The Tower of Babel 1 And the whole earth was one language and one set of words.
Book of Jubilees · 100 BC And in the three and thirtieth jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg took to himself a wife, whose name was Lomna the daughter of Sina'ar, and she bare him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name Reu; for he said: 'Behold the children of men have become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land…
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 But I do not understand how he can imagine the overturning of the tower (of Babel) to have happened with a similar object to that of the deluge, which effected a purification of the earth, according to the accounts both of Jews and Christians.
Bede · AD 735 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. Because having anticipated saying that the sons of Noah had divided the earth according to clans, languages, territories, and nations, it returns to show how humans were separated from each other: where it is most clear that as long as the human race served its Creator with due humility, it also harmonized with itself in…
2 And it happened, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 "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.
Bede · AD 735 And as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. It appears from these words that even the first humans held the region of the East; thus it should be considered the head of the world, not only because the light of the stars rises from there, but also because the human race first inhabited it.
3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.” And the brick was stone for them, and the tar was mortar for them.
Bede · AD 735 They baked the bricks they had made with fire. Indeed, that fire of which it is said: "all adulterers, their hearts are like an oven" (Hosea 7:4), and about which Isaiah says: "Behold, all you who kindle a fire, encircled with flames, walk in the light of your fire and in the flames you have kindled" (Isaiah 50:11).
4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves — lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Commodian · AD 250 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.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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.
Bede · AD 735 And they said: Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top may reach heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over the face of the whole earth. When it says whose top, it refers not to the city but to the tower, that is, the citadel, which they planned to make higher than the other walls in a more elevated place.
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built.
Novatian · AD 258 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?
Bede · AD 735 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam were building. The old translation has for the sons of Adam the sons of men, that is, not the sons of God, but those who, living according to man, deserved to hear from the Lord: "I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High; but you will die like men" (Psalm 81:6).
6 And the LORD said, “Look — one people, and one language for them all, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and now nothing they plan to do will be out of their reach.
Bede · AD 735 Behold, he said, the people are one and they all have one language; and they have begun to do this, and they will not desist from their thoughts until they complete them in action.
7 Come, let us go down and mix up their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Ambrosiaster · AD 384 HOW MAN WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, AND WHETHER THIS WAS FOR DOMINION, AND WHETHER WOMAN TOO? — “Let us make,” he says, “man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Some think this should be understood in light of another passage of Scripture, namely that in which we read that God said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their languages” (Gen. 11:7).
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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.
Bede · AD 735 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language. It is said to those who were present: Come, because indeed this itself never decreases from divine contemplation, and it is always to increase in divine contemplation; and never to withdraw from the heart is always to come by a certain stable motion. To whom he also says: Let us go down and confuse their language there.
8 And the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD mixed up the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 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.
Jerome · AD 420 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.
Bede · AD 735 And so the Lord scattered them from that place over all the earth, and they ceased to build the city; and therefore it was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confused.
Genealogy from Shem to Abram 10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood.
Ambrosiaster · AD 384 ON THE HEBREW LANGUAGE, WHERE IT TOOK ITS NAME. — Everything that is from God is rational, and for each thing its origin gives the reason why it exists, so that it may not seem to be named or to subsist without sense, but may show a designation which is understood to be the head, as it were, of its own name. Therefore the reason of a man is the cause by which he stands.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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.
Bede · AD 735 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old when he begot Arphaxad, two years after the flood. After the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Scripture hastens, by enumerating the generations of the second age of the world (for the first had run until Noah and the flood), to arrive at Abraham, the patriarch of the third age, indeed of all nations; through wh…
11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad five hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
Bede · AD 735 And Sem lived after he begot Arfaxat five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Nowhere in all this series of generations is it added, as in the age before the flood, "and he died"; because there was no one in the whole assemblage of those born, of whom it could be said that he walked with God, as was said of Enoch: "and he was not found, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24).
12 And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and he fathered Shelah.
Bede · AD 735 Moreover, Arfaxat lived thirty-five years and begot Sale. In this place, the Septuagint interpreters added one generation more than the Hebrew truth, stating that Arfaxat was one hundred and thirty-five years old when he begot Cainan, who, when he was one hundred and thirty years old, begot Sale. The evangelist Luke seems to have followed this translation at this point.
13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah four hundred and three years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
14 And Shelah lived thirty years, and he fathered Eber.
Bede · AD 735 Sale also lived thirty years and begot Heber. The seventy interpreters have it one hundred and thirty.
15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber four hundred and three years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
16 And Eber lived thirty-four years, and he fathered Peleg.
17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and he fathered Reu.
Bede · AD 735 But Heber lived thirty-four years and begot Phaleg. The seventy interpreters have it one hundred and thirty-four.
19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu two hundred and nine years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
20 And Reu lived thirty-two years, and he fathered Serug.
Bede · AD 735 Now Reu lived thirty-two years and begot Sarug. The seventy interpreters have it one hundred and thirty-two.
21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug two hundred and seven years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
22 And Serug lived thirty years, and he fathered Nahor.
Bede · AD 735 Indeed, Sarug lived thirty years and begot Nachor. The seventy interpreters have it one hundred and thirty.
23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor two hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
24 And Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and he fathered Terah.
Bede · AD 735 Now Nachor lived twenty-nine years and begot Thare. The seventy interpreters have it seventy-nine.
25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Bede · AD 735 And Terah lived seventy years, and he begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. The seventy interpreters in this generation alone do not differ at all from the Hebrew truth. And up to this point the second age of the world extends, having according to the Hebrew truth 192 years, according to the seventy interpreters 1072 years, and according to the chronographers' reckoning 942 years.
Terah’s Descendants 27 And these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.
Bede · AD 735 These are the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. The house of Terah was one, from which Abraham was born, in which the worship of the one true God was kept; and, as is credible, in which the Hebrew language alone also remained, when, as told by Joshua, he himself, like the manifest people of God in Egypt, served foreign gods in Mesopotamia…
28 And Haran died before the face of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 11, Verse 28) And Haran died before his father in the land of his birth, in the region of the Chaldeans. As we read, in the region of the Chaldeans, in Hebrew it is written, in Ur of the Chaldeans, that is, in the fire of the Chaldeans.
Bede · AD 735 Moreover, Aran begot Lot, and Aran died before his father Thare in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. What is said before Thare may designate both presence and time; time, evidently, because he died before his father; presence, indeed, because he passed away before him, that is, in his presence.
29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 29) And Abram and Nachor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nachor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran. The father of Milcah was also the father of Iscah. Haran fathered two daughters, Milcah and Iscah, who were both called by the same name. Of these, Milcah became the wife of Nachor, and Sarai became the wife of Abram.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "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.
Bede · AD 735 Abram and Nachor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nachor's wife was Melcha, the daughter of Aran, the father of Melcha and the father of Jescha. Our elders say that Jescha is the same as Sarai, the wife of Abraham, since evidently the brothers Abraham and Nachor had two sisters, the daughters of Aran, as wives.
30 And Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Bede · AD 735 But Sarai was barren and had no children. By the counsel of Divine Providence, it happened that she was barren in her youth, so that in her old age, by bearing the son of promise, she might symbolize the holy Church, to whom it is said, "Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear" (Galatians IV, 27), and so on.
31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. And they came as far as Haran and settled there.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 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.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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.
Bede · AD 735 So Thare took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan. The old translation has, "he brought them out of the region of the Chaldeans," which poses no question at all.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years — and Terah died in Haran.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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.