OT § 18

Now the three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth, from whom again the race was multiplied: for these were the beginning of mankind after the flood. Now of these one fell under a curse, and the two (others) inherited a blessing by reason of their works. For the younger of them, who was called Ham, having mocked his father, and having been condemned of the sin of impiety because of his outrage and unrighteousness against his father, received a curse; and all the posterity that came of him he involved in the curse; whence it came about that his whole race after him were accursed, and in sins they increased and multiplied. But Shem and Japheth, his brothers, because of their piety towards their father obtained a blessing. Now the curse of Ham, wherewith his father Noah cursed him, is this: Cursed be Ham the child; a servant shall he be unto his brethren. This having come upon his race, he begat many descendants upon the earth, (even) for fourteen generations, growing up in a wild condition; and then his race was cut off by God, being delivered up to judgment. For the Canaanites and Hittites and Peresites and Hivites and Amorites and Jebusites and Gergasites and Sodomites, the Arabians also and the dwellers in Phoenicia, all the Egyptians and the Libyans, are of the posterity of Ham, who have fallen under the curse; for the curse is of long duration over the ungodly. And even as the curse passed on, so also the blessing passed on to the race of him who was blessed, to each in his own order. For first of them was Shem blessed in these words: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and Ham shall be his servant. The power of the blessing lies in this, that the God and Lord of all should be to Shem a peculiar possession of worship. And the blessing extended and reached unto Abraham, who was reckoned as descended in the tenth generation from the race of Shem: and therefore the Father and God of all was pleased to be called the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob; because the blessing of Shem reached out and attached itself to Abraham. Now the blessing of Japheth is on this wise: God shall enlarge unto Japheth, and he shall dwell in the house of Shem, and Ham shall be his servant. That is to say: In the end of the ages he blossomed forth, at the appearing of the Lord, through the calling of the Gentiles, when God enlarged unto them the calling; and their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. The enlarging, then, is the calling from among the Gentiles, that is to say, the Church. And he dwells in the house of Shem; that is, in the inheritance of the fathers, receiving in Christ Jesus the right of the firstborn. So in the rank in which each was blessed, in that same order through his posterity he received the fruit of the blessing.

(Chapter 9, Verse 18) The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Septuagint translators often struggled to render the letter Heth (), which has a double aspiration sound, into Greek. They added the Greek letter chi (χ) to instruct us to aspirate in such words. Therefore, in this passage, they translated Cham as Ham, because Ham is called "Ham" in the Hebrew language, and in Egyptian language, Egypt is called "Ham" until this day.

Noah, a man of the earth, began to cultivate the ground and planted a vineyard, etc. It is often pleasing to repeat the word of the Lord, which he said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). For even in this reading where Moses, weaving history, writes of Noah and his sons, he figuratively announces the passion of the Lord and the devotion of the peoples believing in him, as well as the infidelity of those contradicting the faith. Indeed, Noah cultivating the ground planted a vineyard, because the Lord, caring for the human race, established the Synagogue among the Jewish people; of which vineyard the Psalmist also remembers saying: "You transplanted a vine from Egypt" (Psalm 80:8); and the Lord, speaking in the Gospel to the Jews, says: "A man planted a vineyard and surrounded it with a fence" (Luke 20:9), and the rest to the end of the parable, where he says: "What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to those tenants? They said: He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants."

When Christ says, "I am the true vine," the blood of Christ is assuredly not water but wine. We are redeemed and made alive by his blood. But in the cup it is not wine as such that redeems but his blood. This is declared by the sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures. For we find this even in Genesis also, in respect of the sacrament prefigured in Noah. That he drank wine was to them a precursor and figure of the Lord's passion. Noah was made drunk by this wine, was made naked in his household, was lying down with his thighs naked and exposed, and the nakedness of the father was observed by his second son and was told abroad but was covered by two, the eldest and the youngest, and other matters which it is not necessary to follow out. It is enough for us simply to embrace the understanding that Noah set forth a type of the future truth. Noah did not drink water but wine and thus expressed in advance the figure of the passion of the Lord.

