[I] Whether after the flood the traces of the holy city as it runs onward were continuous, or were interrupted by intervening times of impiety, so that no worshipper of the one true God existed among men, it is difficult to find out clearly from the plain speech of the Scriptures; for the reason that in the canonical books, after Noah — who, together with his wife and three sons and as many daughters-in-law, deserved to be delivered through the ark from the devastation of the flood — we do not find, all the way to Abraham, the piety of anyone proclaimed by evident divine utterance, except that Noah commends his two sons, Shem and Japheth, with a prophetic blessing, beholding and foreseeing what was to be far off in the future.
Whence it came to pass also that thing — namely that he cursed his middle son, that is, the one younger than the firstborn and older than the last, who had sinned against his father, not in his own person, but in his son, his own grandson — with these words: 'Cursed be Canaan the boy, a servant shall he be to his brothers.' Now Canaan had been born of Ham, who had not covered, but rather betrayed, the nakedness of his sleeping father. Whence also that which followed, when he added the blessing of his two sons, the greatest and the least, saying: 'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant;'
may God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem' — just as that very planting of the vine by this same Noah, and the inebriation from its fruit, and the uncovering of him as he slept, and the other things which were there done and written down, are pregnant with prophetic senses and veiled with coverings. [II] But now, the effect of the events having already followed in later generations, the things which had been covered are sufficiently laid open. For who, attending diligently and intelligently to these things, would not recognize them in Christ? For Shem, from whose seed Christ was born in the flesh, is interpreted 'named.' But what is more named than Christ, whose name now everywhere breathes fragrance, so that in the Song of Songs, by a prophecy going before, it is even compared to ointment poured out;
in whose tents, that is, churches, dwells the breadth of the nations? For Japheth is interpreted 'breadth.' But Ham, which is interpreted 'hot,' the middle son of Noah, as though distinguishing himself from both and remaining between the two, neither in the firstfruits of the Israelites nor in the fullness of the nations — what does he signify but the kind of heretics, hot not with the spirit of wisdom but of impatience, with which the inward parts of heretics are wont to seethe and to disturb the peace of the saints? But these things turn to the use of those who make progress, according to that saying of the apostle: 'There must be also heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you.' Whence also it is written: 'A learned son shall be wise, but he shall employ an imprudent servant.'
For many things pertaining to the catholic faith, while they are agitated by the hot restlessness of heretics, in order that they may be defended against them, are both considered more diligently and understood more clearly and preached more insistently; and the question raised by the adversary becomes an occasion of learning. Although not only those who are most openly separated, but all who glory in the Christian name and live perditiously, may not absurdly be seen to be figured by the middle son of Noah; for the passion of Christ, which was signified by the nakedness of that man, they both announce by professing it, and by doing evil dishonor it. Of such, therefore, it was said: 'By their fruits ye shall know them.'
Therefore Ham was cursed in his son, as though in his fruit, that is, in his work. Whence fittingly his son himself, Canaan, is interpreted 'their motion' — which is nothing else than their work. But Shem and Japheth, as though the circumcision and the uncircumcision, or, as the apostle in another manner calls them, Jews and Greeks — but called and justified — having come to know in some way the nakedness of their father, by which the passion of the Savior was signified, took a garment and laid it upon their own backs and went in backward and covered the nakedness of their father, nor did they see what they reverently covered. For in a certain way, in the passion of Christ, we both honor what was done for us and turn away from the crime of the Jews.
The garment signifies the sacrament, the backs the memory of things past, because the Church celebrates the passion of Christ — at that time, namely, in which Japheth dwells in the tents of Shem and the evil brother is in the midst of them — as already accomplished, not still looking forward to it as future. But the evil brother, in his son, that is, in his work, is a boy, that is, a servant of the good brothers, since the good, for the exercise of patience or for the advancement of wisdom, knowingly make use of the evil. For there are, as the apostle testifies, those who announce Christ not chastely; 'but whether in pretense,' he says, 'or in truth, Christ is announced.' For he himself planted a vineyard, of which the prophet says:
'The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,' and he drank of its wine — whether that cup here be understood, of which he says: 'Can ye drink the cup which I am about to drink?' and: 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass,' by which he without doubt signifies his passion; or, because wine is the fruit of the vine, this rather was signified by that, namely that from that very vine — that is, from the race of the Israelites — he took flesh and blood for us, that he might be able to suffer — and he was inebriated, that is, he suffered, and was made naked: for there was there made naked, that is, appeared, his weakness, of which the apostle says: 'Although he was crucified out of weakness.' Whence the same says: 'The weak thing of God is stronger than men, and the foolish thing of God is wiser than men.'
