And if any one cites the confusion of tongues that took place at the building of the tower, as contradicting what I have said, not even there is God spoken of as creating men’s languages, but as confounding the existing one54    Gen. xi. 7., that all might not hear all. For when all lived together and were not as yet divided by various differences of race, the aggregate of men dwelt together with one language among them; but when by the Divine will it was decreed that all the earth should be replenished by mankind, then, their community of tongue being broken up, men were dispersed in various directions and adopted this and that form of speech and language, possessing a certain bond of union in similarity of tongue, not indeed disagreeing from others in their knowledge of things, but differing in the character of their names. For a stone or a stick does not seem one thing to one man and another to another, but the different peoples call them by different names. So that our position remains unshaken, that human language is the invention of the human mind or understanding. For from the beginning, as long as all men had the same language, we see from Holy Scripture that men received no teaching of God’s words, nor, when men were separated into various differences of language, did a Divine enactment prescribe how each man should talk. But God, willing that men should speak different languages, gave human nature full liberty to formulate arbitrary sounds, so as to render their meaning more intelligible. Accordingly, Moses, who lived many generations after the building of the tower, uses one of the subsequent languages in his historical narrative of the creation, and attributes certain words to God, relating these things in his own tongue in which he had been brought up, and with which he was familiar, not changing the names for God by foreign peculiarities and turns of speech, in order by the strangeness and novelty of the expressions to prove them the words of God Himself55    A hit at Eunomius..

εἰ δέ τις τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς πυργοποιΐας σύγχυσιν ὡς ἐναντιουμένην τοῖς εἰρημένοις προφέρει, οὐδὲ ἐκεῖ ποιεῖν λέγεται γλώσσας ὁ θεὸς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλὰ συγχεῖν τὴν οὖσαν, ὡς ἂν μὴ πάντες πάντων ἀκούοιεν. ἕως γὰρ ἦν πᾶσι κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἡ ζωὴ καὶ οὔπω πρὸς πολλὰς ἐθνῶν διαφορὰς ἐμερίσθησαν, μιᾷ συνέζων φωνῇ πάντων ἀνθρώπων τὸ πλήρωμα: ἐπεὶ δὲ κατὰ θείαν βούλησιν ἔδει πᾶσαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατοικισθῆναι τὴν γῆν, τότε διασπασθέντες κατὰ « τὴν » τῆς φωνῆς κοινωνίαν ἄλλος ἀλλαχῇ διεσπάρησαν καὶ πρὸς ἄλλον καὶ ἄλλον χαρακτῆρα ῥημάτων καὶ φωνῆς μεθηρμόσθησαν συνδετικήν τινα τῆς πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁμονοίας τὴν ὁμοφωνίαν λαχόντες, πρὸς μὲν τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων οὐ διαφωνοῦντες γνῶσιν, πρὸς δὲ τὸν τῶν ὀνομάτων τύπον διαφερόμενοι. οὐ γὰρ ἄλλο τι παρ' ἄλλοις ὁ λίθος ἢ τὸ ξύλον δοκεῖ, διάφορα δὲ παρ' ἑκάστοις τὰ τῆς ὕλης ὀνόματα, ὥστε μένει παγίως ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ὁ τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας φωνὰς τῆς ἡμετέρας διανοίας εὑρήματα εἶναι διοριζόμενος. οὔτε γὰρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ἕως ὁμόφωνον ἅπαν ἦν ἑαυτῷ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, θεοῦ ῥημάτων τινὰ διδασκαλίαν γεγενῆσθαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις παρὰ τῆς γραφῆς μεμαθήκαμεν οὔτε εἰς ποικίλας γλωσσῶν διαφορὰς διατμηθέντων ὅπως ἂν ἕκαστος φθέγγοιτο θεῖος ἐπεστάτησε νόμος: ἀλλὰ θελήσας ὁ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐν ἄλλαις γενέσθαι γλώσσαις ἀφῆκεν ὁδῷ τὴν φύσιν πορεύεσθαι κατὰ τὸ ἀρέσκον διαρθροῦσαν παρ' ἑκάστοις τὸν ἦχον πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων σαφήνειαν. Ὁ τοίνυν Μωϋσῆς πολλαῖς ὕστερον γενεαῖς τῆς πυργοποιΐας γενόμενος μιᾷ τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα κέχρηται γλώσσῃ ἱστορικῶς τὴν κοσμογένειαν ἡμῖν διηγούμενος καί τινας τῷ θεῷ προσάπτει φωνάς, τῇ ἑαυτοῦ γλώσσῃ καθ' ἣν πεπαίδευτό τε καὶ συνείθιστο ταῦτα διεξιὼν καὶ οὐκ ἐξαλλάσσων τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ φωνὰς ἀλλοιοτρόπῳ τινὶ καὶ ξενίζοντι φωνῆς χαρακτῆρι, ὥστε διὰ τοῦ ξένου τῆς συνηθείας καὶ παρηλλαγμένου τῶν ὀνομάτων αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ εἶναι τὰς φωνὰς κατασκευάζειν, ἀλλὰ τῇ συνήθει χρώμενος γλώσσῃ ὁμοίως τά τε ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ διεξέρχεται.