Noah's drunkenness was not from an excess of wine but because it had been a long time since he had drunk any wine. In the ark he had drunk no wine. Although all flesh was going to perish, Noah was not permitted to bring any wine onto the ark. During the year after the flood Noah did not drink any wine. In that first year after he left the ark, he did not plant a vineyard, for he came out of the ark on the twenty-seventh of Iyor, the time when the fruit should be starting to mature and not the time for planting a vineyard. Therefore, seeing that it was in the third year that he planted the vineyard from the grape stones that he brought with him on the ark and that it was three or even four years before they would have become a productive vineyard, there were then at least six years during which the just one had not tasted any wine.

Perhaps, on the other hand, someone might say, "Why was vine dressing, source of such terrible wickedness, introduced into life?" Do not idly blurt out what comes into your head, O man: vine dressing is not wicked nor is wine evil—rather, it is use of them in excess. You see, dreadful sins arise not from wine as such but from intemperate attitudes of human depravity that undermine the benefit that should naturally come from it. The reason that now after the deluge he shows you the use of wine is that you may learn that before using wine the human race had to come to grief from it. Before wine had even appeared, human history gave evidence of the extremity of sinfulness and unbridled licentiousness. This was intended to teach you that when you see the way wine is used, you will not attribute it all to wine as such but to depraved human intention bent on evil. Consider especially where wine has proved useful, and tremble, O man. For wine is used in good things by which our salvation is made real. Those who have an insight into spiritual realities understand this saying.

Why was Noah not blamed for falling into drunkenness? His falling was not due to intemperance but inexperience. For he was the first man to press the fruit of the vine and was ignorant not only of the power of the drink but also of the kind of change it had undergone. Because it ought to be mixed first before being drunk, he suffered drowsiness. There was nothing new about the fact that he was naked. For even now some people sleep naked, sleep having taken away their consciousness. The drunkenness, added to sleep, makes easier a defense of his nakedness.

And drinking the wine, he became drunk, and he was naked in his tent. The Lord drank wine when he received the cup of his passion. He was made drunk by drinking when by suffering for us he reached the utmost extremity of death. He was naked in his tent, when among the Jewish people, whom he had made his own, and in which he had long been accustomed to dwell as in his tent, enduring reproaches and mockeries, he ultimately underwent the sentence of the cross, making manifest to all most openly the truth of the mortal substance which he had deigned to assume.

In the mystery of the cleansing of crimes, Christ is symbolized by Noah who lay naked in his tent in a state of drunkenness: for Christ was drunk with love for His spouse and was naked on the cross — where the very wicked Cham derided Him.

That is why the drunkenness of Noah also has been described, so that we may guard against drunkenness as much as possible, with the picture of such a fall clearly described before our eyes in Scripture. That is why, too, the Lord blessed those who covered the shame of his drunkenness. Scripture, summing everything up in one succinct verse, has said, "Wine is sufficient for a man well taught, and upon his bed, he shall rest."

After the deluge Noah drank and became drunk in his own house, and his thighs were uncovered and he was exposed in his nakedness. The elder brother came along and laughed; the younger, however, covered him up. All this is said in type of the Savior, for on the cross he had drunk of the passion: "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me." He drank and was inebriated, and his thighs were laid bare—the dishonor of the cross. The older brothers, the Jews, came along and laughed; the younger, the Gentiles, covered up his ignominy.

"Woe to you that demand strong drink as soon as they rise in the morning, and linger into the night while wine inflames them!" Noah drank wine and fell into a drunken stupor and became naked in the more shameful part of his body so that you may know that the mind of man is so confounded by wine and the reason of the human mind is made so dull that it does not have concern even for itself, much less for God.… When Lot was soused with wine, he committed incest with his daughters and did not know his mistake; from that passionate union came the Moabites and the Ammonites.

