LatineEnglish
{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.}1
Et idcirco vocatum est nomen eius Babel, quia ibi confusum est labium universae terrae; et inde dispersit eos Dominus super faciem cunctarum regionum.
ILLUD pronomen „eius“ Graece feminini generis est, referturque ad civitatem, de qua proxime ante dictum est, „Cessaverunt aedificare civitatem“; et subditur, „Idcirco vocatum est nomen eius Babel.“ Nec aliud sane fuit quod nomine Babel seu Babylonis sequentibus seculis appellaretur nisi civitas illa. Septuaginta interpretes nomen Hebraeum Babel interpretatum posuerunt in sua translatione, sic vertentes: „Idcirco vocatum est nomen eius confusio.“ Sed nullo tempore civitas illa appellata est confusio, vel ut illi Graece scripserunt σύγχυσις. Rectius igitur Latinus interpres Hebraeum nomen Babel retinuit.
That pronoun „its“ in Greek is of the feminine gender, and is referred to the city, of which it was said just before, „They ceased to build the city“; and it is subjoined, „Therefore the name thereof was called Babel.“ Nor indeed was there anything else which in the following ages was called by the name of Babel or Babylon except that city. The Septuagint translators put in their translation the Hebrew name Babel interpreted, rendering thus: „Therefore the name thereof was called Confusion.“ But at no time was that city called Confusion, or, as they wrote in Greek, σύγχυσις. More rightly, therefore, did the Latin translator retain the Hebrew name Babel.2
[Quia ibi confusum est labium universae terrae.] DICITUR „labium universae terrae“ lingua illa communis omnium hominum, qua tunc omnes qui erant in terris loquebantur. Dicitur autem confusa esse illa lingua, non quod tunc vitiata et corrupta sit (mansit enim eadem ut erat prius, non tamen apud omnes, sed in sola familia Heber); verum quoniam aliae plurimae et diversissimae linguae tunc invectae sunt, quo factum est ut alii alios non intelligerent loquentes nisi qui eiusdem erant linguae, quae res magnam initio attulit perturbationem et confusionem; propterea Moses dixit tunc esse confusam linguam omnis terrae, id est confusos esse homines qui antea indifferenter una lingua utebantur omnesque, quicquid loquerentur, inter se intelligebant. Atque hinc perspicuum fit Babylonem dictam esse Babel propter confusionem linguae ibi factam, non autem a Belo (ut quidam putarunt) qui pater fuit regis Nini, et quem ut deum in primis Chaldaei et Assyrii coluerunt. Voluit porro Deus manere omni aevo eius rei monumentum, multaque esse quae memoriam eius facti quasi recentem perpetuo conservarent. Namque indicium eius rei erat nomen urbis Babel, et vocabulum Phaleg quo filius Heber ob divisionem linguarum appellatus est, et item unitas linguae Hebraeae in familia Heber permanentis, quae cum antea fuisset eadem omnium hominum, postea paucorum fuit et a linguis aliorum omnium hominum maxime distincta. Audi Chrysostomum super haec ipsa verba Mosis quae nunc tractamus, hunc in modum scribentem: „Vide quot res fiunt ut memoria illius facti omnia in secula extendatur. Primum linguarum sit divisio; et ante hoc impositio nominis Phaleg, quod Heber filio suo imposuit, divisionem significans; deinde civitatis nomen Babel seu Babylon, quod sonat confusionem. Postremo Heber ipse mansit idem, servans idioma quod et ante habuerat, ut manifestum divisionis huius signum foret. Vidisti per quot res immortalem nullaque oblivione delendam servari huius facti memoriam Deus voluerit? Sic enim pater postea cogebatur dicere filio causam tam diversae vocis, et puer a patre discebat quare Babylon a confusione nomen sortita esset, nempe quod illic Deus confudisset labia universae terrae et quod inde homines dispersisset in omnes terrae plagas.“ Haec Chrysostomus.
[Because there the language of the whole earth was confounded.] The „language of the whole earth“ is called that tongue common to all men, by which then all who were on the earth spoke. And that tongue is said to have been confounded, not because it was then vitiated and corrupted (for it remained the same as it was before, yet not among all, but in the family of Heber alone); but because very many other and most diverse tongues were then introduced, whereby it came about that some did not understand others speaking, except those who were of the same tongue — which thing brought at the beginning great perturbation and confusion; therefore Moses said that then the tongue of the whole earth was confounded, that is, that the men were confounded who before indifferently used one tongue and all, whatever they spoke, understood among themselves. And hence it becomes clear that Babylon was called Babel on account of the confusion of tongue made there, and not from Belus (as some have thought) who was the father of king Ninus, and whom the Chaldeans and Assyrians worshipped chiefly as a god. God willed, moreover, that a monument of that matter should remain in every age, and that there should be many things which would perpetually preserve the memory of that deed as if recent. For an indication of that matter was the name of the city Babel, and the word Phaleg by which the son of Heber was named on account of the division of tongues, and likewise the unity of the Hebrew tongue remaining in the family of Heber, which, though it had before been the same of all men, was afterward of a few and most distinct from the tongues of all other men. Hear Chrysostom on these very words of Moses which we now treat, writing in this manner: „See how many things are done that the memory of that deed may be extended through all ages. First let there be the division of tongues; and before this the imposition of the name Phaleg, which Heber set upon his son, signifying division; then the name of the city Babel or Babylon, which sounds ‘confusion.’ Lastly Heber himself remained the same, keeping the idiom which he had before, that it might be a manifest sign of this division. Have you seen by how many things God willed the memory of this deed to be preserved, immortal and to be blotted out by no oblivion? For so the father was afterward compelled to tell his son the cause of so diverse a speech, and the boy learned from his father why Babylon had got its name from confusion — namely, that there God had confounded the lips of the whole earth and that thence He had dispersed men into all the regions of the earth.“ So Chrysostom.3
Translator’s notes
- Gen 11:9 (verse lemma). ↩
- §109. Gen 11:9. The pronoun ‘its’ (feminine in Greek) refers to the city (‘they ceased to build the city’); ‘its name was called Babel’ — and nothing but that city was ever called Babel/Babylon. The LXX translated the name (‘its name was called Confusion,’ σύγχυσις), but the city was never called ‘Confusion’; so the Vulgate rightly kept the Hebrew ‘Babel.’ ↩
- §110. Gen 11:9 (‘the language of the whole earth was confounded’). ‘Language of the whole earth’ = the one common tongue all then spoke. ‘Confounded’ = not corrupted (it remained, but only in Heber's family); rather many diverse tongues were introduced, so none understood others save same-tongue speakers — great initial confusion. Hence Babylon = ‘Babel’ from the confusion of tongue, NOT from Belus (Ninus's father, worshipped by Chaldeans/Assyrians). God left lasting monuments of it: the name Babel, the name Phaleg (Heber's son, ‘division’), and the Hebrew tongue surviving only in Heber's family. Chrysostom (hom. 30): three things preserve the memory immortally — the division, the name Phaleg, the name Babel, and Heber keeping his idiom — so a father would tell his son why ‘Babylon’ means confusion. Margins: how the formerly-common tongue is ‘confounded’; Gen 10; Chrysostom on Genesis homily 30. ↩