The tower of Babel 1 And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech. 2 And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it. 3 And each one said to his neighbour: Come, let us make brick, and bake them of stones, and slime instead of mortar. 4 And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building. 6 And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed. 7 Come, therefore, let us go down, and there may not understand one another's speech. 8 And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. 9 And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries. 10 These are the generations of Sem: Sem was a hundred years old when he begot Arphaxad, two years old when he begot Arphaxad, two years after the flood. 11 And Sem lived after he begot Arphaxad, five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 12 And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Sale. 13 And Arphaxad lived after he begot Sale, three hundred and three years; and begot sons and daughters. 14 Sale also lived thirty years, and begot Heber. 15 And Sale lived after he begot Heber, four hundred and three years; and begot sons and daughters. 16 And Heber lived thirty-four years, and begot Phaleg. 17 And Heber lived after he begot Phaleg, four hundred and thirty years: and begot sons and daughters. 18 Phaleg also lived thirty years, and begot Reu. 19 And Phaleg lived after he begot Reu, two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. 20 And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Sarug. 21 And Reu lived after he begot Sarug, two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. 22 And Sarug lived thirty years, and begot Nachor. 23 And Sarug lived after he begot Nachor, two hundred years: and begot sons and daughters. 24 And Nachor lived nine and twenty years, and begot Thare. 25 And Nachor lived after he begot Thare, a hundred and nineteen years: and begot sons and daughters. 26 And Thare lived seventy years, and begot Abram, and Nachor, and Aran.
The descendants of Thare 27 And these are the generations of Thare: Thare begot Abram, Nachor, and Aran. And Aran begot Lot. 28 And Aran died before Thare his father, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nachor married wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai: and the name of Nachor's wife, Melcha, the daughter of Aran, father of Melcha, and father of Jescha. 30 And Sarai was barren, and had no children. 31 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. 32 And the days of Thare were tow hundred and five years, and he died in Haran.
Commentary on Genesis 11
Q&A What is the original language? Hebrew?
For even before the flood there was one language, and yet all but the single family of just Noah were found worthy of destruction by the flood,—so when the nations, by a prouder godlessness, earned the punishment of the dispersion and the confusion of tongues, there was still the house of Heber in which the primitive language of the race survived. And therefore, when an enumeration is made of the sons of Shem, who each founded a nation, Heber is first mentioned, although he was of the fifth generation from Shem. And because, when the other races were divided by their own peculiar languages, his family preserved that language which is not unreasonably believed to have been the common language of the race, it was on this account thenceforth named Hebrew. For it then became necessary to distinguish this language from the rest by a proper name; though, while there was only one, it had no other name than the language of man, or human speech, it alone being spoken by the whole human race. (St. Augustine) |
Q&A What is the original language? Syriac?
The names give the clue, Adam, Cain, Abel, and Noah belong to Syriac. Speakers of Syriac normally refer to red earth as ‘adamtha,’ so Adam means ‘earthly’ or ‘made of dust’: Cain ‘acquisition,; for when he sang God’s praises, Adam said, ‘Thanks to God I have acquired a man’; Abel ‘grief,’ since his was the first death ever seen and he was the first to cause his parents pain; and Noah ‘rest.’ But some commentators have claimed that the language of Hebrew is after Heber. For ‘hebra’ is the Syriac term for an emigrant, which is found in Gen 14:13 and Gen 39:14. If the Hebrews are called so after Heber, they should not be the only ones to have this name, for many nations are descended after Heber, and none of them us the Hebrew language.
(Theodoret of Cyrus) |
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11:1-9 See what pride did and what humility merited. Pride divided the languages, when people wanted to raise a tower that would reach heaven. Before there existed but a single language, Hebrew, which was called the human language. But, so that the prideful could not complete what they had begun, seventy-two languages were born. In our day, however, when the faithful in their humility received the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in every language (Acts 2:3-4). For this reason, keep pride far from you, because all the prideful are children of the devil; and be humble, so that you will be worthy to receive grace of the Holy Spirit and to be called children of God. (Anonymus Medieval Sermon)
11:6 The confusion of tongues was effected as a remedy for sins, in order that men might not be able to cooperate in common for deeds of wickedness through understanding one another; and that they might not, when they were in a manner deprived of all means of communication with one another be able with united energies to apply themselves to the same actions. (Philo of Alexandria)
11:7 let us go down: we might refer the plural to the Trinity, as if the Father were addressing the Son and the Holy Spirit; but it rather refers to the angels. (St. Augustine)
11:10 two years after the flood: How is it that Shem is said to be a 100 years old in the 2nd year after the flood, when he is asserted earlier to have been born in the 5ooth year of Noah, and the flood is stated to have come in the 600th year of Noah? For if he was born in the 500th year of his father, since his father was 600 years old, and accordingly in the 2nd year after the flood he was 102 years of age. Therefore, in order to avoid an inconsistency in the reckoning of the times, it must be understood that Noah was actually 502. For Scripture usually speaks in such a way that, although a smaller amount may be left over or lacking, it nevertheless gives a full and complete number for the total. When Shem was born, Noah was 502 years old; for Scripture was not wrong to say that he was 500 years old, even though he was 502, because of course the lesser number is contained in the greater. As an example Scripture itself signified that it was speaking very freely in that |
passage, when it said that Noah at age 500 begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, although there is no doubt that one man cannot beget 3 sons from one wife in one and the same year. (St. Bede)
11:12-13 Arphaxad begot Sale: The correct reading comes from the Greek Septuagint which reads, "Arphaxad begot Cainan and Cainan begot Sale." The same goes for Genesis 10:24 and 1 Chronicles 1:18. St. Luke, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, followed the Septuagint reading when giving the geneology in Lk 3:36. The Hebrew text that St. Jerome translated from for the Latin Vulgate, as well as the Hebrew text that Bible translators of modern Bibles use today, does not follow the reading of the Septuagint. The Septuagint, being a Greek translation of a more ancient Hebrew text, has preserved the correct reading. (John Litteral)
11:28 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 fire, which the Chaldeans honour; and that he escaped through God's help, and fled from the fire of idolatry. What is written [in the Septuagint] in the following verses, that Thara with his offspring 'went out from the territory of the Chaldeans' 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 his father 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. Then afterwards the Lord spoke to Abraham: I am the One Who led you out of the fire of the Chaldeans. (St. Jerome)
11:29 Aran was the son of Thara, the brother of Abram and Nachor, and he fathered two daughters, Melcha and Sarai who was surnamed Jesca, duōnumon [with two names]. Of these, Nachor took Melcha as wife, and Abraham 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. (St. Jerome)
11:31 out of Ur of the Chaldees: He shows here that the Jews are of Persian origin. (St. John Chrysostom) |
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