Now this is the first lust which conquered the world, and because of it the first transgression of the law took place; and next Cain also, in turning unto this, meditated the killing of his brother that he might inherit the earth by himself. It laid a blemish upon the righteous man Noah. And God permitted Noah also to eat every thing like green herbs, and though Adam was censured because he had eaten the fruit, yet to Noah power was given, as by a covenant of gift, over all meats; now where it was partaken of with lust, there was it reprehended, for having received through the taste of lust the pleasure of wine, he drank thereof inordinately and immoderately, and was in this case laid under sin.

When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father's nakedness was uncovered, he told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a cloak, laid it upon their shoulders, and walking backward, covered their father's nakedness; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's private parts. Ham, who saw his father's nakedness and laughed, signifies the Jewish people, who, contradicting and incredulous, rather despised the passion of our Lord and Savior than honored it, rejoicing in their relief at seeing it as contemptible rather than salvific. He also told his brothers outside what had happened to their father because through him the secret of the Lord's passion prophesied was made manifest and somewhat public, reaching the gift of the second generation; hence the Apostle says: "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 1:23). Furthermore, the two brothers, the eldest and the youngest, signify those to whom it was subsequently added: both Jews and Gentiles are called to Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Both the eldest and youngest carry the sacrament of the Lord's past and completed passion as if it were a single cloak from behind, not looking at their father's nudity because they do not consent to Christ's killing, but still honoring it with a veil, as if knowing from whom they were born, so that they could be sons of mercy who were previously sons of wrath. The middle son, that is, the Jewish people, is called the middle because he neither held the apostles' primacy nor was the last to believe among the Gentiles, saw his father's nakedness because he agreed to Christ's death. It is aptly said of the two brothers that they covered their father's modesty with their faces turned away, as if displeased with the deed of the wicked vine; that vine, namely the Jewish nation, is mystically signified as having degenerated from paternal nobility at the time of the Lord's passion and offered vinegar to the thirsting Lord on the cross instead of wine; for He thirsted for the faith and love of that people, but they, instead of the sweetness of faith and the fervor of love, gave Him the sharpness of hatred and unbelief.

Noah cursed Canaan, saying, "Cursed be Canaan. A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." But what sin could Canaan have committed even if he had been right behind his father when Ham observed the nakedness of Noah? Some say that because Ham had been blessed along with those who entered the ark and came out of it, Noah did not curse Ham himself, even though his son, who was cursed, grieved him greatly. Others, however, say from the fact that Scripture says, "Noah knew everything that his youngest son had done to him," it is clear that it was not Ham who observed his nakedness, for Ham was the middle son and not the youngest. For this reason they say that Canaan, the youngest, told of the nakedness of the old man. Then Ham went out and jokingly told his brothers. For this reason then, even though it might be thought that Canaan was cursed unjustly in that he did what he did in his youth, still he was cursed justly for he was not cursed in the place of another. Noah knew that Canaan would deserve the curse in his old age, or else he would not have been cursed in his youth.