But whereas, when it had been said, 'And he was made naked,' Scripture added, 'in his own house,' it elegantly shows that He was to suffer the cross and death from the people of His own flesh and from the kinsmen of His own blood, namely the Jews. This passion of Christ the reprobate proclaim outwardly in the mere sound of the voice; for they do not understand what they proclaim. But the upright hold so great a mystery in the inner man, and inwardly in the heart they honour the weak and foolish thing of God, because it is stronger and wiser than men. Of this matter it is a figure that Ham, going out, announced this abroad; whereas Shem and Japheth, in order to veil it, that is, to honour it, entered in — that is, they did this thing inwardly.
These secrets of divine Scripture we search out as we can, one man more and another less fittingly, yet holding faithfully for certain that these things were neither done nor recorded without some prefiguration of things to come, and that they are to be referred to none but Christ and His Church, which is the City of God; the preaching of which has not been wanting from the beginning of the human race, and which we see being fulfilled through all things. Two sons of Noah, therefore, having been blessed, and one in the midst of them cursed, thereafter, down to Abraham, there is silence for more than a thousand years concerning the commemoration of any of the just who piously worshipped God.
Nor would I believe that such men were lacking; but if all were commemorated, it would become too long, and this would be historical diligence rather than prophetic foresight. Therefore the writer of these sacred letters — or rather the Spirit of God through him — pursues those things by which not only are past events narrated, but future ones also foretold, which nevertheless pertain to the City of God; because whatever is here said even of men who are not its citizens is said for this end, that she may profit or stand out by contrast and comparison. Assuredly not all things that are narrated as done are to be thought to signify something also; but for the sake of those which do signify something, even those which signify nothing are woven in.
For the earth is cleaved by the ploughshare alone; but that this may be done, the other parts of the plough also are necessary; and the strings alone in lyres and musical instruments of this kind are fitted for song; but that they may be fitted, there are also the other parts in the frame of the instruments, which are not struck by the players, but to which are joined those that, being struck, resound. So too in prophetic history certain things are said which signify nothing, but to which the things that signify may adhere and in a manner be bound. [III] The generations, therefore, of the sons of Noah are next to be considered, and what seems needful to be said of these must be woven into this work, in which is shown the course through the ages of both cities, the earthly, that is, and the heavenly.
For they began to be commemorated from the youngest son, who was called Japheth, whose sons are named as eight, and grandsons seven from two of his sons — three from one, four from the other; so all become fifteen. But the sons of Ham, that is, of Noah's middle son, are four, and grandsons five from one of his sons, great-grandsons two from one grandson; the sum of them comes to eleven. When these have been enumerated, it returns, as it were, to the head, and it is said: 'And Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a giant upon the earth. He was a giant hunter against the Lord God. Wherefore they say: Even as Nimrod the giant hunter against the Lord.' And the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Erech, and Accad, and Chalanne in the land of Shinar.
Out of that land went forth Asshur and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Chalach, and Dasem between the midst of Nineveh and Chalach: this is a great city. Now this Cush, the father of the giant Nimrod, was named first among the sons of Ham, whose five sons and two grandsons had already been reckoned. But this giant he either begot after his grandsons were born, or — what is more credible — Scripture spoke of him separately on account of his eminence; since indeed his kingdom too was commemorated, the beginning of which was that most noble city Babylon, and the cities or regions that are named alongside it.
But as for what was said, that out of that land — that is, out of the land of Shinar, which pertained to the kingdom of Nimrod — Asshur went forth and built Nineveh and the other cities which it links together, this was done long afterward; and Scripture touched upon it on this occasion because of the renown of the kingdom of the Assyrians, which Ninus, son of Belus, marvellously enlarged, being the founder of the great city Nineveh, whose name was derived from his own name, so that from Ninus it was called Nineveh. But Asshur, from whom come the Assyrians, was not among the sons of Ham, Noah's middle son, but is found among the sons of Shem, who was Noah's eldest son.
