each to his own place, he would not have been able to take that place where they all had lived before.

Just as when holy men live together, it is a great grace and blessing; so, likewise, that congregation is the worst kind when sinners dwell together. The more sinners there are at one time, the worse they are. Indeed, when the tower was being built up against God, those who were building it were disbanded for their own welfare. The conspiracy was evil. The dispersion was of true benefit even to those who were dispersed.

There are many people even today who in imitation of them want to be remembered for such achievements, by building splendid homes, baths, porches and avenues. I mean, if you were to ask each of them why they toil and labor and lay out such great expense to no good purpose, you would hear nothing but these very words. They would be seeking to ensure that their memory survives in perpetuity and to have it said that this is the house belonging to so-and-so, this is the property of so-and-so. This, on the contrary, is worthy not of commemoration but of condemnation. For hard upon those words come other remarks equivalent to countless accusations— belonging to so-and-so the grasping miser, despoiler of widows and orphans. So such behavior is calculated not to earn remembrance but to encounter unremitting accusations, achieve notoriety after death and incite the tongues of onlookers to calumny and condemnation of the person who acquired these goods. But if you are anxious for undying reputation, I will show you the way to succeed in being remembered for every achievement and also, along with an excellent name, to provide yourself with great confidence in the age to come. How then will you manage both to be remembered day after day and also become the recipient of tributes even after passing from one life to the next? If you give away these goods of yours into the hands of the poor, letting go of precious stones, magnificent homes, properties and baths.

It is necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of generations descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the city of God after the flood. As before the flood it was exhibited in the series of generations descending from Seth, now it is descending from Shem. And therefore does divine Scripture, after exhibiting the earthly city as Babylon or Confusion, revert to the patriarch Shem and recapitulate the generations from him to Abraham, specifying the year in which each father gave birth to the son that belonged to this line and how long he lived. And unquestionably it is this that fulfills the promise I made, that it should appear why it is said of the sons of Eber, The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided.^[1] For what can we understand by the division of the earth, if not the diversity of languages? And, therefore, omitting the other sons of Shem, who are not concerned in this matter, Scripture gives the genealogy of those by whom the line runs on to Abraham, as before the flood those are given who carried on the line to Noah from Seth. Accordingly this series of generations begins thus: These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old and begat Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he begat Arpachshad five hundred years and begat sons and daughters. In like manner it registers the rest, naming the year of his life in which each begat the son who belonged to that line that extends to Abraham. It specifies, too, how many years he lived thereafter, begetting sons and daughters, that we may not childishly suppose that the men named were the only men, but that we may understand how the population increased and how regions and kingdoms so vast could be populated by the descendants of Shem. Especially this is true of the kingdom of Assyria, from which Ninus subdued the surrounding nations, reigning with brilliant prosperity and bequeathing to his descendants a vast but thoroughly consolidated empire, which held together for many centuries.

But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the number of years each member of this series lived but only the year of his life in which he gave birth to his heir, that we may thus reckon the number of years from the flood to Abraham and may at the same time leave room to touch briefly and cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our argument. In the second year, then, after the flood, Shem when he was 100 years old begat Arpachshad; Arpachshad when he was 135 years old begat Cainan; Cainan when he was 130 years begat Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age when he begat Eber. Eber lived 134 years and begat Peleg, in whose days the earth was divided. Peleg himself lived 130 years and begat Reu; and Reu lived 132 years and begat Serug; Serug 130, and begat Nahor; and Nahor 79, and begat Terah; and Terah 70, and begat Abram, whose name God afterwards changed into Abraham. There are thus from the flood to Abraham 1,072 years, according to the common or Septuagint versions. In the Hebrew copies far fewer years are given, and for this either no reason or a not very credible one is given.

When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two nations, we cannot affirm that while they had but one tongue, that is, one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God. Nor can we conclude that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations that descend from Shem through Arpachshad and reach to Abraham. But from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only disguised before or nonexistent, whether both cities remained after the flood—the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed and in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord—is not easily determined.