For another mystery was accomplished and predicted in the days of Noah, of which you are not aware. It is this: in the blessings wherewith Noah blessed his two sons, and in the curse pronounced on his son's son. For the Spirit of prophecy would not curse the son that had been by God blessed along with [his brothers]. But since the punishment of the sin would cleave to the whole descent of the son that mocked at his father's nakedness, he made the curse originate with his son. Now, in what he said, he foretold that the descendants of Shem would keep in retention the property and dwellings of Canaan: and again that the descendants of Japheth would take possession of the property of which Shem's descendants had dispossessed Canaan's descendants; and spoil the descendants of Shem, even as they plundered the sons of Canaan. And listen to the way in which it has so come to pass. For you, who have derived your lineage from Shem, invaded the territory of the sons of Canaan by the will of God; and you possessed it. And it is manifest that the sons of Japheth, having invaded you in turn by the judgment of God, have taken your land from you, and have possessed it. Thus it is written: "And Noah awoke from the wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him; and he said, Cursed be Canaan, the servant; a servant shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. May the Lord enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the houses of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant." Accordingly, as two peoples were blessed,-those from Shem, and those from Japheth,-and as the offspring of Shem were decreed first to possess the dwellings of Canaan, and the offspring of Japheth were predicted as in turn receiving the same possessions, and to the two peoples there was the one people of Canaan handed over for servants; so Christ has come according to the power given Him from the Almighty Father, and summoning men to friendship, and blessing, and repentance, and dwelling together, has promised, as has already been proved, that there shall be a future possession for all the saints in this same land. And hence all men everywhere, whether bond or free, who believe in Christ, and recognise the truth in His own words and those of His prophets, know that they shall be with Him in that land, and inherit everlasting and incorruptible good.

The chaste son could not endure looking upon the immodest nakedness of a good man; chastity covered over what drunkenness had exposed in a transgression committed in ignorance but manifest to all.

But Noah, awakening from his wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him, said: Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. Awakening from wine, Noah curses his offspring by whom he was mocked; however, he rewards with due blessing those who honored him as their father; and the Lord, according to the voice of the psalm (Psalm 3:6), having slept in death and risen immortal, smote all who opposed him without cause, and shattered the teeth of sinners; but upon his own people he poured the blessing of eternal salvation. Not only is Canaan subjected to a curse, but also to the servitude of his brothers. For what else is that nation today, but a certain scribe of Christians, bearing the law and the prophets as testimony to the affirmation of the Church, so that we might honor through the sacrament what it announces through the letter.

First of all, let us show great reverence to our parents, as we read in Genesis 9:25-27, that whoever was blessed by their father, was blessed, and whoever was cursed by their father, was cursed! Therefore, God has granted this grace to parents, so that the piety of their children may be provoked. Therefore, it is the duty of children to obey their parents. Honor your father, so that he may bless you.

Why did Ham sin and yet vengeance was declared against his son Canaan? Why was the son of Solomon punished by the breaking up of the kingdom? Why was the sin of Ahab, king of Israel, visited upon his posterity? How do we read in the sacred books, "Returning the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them" and "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation?" The number here can be taken for all the descendants. Are these statements false? Who would say this but the most open enemy of the divine words? Then carnal generation even of the people of God of the Old Testament binds children for the sins of their parents.

This is prescribed by the order of nature: it is thus that God has created man. For "let them," He says, "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every creeping thing which creepeth on the earth." He did not intend that His rational creature, who was made in His image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation,-not man over man, but man over the beasts. And hence the righteous men in primitive times were made shepherds of cattle rather than kings of men, God intending thus to teach us what the relative position of the creatures is, and what the desert of sin; for it is with justice, we believe, that the condition of slavery is the result of sin. And this is why we do not find the word "slave" in any part of Scripture until righteous Noah branded the sin of his son with this name. It is a name, therefore, introduced by sin and not by nature. The origin of the Latin word for slave is supposed to be found in the circumstance that those who by the law of war were liable to be killed were sometimes preserved by their victors, and were hence called servants. And these circumstances could never have arisen save through sin. For even when we wage a just war, our adversaries must be sinning; and every victory, even though gained by wicked men, is a result of the first judgment of God, who humbles the vanquished either for the sake of removing or of punishing their sins. Witness that man of God, Daniel, who, when he was in captivity, confessed to God his own sins and the sins of his people, and declares with pious grief that these were the cause of the captivity. The prime cause, then, of slavery is sin, which brings man under the dominion of his fellow,-that which does not happen save by the judgment of God, with whom is no unrighteousness, and who knows how to award fit punishments to every variety of offence. But our Master in heaven says, "Every one who doeth sin is the servant of sin." And thus there are many wicked masters who have religious men as their slaves, and who are yet themselves in bondage; "for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." And beyond question it is a happier thing to be the slave of a man than of a lust; for even this very lust of ruling, to mention no others, lays waste men's hearts with the most ruthless dominion. Moreover, when men are subjected to one another in a peaceful order, the lowly position does as much good to the servant as the proud position does harm to the master. But by nature, as God first created us, no one is the slave either of man or of sin. This servitude is, however, penal, and is appointed by that law which enjoins the preservation of the natural order and forbids its disturbance; for if nothing had been done in violation of that law, there would have been nothing to restrain by penal servitude. And therefore the apostle admonishes slaves to be subject to their masters, and to serve them heartily and with good-will, so that, if they cannot be freed by their masters, they may themselves make their slavery in some sort free, by serving not in crafty fear, but in faithful love, until all unrighteousness pass away, and all principality and every human power be brought to nothing, and God be all in all.