Whence it appears that they sprang from the progeny of Shem who afterward obtained the kingdom of that giant and thence advanced and founded other cities, of which the first was called Nineveh from Ninus. From here it returns to another son of Ham, who was called Mizraim, and there are commemorated those whom he begot, not as individual men but as seven nations. And from the sixth, as from a sixth son, is commemorated a nation to have gone forth which is called the Philistines; whence they become eight. Thence again it returns to Canaan, in which son Ham was cursed, and eleven are named whom he begot. Then, certain cities being commemorated, it is told up to what boundaries they reached.
And by this reckoning, when the sons and grandsons of the progeny of Ham have been counted, thirty-one are recorded as begotten. It remains to commemorate the sons of Shem, the eldest son of Noah; for it is to him that the narrative of these generations, having arisen from the youngest, gradually came. But whence the sons of Shem begin to be commemorated has something of obscurity that must be illustrated by exposition, because it much pertains to the matter we are inquiring into. For it is thus read: 'And Shem was born, and to him also, the father of all the sons, Eber, the elder brother of Japheth.' The order of the words is: 'And Shem was born; to Eber also' — that is, to Shem himself was Eber born, which Shem is the father of all the sons.
Shem, therefore, He willed to be understood as the patriarch of all who sprang from his stock, whom He is about to commemorate, whether they be sons, or grandsons, and great-grandsons, and those thence sprung in succession. Not indeed that Shem begot this Eber, but Eber is found fifth in the line of progenitors from him. For Shem, among his other sons, begot Arphaxad; Arphaxad begot Cainan; Cainan begot Salah; Salah begot Eber. Not in vain, therefore, is he himself named first in the progeny coming from Shem, and preferred even to the sons, though he is the fifth grandson, unless because what is handed down is true, that from him the Hebrews were named, as it were Heberews; although there could also be another opinion, that they seem to be called from Abraham, as it were Abrahaeans;
but no doubt this is true, that from Eber they were called Heberews, and then, one letter being worn away, Hebrews — a tongue which the people of Israel alone was able to retain, in which the City of God both sojourned in the saints and in all things was foreshadowed in mystery. Therefore the sons of Shem are first named as six; then from one of them were born four grandsons; and again another of Shem's sons begot his grandson, and from him likewise a great-grandson was born, and thence a great-great-grandson, who is Eber. Now Eber begot two sons, one of whom he called Peleg, which is interpreted 'dividing.' Then Scripture, subjoining and rendering the reason of this name, says: 'Because in his days the earth was divided.' But what this is will appear afterward.
But the other, who was born of Eber, begot twelve sons; and by this all who were begotten of Shem come to twenty-seven. In sum, therefore, all who were begotten of the three sons of Noah — that is, fifteen of Japheth, thirty-one of Ham, twenty-seven of Shem — come to seventy-three. Then Scripture follows, saying: 'These are the sons of Shem in their tribes according to their tongues, in their regions and in their nations'; and likewise of all: 'These,' it says, 'are the tribes of the sons of Noah according to their generations, according to their nations. From these were the isles of the nations dispersed over the earth after the flood.' Whence it is gathered that there were then seventy-three, or rather (as will afterward be shown) seventy-two nations, not men.
For before, when the sons of Japheth had been commemorated, it was thus concluded: 'From these were the isles of the nations set apart in their land, each according to his tongue, in their tribes and in their nations.' But now, in the sons of Ham, in a certain place the nations were more openly commemorated, as I showed above: 'Mizraim begot those who are called the Ludim'; and in the same manner the rest, up to seven nations. And when all had been enumerated, concluding afterward: 'These,' it says, 'are the sons of Ham in their tribes according to their tongues, in their regions and in their nations.' Therefore the sons of many were not commemorated for this reason, that by being born they were added to other nations, but they themselves were not able to make nations.
For what other cause is there, that, whereas the sons of Japheth are enumerated as eight, only from two of them are the sons who were born commemorated; and whereas the sons of Ham are named as four, only from three are those who were born added; and whereas the sons of Shem are named as six, only of two is the posterity woven in? Did the rest remain without sons? Far be it to believe this; but the nations, on account of which they would have been worthy to be commemorated, they assuredly did not make, because, as they were born, they were added to other nations. [IV] Since, then, these nations are recorded to have existed in their own tongues, the narrator nevertheless returns to that time when there was one tongue for all, and thence now sets forth what happened, so that a diversity of tongues arose.