And Aran [Haran] died before his father in the land in which he was born in the territory of the Chaldeans. In place of what we read [in the LXX] as in the territory of the Chaldeans, in the Hebrew it has in ur Chesdim, that is, in the fire of the Chaldeans. Moreover the Hebrews, taking the opportunity afforded by this verse, hand on a story of this sort to the effect that Abraham was put into the fire because he refused to worship the fire, which the Chaldeans honor, and that he escaped through God’s help and fled from the fire of idolatry. What is written [in the LXX] in the following verses, that Thara [Terah] with his offspring went out from the territory of the Chaldeans,^[1] stands in place of what is contained in the Hebrew, from the fire of the Chaldeans. And they maintain that this refers to what is said in this verse: Aran died before the face of Thara in the land of his birth in the fire of the Chaldeans; that is, because he refused to worship fire, he was consumed by fire.

And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. This Iscah is supposed to be the same as Sarai, Abraham’s wife.

Next it is related how Terah with his family left the region of the Chaldeans and came into Mesopotamia and dwelt in Haran. But nothing is said about one of his sons called Nahor, as if Abram had not taken him along with him. For the narrative runs thus: And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and led them forth out of the region of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; and he came into Haran, and dwelt there. Nahor and Milcah his wife are nowhere named here.

Aran [Haran] was the son of Thara [Terah], the brother of Abram and Nachor [Nahor], and he fathered two daughters, Melcha [Milcha] and Sarai who, surnamed Jesca [Iscah], had two names. Of these, Nachor took Melcha as wife, and Abram took Sarai, because marriages between uncles and brothers’ daughters had not yet been forbidden by the law. Even marriages between brothers and sisters were contracted among the first human beings.

Since, however, I have made mention of the patriarch, let us put before your good selves today’s reading, if you do not mind, so as to explain it and thus see the extraordinary degree of the good man’s virtue. Thara [Thera], the text says, took his sons Abraham and Nachor, his son’s son Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarah, his son Abram’s wife, and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites. He went as far as Charran [Haran] and settled there. Thara lived two hundred and five years in Charran, and died in Charran.^[1] Let us attend precisely to the reading, I beseech you, so as to manage to grasp the plain sense of the writings. Note, in fact, right in the beginning there seems to be a question in the words used. This blessed author—Moses, I mean—says, Thara took Abraham and Nachor and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites. He went as far as Charran and settled there. The blessed Stephen would later use the following words in praising the Jews: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Charran . . . and after his father died he led him there to settle.^[2] So what does that mean? Is sacred Scripture inconsistent with itself? Not at all; rather, you need to understand from this that since the son was God-fearing, God appeared to him and called upon him to move there. His father Thara, though he happened to be a heathen, nevertheless for the affection he had for his son agreed to accompany him in his migration. He went to Charran, settled there and thus ended his life. Then it was that the patriarch moved to Canaan at God’s bidding. Of course, God did not transfer him from there until Thara passed on.

But afterwards, when Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for his son Isaac, we find it thus written: And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his lord, and of all the goods of his lord, with him; and arose, and went into Mesopotamia, into the city of Nahor.^[1] This and other testimonies of this sacred history show that Nahor, Abraham’s brother, had also left the region of the Chaldeans and fixed his abode in Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt with his father. Why, then, did the Scripture not mention him when Terah with his family went forth out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran, since it mentions that he took with him not only Abraham his son but also Sarah his daughter-in-law and Lot his grandson? The only reason we can think of is that perhaps he had lapsed from the piety of his father and brother, and adhered to the superstition of the Chaldeans and had afterwards emigrated there, either through penitence or because he was persecuted as a suspected person.

On Terah’s death in Mesopotamia, where he is said to have lived two hundred and five years, the promises of God made to Abraham now begin to be clarified. So it is written, And the days of Terah in Haran were two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran. This is not to be taken as if he had spent all his days there but that he there completed the days of his life, which were two hundred and five years. Otherwise it would not be known how many years Terah lived, since it is not said in what year of his life he came into Haran. And it is absurd to suppose that in this series of generations, where it is carefully recorded how many years each one lived, his age was the only one not put on record. For although some whom the same Scripture mentions do not have their age recorded, they are not in this series, in which the reckoning of time is continuously indicated by the death of the parents and the succession of the children. For this series, which is given in order from Adam to Noah and from him down to Abraham, contains no one without the number of the years of his life.