To be sure, some will say, this shows that the reason he did not curse Ham was that he had enjoyed blessing from God. Nevertheless, why is it that though Ham was the sinner, Canaan had to pay the penalty? This does not happen idly either. Ham did not endure less punishment than his son. He too felt its effects. You know well, of course, how in many cases fathers have begged to endure punishment in place of their children. Seeing their children bearing punishment proves a more grievous form of chastisement for the fathers than being subject to it themselves. Accordingly, this incident occurred so that Ham should endure greater anguish on account of his natural affection, so that God's blessing should continue without impairment and so that his son in being the object of the curse should atone for his own sins. You see, even if in the present instance he bears the curse on account of his father's sin, nevertheless it was likely that he was atoning for his own failings. In other words, it was not only for his father's sin that he bore the curse but perhaps also for the purpose of his suffering a heavier penalty on his own account. After all, for proof that parents are not punished for their children, nor children for their parents, each being liable for the sins he has committed, you can find frequent statements among the inspired authors—as, for instance, when they say, "The teeth of the one eating sour grapes shall be set on edge," "The soul that shall die is the soul that sins," and again, "Parents shall not die for their children, nor children for their parents."

And he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; let Canaan be his servant. In Shem, the firstborn son of Noah, we have indicated the primitive Church, gathered from the Israelite people, and in Japheth, the youngest son, the election of the Gentiles which followed; whence it is rightly said:

Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. For although He is the God of all nations, yet in a certain special way, even among the Gentiles, He is called the God of Israel; and how did this come to pass, if not from the blessing of Japheth? For in the people of the Gentiles, the Church has occupied the world. This is precisely foretold when it is subsequently said.

After Ham had been cursed through his one son, Noah blessed Shem and Japheth and said, "May God increase Japheth, and may he dwell in the tent of Shem, and let Canaan be their slave." Japheth increased and became powerful in his inheritance in the north and in the west. And God dwelt in the tent of Abraham, the descendant of Shem, and Canaan became their slave when in the days of Joshua son of Nun, the Israelites destroyed the dwelling places of Canaan and pressed their leaders into bondage.

