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A Treatise on the Confusion of Languages.
I. (1) As to the preceding topics, what has been already said will be sufficient. We might next proceed to consider, and that in no slight or cursory
II. (2) Those who are discontented at the constitution under which their fathers have lived, being always eager to blame and to accuse the laws, being
III. (6) And there is also another story akin to this, related by the deviser of fables, concerning the sameness of language existing among animals: f
IV. (9) But he who brings his account nearer the truth, has distinguished between the rational and irrational animals, so that he testifies that ident
V. (14) Those, then, who put these things together, and cavil at them, and raise malicious objections, will be easily refuted separately by those who
VI. (16) Now who is there who does not know the great influence of fortune, when men, in addition to the diseases or mutilations of the body, are atta
VII. (21) Let us now again in its turn consider what is the united body of evils voluntarily incurred. Our souls being capable of being divided into t
VIII. (26) These are they who made a treaty with one another in the valley of Salt.[Ge 14:3.] For the region of the vices and of the passions is a h
IX. (29) But Moses, the prophet of God, will meet them and check them, though they come on with exceeding boldness even though, placing in the front
X. (33) It is very appropriately said that the meeting took place on the bank of the river but the banks are also called the lips, and the lips are t
XI. (39) But many, who are not able vigorously to refute the plausible inventions of the sophists, because they have not very much practised discussio
XII. (44) And there is testimony in support of this assertion of mine first of all, in the disposition of every lover of virtue which acknowledges th
XIII. (49) These and other similar gifts are the most desirable treasures of peace, that blessing so celebrated and so admired, which the mind of each
XIV. (60) But those who conspired to commit injustice, he says, having come from the east, found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt There [Ge
XV. (64) But an example of the worse kind of dawning is afforded by the words used by the man who was willing to curse the people who were blessed by
XVI. (70) Accordingly, the body-loving race of the Egyptians is represented as fleeing, not from the water, but under the water, that is to say, ben
XVII. (75) And take notice that Moses does not say that they came unto a plain in which they remain, but that they found one, having searched around
XVIII. (83) But the wicked man, desiring to exhibit the fact that identity of language, and the sameness of dialect does not consist more in names and
XX. (91) And before now some persons, even more excessively extravagant in wickedness than these, have not only prepared their own souls for such acti
XXI. (98) But he says that the world perceptible to the outward senses is, as it were, the footstool of God on this account: first of all, that he may
XXII. (101) And they are represented as baking the bricks in the fire, for the purpose of intimating by this symbolical expression that they are stren
XXIII. (107) And the expression, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which shall reach to heaven, has such a meaning as this
XXIV. (116) For they say, Let us make for ourselves a name. O, the excessive and profligate impudence of such a saying! What say ye? When ye ought t
XXV. (122) But all these men are the offspring of that wickedness which is always dying but which never dies, the name of which is Cain. Is not Cain r
XXVI. (128) The children who have received from their father the inheritance of self-love are eager to go on increasing up to heaven, until justice, w
XXVII. (134) And the statement, The Lord went down to see that city and that tower must be listened to altogether as if spoken in a figurative sense
XXVIII. (142) We say that this is the reason why it is said that God went down to see the city and the tower and the addition, Which the sons of men
XXIX. (150) But against those who praise themselves on justice, the Lord said, Behold, there is one race and one language among them all, an express
XXX. (156) What, then, is the proof that they had not entirely completed this building? First of all, the manifest notoriety of the fact. For it is im
XXXI. (159) At all events, the law says that that soothsayer and diviner who was led into folly in respect of his unstable conjectures (for the name,
XXXII. (163) These things are an exhibition of a soul destitute of prudence, and which meets with no impediment to its indulging in sin for whoever i
XXXIII. (168) And it is worth while to consider in no superficial manner what the meaning of that expression which is put by Moses into the mouth of G
XXXIV. (171) This point then being thus granted, it is necessary to convert with it also what follows, so as to adapt it properly. Let us then conside
XXXV. (176) These things, then, it was necessary to give an idea of beforehand but for what reason this was necessary we must now say. The nature of
XXXVI. (180) And this may be enough to say in this manner and it is right that this point also should be considered, namely that God is the cause onl
XXXVII. (183) We must now examine what this confusion is. How then shall we enter on this examination? In this manner, in my opinion. We have very oft
XXXVIII. (190) This, now, is our opinion upon and interpretation of this passage. But they who follow only what is plain and easy, think that what is
