The Tower of Babel 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
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…
Irenaeus · AD 202 And they arose and came from the land of the east; and, as they went through the land, they chanced upon the land of Shinar, which was exceeding broad; where they took in hand to build a tower. They sought means thereby to go up to heaven, and be able to leave their work as a memorial to those men who should come after them.
Bede · AD 735 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words, as long as men remained in the East: but when they moved from the East, soon because of the words or deeds of pride, they were separated from each other and were expelled further from their Creator.
2 And it happened, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt 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 Departing from the East, they found a plain in which to dwell, because withdrawing from the light of righteousness, the reprobate found for themselves the broad ways of the world in which they might remain with a fickle mind; and this in the stench of carnal vices.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Bede · AD 735 But as they mold clay into bricks, which are usually made with equal square sides, hence also taking their name, it shows the composition and ornamentation of secular eloquence, through which the proud city of the devil, either in deceptive philosophy or heretical craftiness, seems to be raised much for a time; but in the examination of the strict judge, it will be evident how…
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon 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 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.
Bede · AD 735 Come, he said, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top may reach to heaven. The wicked teachers make a city for themselves when, having left the heavenly city, whose architect and builder is God—that is, the holy Church—they gather their own assemblies.
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men 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, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
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 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 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.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 But after some time had elapsed, He is again found using an expression more distinctly plural when He says: Come, let us go down and confound their language—an expression which can no longer be thought applicable to two only, but to three or more.
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 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from there did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the 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 fathered Arphaxad two years after the flood:
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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.
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 Arphaxad five hundred years, and 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 Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and fathered Salah:
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 Arphaxad lived after he fathered Salah four hundred and three years, and fathered sons and daughters.
14 And Salah lived thirty years, and fathered Eber:
Bede · AD 735 Sale also lived thirty years and begot Heber. The seventy interpreters have it one hundred and thirty.
15 And Salah lived after he fathered Eber four hundred and three years, and fathered sons and daughters.
16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and fathered Peleg:
17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and fathered sons and daughters.
18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and fathered Reu:
Bede · AD 735 Indeed, Phaleg lived thirty years and begot Reu. The seventy interpreters have it one hundred and thirty.
19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu two hundred and nine years, and fathered sons and daughters.
20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and 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 fathered sons and daughters.
22 And Serug lived thirty years, and 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 fathered sons and daughters.
24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and 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 fathered sons and daughters.
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and 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 Now 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 his father Terah in the land of his nativity, 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 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.
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 But 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, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and dwelt 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 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." This and other testimonies of this sacred history show that Nahor, Abraham's brother, had also left the regi…
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.