May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Indeed, Japheth dwells in the tents of Shem because in the faith of the patriarchs and prophets, in the prophetic Scriptures, in the spiritually understood legal sacraments, the Church sojourns on earth. For we are accustomed to use tents in war or on a journey, and in the tents of the Israelite people we, who have come to Christ from the Gentiles, dwell, because certainly as long as we sigh for the heavenly homeland while placed on this path of life, as long as we fight against the snares of the ancient enemy with Christ as our leader and helper, it is necessary always to hold on to the sayings and deeds and works of the ancient fathers as examples of life and profession; so that, protected by their authority, we may more certainly and securely strive towards the palm of reward with a perfected struggle. However, it also aligns with the growth of the holy Church, which has filled the whole world, that the name Japheth, which means 'Enlargement' is used; whence Noah, alluding to this name itself, says: May God enlarge Japheth, that is, may He grant enlargement. It is fitting, however, that what was said of Shem is repeated of Japheth: And let Canaan be his servant, because certainly the unbelieving Jews serve both peoples of believers, although with an impious mind, they provide service for salvation, not only in that they aid with the authority of the sacred volumes and strengthen in faith, but also in that they pursue them as far as they are able, because indeed by pursuing on account of righteousness, they make them higher participants of eternal blessedness, and even in that their offense of hard-hearted blindness prompts them to give greater thanks to their Redeemer and illuminator. To this people indeed the name Canaan, which means 'Commotion,' most aptly applies. For he cannot say: He set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps (Psalm 40:3); but uncertain and wavering, he is always in motion. It should also be noted according to the literal sense that not in vain is Canaan cursed when Ham sinned, not he himself but his son, especially when he was neither the firstborn of Ham but his youngest son. For it is written: The sons of Ham: Cush, Saba, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. Indeed, he foresaw equally in spirit that the progeny of Canaan would sin much more than the rest of the offspring of Ham, and therefore be worthy either to perish by curse or to groan under subjugation; which was particularly proven and shown by the wickedness of the Sodomites, who came from the lineage of Canaan, and by their dreadful retribution, and the extermination or subjugation of the Canaanites, which they suffered when the Israelite people, descended from the lineage of Shem, came out of Egypt. For from Cush came the Ethiopians, from Mizraim the Egyptians, from Phut came the Libyans, which the very names of these same peoples among the Hebrews still testify today, among whom there is absolutely nothing of such wickedness or vengeance as Scripture relates about the Sodomites and Canaanites.

God also expanded Japheth, so that he dwelt in the tents of Shem, and that Canaan was his servant, when the Greeks or Romans, certainly descended from the line of Japheth, possessed the kingdoms of Asia, in which the descendants of Shem lived, and among other things made the Canaanites tributary to themselves.

(Verse 27) May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem. From Shem come the Hebrews, and from Japheth, the people of the nations are born. Therefore, because the multitude of believers has been enlarged from the breadth, which is called Japheth, it has received the name "breadth". But what he says, "And may he dwell in the tents of Shem," is prophesying about us, who are engaged in the teaching and knowledge of the Scriptures, with Israel being cast out.

But Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and all the days of his life were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died. As we have taught above, the six hundred years of Noah's life, after which he entered the ark, signify the perfection of the faith and profession of those who undergo the sacraments of the Church of heavenly grace and everlasting reward. Thus also the three hundred and fifty years which he lived after the flood represent the great perfection of those who, having received the sacraments of life, faithfully serve the Lord until death. We said that the number three hundred, because it is marked by the letter tau in Greek (and tau is written in the figure of a cross), most aptly bears the type of those who know to glory only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; whence Gideon, with the Lord commanding and helping, defeated the innumerable army of the Midianites with three hundred men, teaching figuratively that by the faith of the Lord's cross we would be victorious over the wars against us by this world and our vices. Moreover, the number fifty, because Scripture teaches that it designates the rest of the law by figure, which always in the fiftieth year decreed the greatest remission of all sufferings and the liberation from all services for God's entire people. Therefore, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood with a certain grace of mystery, to signify that we, having received the baptismal washing, should endure labors for the Lord in hope of the supreme rest and happiness. For he lived three hundred years to be patient in tribulation; he lived fifty years to be joyful in hope. But since seven times fifty make three hundred and fifty, and the number seven signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit, and fifty signifies true rest, which is given to the elect through the same Spirit, the type aptly corresponds. We can also interpret in this way the mystery of this number, that he who lives three hundred and fifty years after the flood, symbolizes the one who, throughout the whole time of received baptism, aided by the spiritual gift, does not cease to labor for eternal rest in heaven; and he will happily see the death of the flesh, or rather, he will pass from death to life, which alone is to be called true life, who completes the course of present life in such a great perfection. Amen.