'And,' it says, 'the whole earth was one lip and one voice for all. And it came to pass, when they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there. And a man said to his neighbour: Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And bricks became stone to them, and bitumen was to them for mortar; and they said: Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, whose top shall be even unto heaven; and let us make our name before we are scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord God said: Behold, they are one race and one lip for all;
and this they have begun to do, and now nothing will be withheld from them of all that they have determined to do; come, and going down let us there confound their tongue, that they may not each hear the voice of his neighbour. And the Lord scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth, and they ceased building the city and the tower. Therefore its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confounded the lips of the whole earth; and thence the Lord God scattered them over the face of the whole earth.' This city, which was called Confusion, is Babylon itself, whose marvellous construction the history even of the Gentiles commends. For Babylon is interpreted 'confusion.'
Whence it is gathered that that giant Nimrod was its founder, which had been briefly intimated above, where, when Scripture spoke of him, it said that the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon — that is, the city which held the primacy over the rest of the cities, where there was, as it were, in a metropolis the dwelling of the kingdom; although it was not completed to such a degree as proud impiety was designing. For an exceeding height was being planned, which was said to be 'even unto heaven,' whether of a single tower of it, which they were chiefly labouring to raise among the others, or of all the towers; which were signified by the singular number, as one says 'soldier' and thousands of soldiers are understood; as 'frog' and 'locust';
for thus was named the multitude of frogs and locusts in the plagues by which the Egyptians were smitten through Moses. But what would human and vain presumption have accomplished, however great and however high a mass it should raise up toward heaven against God, when it would surpass all the mountains, when it would escape the space of this cloudy air? What harm, finally, would any exaltation, whether spiritual or corporeal, do to God? Humility fashions the safe and true way to heaven, lifting up the heart to the Lord, not against the Lord, as this giant was called 'a hunter against the Lord.' Not understanding which, some were misled by the ambiguous Greek, so that they interpreted it not 'against the Lord' but 'before the Lord';
for 'enantion' signifies both 'against' and 'before.' For this word is in the Psalm: 'And let us weep before the Lord who made us'; and this word is also in the book of Job, where it is written: 'Thou hast broken out in fury against the Lord.' So, then, is this giant to be understood as 'a hunter against the Lord.' But what is here signified by this name, which is 'hunter,' but a deceiver, oppressor, and destroyer of the earth-born creatures? He was therefore raising up, with his peoples, a tower against God, by which impious pride was signified. And rightly is an evil disposition punished, even when the effect does not follow it. But of what sort was the kind of punishment itself?
Since the dominion of one who commands is in the tongue, there was pride condemned, so that he who was unwilling to understand in order to obey God commanding, was himself not understood when commanding a man. Thus was that conspiracy dissolved, when each withdrew from him whom he did not understand, and joined himself to none but him with whom he was able to speak; and through the tongues the nations were divided and dispersed through the lands, as it pleased God, who did this by hidden ways incomprehensible to us. [V] For as to what is written, 'And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built' — that is, not the sons of God, but that society living according to man, which we call the earthly city:
God is not moved from place, who is always everywhere whole; but He is said to come down when He does something on earth which, being wonderfully done beyond the accustomed course of nature, in a manner shows His presence; nor does He learn by seeing at a given time, who can never be ignorant of anything, but He is said to see and to know at a given time that which He causes to be seen and known. That city, therefore, was not seen in the way in which God caused it to be seen, when He showed how much it displeased Him. Although God can be understood to have come down to that city because His angels came down, in whom He dwells; so that what is added — 'And the Lord God said: Behold, they are one race and one lip for all,' and the rest — and then is added:
'Come, and going down let us there confound their tongue,' may be a recapitulation, showing in what manner was done that which had been said, 'The Lord came down.' For if He had already come down, what does it mean, 'Come, and going down let us confound' — which is understood as said to the angels — unless because He was coming down through the angels, He who was in the descending angels? And well does it not say, 'Come and, going down, confound ye,' but 'Let us confound there their tongue'; showing that He so works through His ministers that they too are fellow-workers of God, as the Apostle says: 'For we are God's fellow-workers.' [VI] That also, when man was made, could have been understood of the angels which was said, 'Let us make man,' because He did not say, 'I shall make';
