from Gerard O'Daly's Augustine's The City of God: Reader's Edition
on Books 15 - 18
Augustine connects the Tower of Babel
(Genesis 11: 1 - 10) with Babylon,
which he understands to mean "confusion."
The foundations of Babylon, archetype of
the earthly city as a political reality, is thus
linked with the tower, a symbol of Nimrod's
pride (Book 16 #4). The Babel narrative allows
Augustine to employ an exegetical principle
and that enables him to explain why Genesis
11:5 has 'the Lord came down' and verse 7
(same chapter) 'the Lord saying "Come,
let us go down to Babel"'. The principle,
which Augustine took from the Donatist
theologian - exegete Tyconius is called
recapitulation which accounts for such
features by relating them to an earlier
point in Biblical narratives. . .Augustine
stresses that these passages are not to be
'taken literally,' indicating as they do that
'God's movement and sudden decision';
A. suggests that they refer to an angelic
intervention (Book 16 #5). The
attribution to God of language here leads
A. to consider the divine words of
Genesis 1:26 LET US MAKE MAN.
The plural here is not to be understood
to refer to angels, as that would involve
them in creation. Rather, it refers to
The TRINITY; which makes man in
'our image'. In Genesis 11:7 however
the words ARE more appropriately
those of angels: the reason Augustine
gives is the artificial one that the
exclamation 'Come' alludes to the
angels' approach to God as the source
of eternal truth, towards which they move.
God's meta-language is soundless,
it precedes his action as the unchanging
ground (ratio) of the action itself,
communicating itself directly to the
angelic minds. Augustine, who has
little to say about the multiplicity of
human languages other than that it
exists, reckons that from Noah's sons
after Babel: 72 languages came into
existence, and even more peoples
(Book 16 #6).
page 200 of O'Daly's 2020 book