(Verse 29.) And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years. Behold, after the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. From which it is clear that one hundred and twenty years were given to that generation, as we have said before, for repentance, and not for the establishment of mortal life.

We must therefore introduce into this work an explanation of the generations of the three sons of Noah, insofar as that may illustrate the progress in time of the two cities. Scripture first mentions the youngest son, who is called Japheth, who had eight sons, and by two of these sons seven grandchildren, three by one son, four by the other; in all, fifteen descendants. Ham, Noah's middle son, had four sons, and by one of them five grandsons, and by one of these two great-grandsons; in all, eleven. After enumerating these, Scripture returns to the first of the sons and says, "Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a giant on the earth." He was a giant hunter against the Lord God; hence they say, "Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord." And the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, Erech, Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Assur, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: this was a great city." Now this Cush, father of the giant Nimrod, is the first-named among the sons of Ham, to whom five sons and two grandsons are ascribed. But he either begat this giant after his grandsons were born or, which is more credible, Scripture speaks of him separately on account of his eminence, for mention is also made of his kingdom, which began with that magnificent city Babylon, and the other places, whether cities or districts, mentioned along with it. But what is recorded of the land of Shinar, which belonged to Nimrod's kingdom—that Assur went forth from it and built Nineveh and the other cities mentioned with it—happened long after. But he takes occasion to speak of it here on account of the grandeur of the Assyrian kingdom, which was wonderfully extended by Ninus son of Belus, and founder of the great city Nineveh, which was named after him, Nineveh, from Ninus. But Assur, father of the Assyrians, was not one of the sons of Ham, Noah's son, but is found among the sons of Shem, his eldest son. Whence it appears that among Shem's offspring there arose men who afterwards took possession of that giant's kingdom, and advancing from it, founded other cities, the first of which was called Nineveh, from Ninus. From him Scripture returns to Ham's other son, Mizraim. His sons are enumerated, not as seven individuals but as seven nations. And from the sixth, as if from the sixth son, the race called the Philistines are said to have sprung, so that there are in all eight. Then it returns again to Canaan, in whose person Ham was cursed, and his eleven sons are named. Then the territories they occupied, and some of the cities, are named. And thus, if we count sons and grandsons, there are thirty-one of Ham's descendants registered.It remains to mention the sons of Shem, Noah's eldest son, for to him this genealogical narrative gradually ascends from the youngest. But in the commencement of the record of Shem's sons there is an obscurity that calls for explanation, since it is closely connected with the object of our investigation. For we read, "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, were children born." This is the order of the words: And to Shem was born Eber, even to himself, that is, to Shem himself was born Eber, and Shem is the father of all his children. We are intended to understand that Shem is the patriarch of all his posterity who were to be mentioned, whether sons, grandsons, great-grandsons or descendants at any distance. For Shem did not beget Eber, who was indeed in the fifth generation from him. For Shem begat, among other sons, Arpachshad; Arpachshad begat Cainan, Cainan begat Salah, Salah begat Eber. And it was with good reason that he was named first among Shem's offspring, taking precedence even of his sons, though only a grandchild of the fifth generation. For from him, as tradition says, the Hebrews derived their name, though the other etymology that derives the name from Abraham (as if Abrahews) may possibly be correct. But there can be little doubt that the former is the right etymology and that they were called after Eber, Heberews, and then, dropping a letter, Hebrews; and so was their language called Hebrew, which was spoken by none but the people of Israel among whom was the city of God mysteriously prefigured in all the people and truly present in the saints. Six of Shem's sons then are first named, then four grandsons born to one of these sons; then it mentions another son of Shem, who begat a grandson; and his son, again, or Shem's great-grandson, was Eber. And Eber begat two sons and called the one Peleg, which means "dividing." Scripture subjoins the reason of this name, saying, "for in his days was the earth divided." What this means will afterwards appear. Eber's other son gave birth to twelve sons; consequently all Shem's descendants are twenty-seven. The total number of the progeny of the three sons of Noah is seventy-three, fifteen by Japheth, thirty-one by Ham, twenty-seven by Shem. Then Scripture adds, "These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations." And so of the whole number "These are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the isles of the nations dispersed through the earth after the flood." From which we gather that the seventy-three (or rather, as I shall presently show, seventy-two) were not individuals but nations. For in a former passage, when the sons of Japheth were enumerated, it is said in conclusion, "By these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his language, in their tribes and in their nations." But nations are expressly mentioned among the sons of Ham, as I showed above. "Mizraim begat those who are called Ludim; and so also of the other seven nations." And after enumerating all of them it concludes, "These are the sons of Ham, in their families, according to their languages, in their territories, and in their nations." The reason, then, why the children of several of them are not mentioned is that they belonged by birth to other nations and did not themselves become nations. Why else is it that though eight sons are reckoned to Japheth, the sons of only two of these are mentioned; and though four are reckoned to Ham, only three are spoken of as having sons; and though six are reckoned to Shem, the descendants of only two of these are traced? Did the rest remain childless? We cannot suppose so; but they did not produce nations so great as to warrant their being mentioned but were absorbed in the nations to which they belonged by birth.