but because there follows 'after our image,' and it is not lawful to believe that man was made after the image of angels, or that the image of angels and of God is the same, it is rightly understood there as the plurality of the Trinity. Yet this Trinity, because it is one God, even when He had said, 'Let us make,' says, 'And God made man after the image of God' — He did not say 'the gods made,' or 'after the image of the gods.' Here too the same Trinity could be understood, as though the Father had said to the Son and the Holy Spirit:
'Come, and going down let us there confound their tongue' — if there were anything that would forbid the angels to be understood, to whom it rather befits to come to God by holy motions, that is, by pious thoughts, by which the immutable Truth is consulted by them, as an eternal law in that supernal court of theirs. For they are not the Truth to themselves, but, being partakers of the creating Truth, they are moved toward Her as toward the fountain of life, that what they have not of themselves they may receive from Her. And stable is that motion of theirs by which they come, who do not withdraw. Nor does God speak to the angels in the way that we in turn speak to one another, or to God, or to the angels, or the angels themselves to us, or through them God to us, but in His own ineffable manner;
but to us it is here indicated in our manner. For the more sublime speech of God, prior to His act, is the immutable reason of that very act of His, which has no sound clamouring and passing away, but a power everlastingly abiding and operating temporally. By this He speaks to the holy angels, but to us, placed far otherwise, in another way. But when we too grasp something of such speech with our inner ears, we draw near to the angels. Not, therefore, is a reason constantly to be rendered by me in this work concerning the speeches of God. For either the immutable Truth speaks by Herself ineffably to the minds of the rational creature, or speaks through the mutable creature, whether by spiritual images to our spirit or by corporeal voices to the sense of the body.
That indeed which was said, 'And now nothing will be withheld from them of all that they have determined to do,' was not said by way of confirmation, but as if by way of questioning, as is wont to be said by those who threaten, in the manner in which a certain poet says: 'Will they not seize their arms and follow forth from the whole city?' So, then, is it to be taken, as though He had said: 'Shall not all things be withheld from them of what they have determined to do?' But if it be so said, it does not express one who threatens. Yet for the sake of the slower-witted we have added the particle — that is, 'ne' — so that we might say 'nonne' (is it not?), since we cannot write the voice of one uttering it.
From those three men, therefore, the sons of Noah, seventy-three, or rather, as reason will declare, seventy-two nations and as many tongues began to be through the lands, which by growing filled even the islands. But the number of nations was increased far more than that of tongues. For even in Africa we know very many barbarous nations in one tongue. [VII] And that men indeed, by the multiplication of the human race, could pass over by ship to inhabit the islands, who would doubt?
But there is a question concerning every kind of beast which is not under the care of men, and does not, like frogs, arise from the earth, but is propagated only by the coupling of male and female, such as wolves and the rest of this kind: how, after the flood, in which all things that were not in the ark were destroyed, they could have come to be even in the islands, if they were not restored except from those whose kinds the ark preserved in either sex. They can indeed be believed to have passed over to the islands by swimming, but only the nearest. But there are some so far removed from continental lands that it seems no beasts could have swum to them.
But if men caught them and carried them along with themselves, and in that way, out of a zeal for hunting, established their kinds where they were dwelling, it is not incredible that this could have been done; although it is not to be denied that they could, by the command or permission of God, even by the work of angels, have been transferred. But if they arose from the earth according to the first origin, when God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living soul,' it appears much more clearly that not so much for the sake of restoring the animals as for figuring the various nations, on account of the mystery of the Church, all kinds were in the ark, if in islands, to which they could not cross over, the earth brought forth many animals.
[VIII] It is also asked whether it is to be believed that from the sons of Noah — or rather from that one man, from whom they themselves also existed — were propagated certain monstrous kinds of men which the history of the nations relates: as some are said to have a single eye in the middle of the forehead; some to have the soles of their feet turned backward behind their legs; some to have the nature of both sexes, the right breast male, the left female, and by turns coupling among themselves both to beget and to bear; others to have no mouths, and to live only by breathing through the nostrils; others to be a cubit in stature, whom the Greeks call Pygmies from the cubit; in another place, that the females conceive at five years and do not exceed the eighth year of life.