{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5599","native_reference":{"book_number":10,"chapter_from":11,"chapter_to":11,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":2,"verse_to":2},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Bede</b>: And as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. It appears from these words that even the first humans held the region of the East; thus it should be considered the head of the world, not only because the light of the stars rises from there, but also because the human race first inhabited it.<br/><i>— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Departing from the East, they found a plain in which to dwell, because withdrawing from the light of righteousness, the reprobate found for themselves the broad ways of the world in which they might remain with a fickle mind; and this in the stench of carnal vices. For Shinar, as we have said, is interpreted as their stench: And what is meant by the land of Shinar, except the rotten lust of carnal slothfulness, in which whoever does not avoid dwelling, that is, persisting with a secure and fixed intention, soon by the increasing wickedness, also provoke their neighbors to the injury of the Creator and nefarious acts. For it follows that one said to his neighbor: Come, let us make bricks, and bake them with fire. They then inflame one another to make bricks, with which they would build the city of Nimrod on the plain of Shinar; because indeed, the entire multitude of the impious serves the devil with filthy, sordid, and earthly works, and they build for him not any other city than themselves by living wickedly: but on the other hand, the city of Jerusalem, in which David and Solomon, that is, the strong in hand and peaceful reigns, is not built of bricks, but of stone: not on a plain, but on a mountain, as its king says to it: Behold, I will lay your stones in order, and lay your foundations with sapphires (Isa. LIV, 11). And of which the Prophet says: Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King (Psalm. LXVII, 3): because evidently the city of the devil consists of the transgressors and tyrants, which the name Nimrod signifies, that is, the entire multitude of the reprobate, who wander about through the flowing corruption of the present life. But the Church, indeed, the city of Christ, is built of living stones, that is, souls strong in faith and action, about which its wise architect, speaking of its king, said: Coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and honored by God; you also, as living stones, are being built up (I Pet. II, 4): and not in the plain of Shinar, but on the holy mountain of the Lord: because the chosen ones strive not to relax in the weak pleasures of carnal things, but rather to bind and elevate themselves to higher desires: hence they say our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. III, 20).<br/><i>— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there.\" Notice how the human race, instead of managing to keep to its own boundaries, always longs for more and reaches out for greater things. This is what the human race has lost in particular, not being prepared to recognize the limitations of its own condition but always lusting after more, entertaining ambitions beyond its capacity. In this regard, too, when people who chase after the things of the world acquire for themselves much wealth and status, they lose sight of their own nature, as it were, and aspire to such heights that they topple into the very depths. You could see this happening every day without others being any the wiser from the sight of it. Instead, they pause for a while but immediately lose all recollection of it and take the same road as the others and fall over the same precipice. This is exactly what you can see happening to these people in the present instance: \"When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there.\" See how in gradual stages it teaches us the instability of their attitude. When they saw the open country (the text says), they packed up and left their previous dwelling and settled down there.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Genesis 30.5</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: TOWER OF BABEL. — Come, let us build to ourselves a city and tower, whose top shall be to heaven . If these men thought that they could do this, they showed a stupid audacity and impiety. And since God took vengeance on them for this cause, confusion of their languages, it is not absurd to believe that they actually thought it. [<br/><i>— QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 20 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"b91b526efd20fb12a837748d590feafd2a758d4fe740d49184a103f8d01ed58b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5599,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"afd987c2f427b22faaa81baa91ee1865afca3caac2d80dbe018eaea10575c1ee","translator":null,"work":null}