In the same book [of Genesis], when the generations of the sons of Noah are recalled to our minds, we read, "These are the children of Ham in their tribes according to their tongues, in their lands and nations." Also, in enumerating the sons of Shem, it is said, "These are the children of Shem in their tribes according to their tongues, in their lands and nations." And this is added in reference to all of them: "These are the tribes of the sons of Noah, according to their generations and according to their nations. From these were the islands of the nations scattered over the earth after the flood. And the whole earth was one tongue, and there was one speech for all." And so, because this sentence was added: "And the earth was one tongue and there was one speech for all" (that is, one language for them all), it could be inferred that at that time, when human beings had been scattered according to the islands of the nations over the earth, there was one language common to all of them. Without a doubt, this contradicts the words used above, "according to their tribes and tongues." For, each single tribe that had formed individual nations would not be said to have had its own tongue when there was a common one for all. So it is by way of recapitulation that there is added: "And the earth was one tongue, and there was one speech for all." The narrative, without mentioning it, goes back to tell how it came about that the one language common to all men was broken up into many tongues. And immediately we are told about the building of the tower, when this punishment for their pride was inflicted upon them by the divine judgment. After this event they were scattered over the earth according to their languages.

These are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. The series of Noah's offspring begins with his youngest son and is completed in the eldest, which is a familiar expression in the holy scriptures, mystically signifying that the lesser people of the nations would be preferred in faith over the greater people of the Jews when Christ came in the flesh. The sons of the sons of Noah who are mentioned are believed to have been progenitors of various nations who divided the world among them in such a way that Shem, the firstborn, inherited Asia, and Ham, the second, Africa, and Japheth, the last, Europe; yet because Asia is much larger in extent of land than Europe or Libya, the offspring of Ham and Japheth would also hold some portion in Asia. Thus, seven sons were born to Japheth who took possession of the land in Asia from the mountains of Amanus and Taurus in Syria, Cilicia's mountains, up to the river Tanais. In Europe, up to Gadira, they left names for places and nations, many of which later changed names, while others remained as they were. Therefore, Gomer are the Galatians, Magog the Scythians, Madai the Medes, Javan the Ionians, who are also Greeks, from whom the Ionian Sea is named, Tubal the Iberians, who are also the Spanish named from the river Ebro, from whom the Celtiberians come, although some suspect them to be Italians; Meshech are the Cappadocians, where a city among them is still called Mazaca today, also called Caesarea by Augustus Caesar. Meanwhile, the seventy interpreters believe Capturim to be the Cappadocians, Tiras the Thracians, whose name has not changed much.