On the Confusion of Tongues

Critics said the Tower of Babel was a fable no better than Homer's; Philo's answer reads it as a story of minds in league against virtue.

by Philo of Alexandria72 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: De confusione linguarum
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

The opponents in this treatise came from inside Philo's own community: people raised under the Law of Moses and discontented with it, who liked to point out that their own scriptures contain the kind of fables the community laughed at in others. The Tower of Babel was their favourite exhibit. Homer tells of the giants Otus and Ephialtes, who meant to pile three mountains on top of one another to climb into heaven, and Greek fable tells of a time when all animals spoke one language until they asked for immortality and were punished with many tongues. The critics wanted to know how Genesis differed from such tales, and Philo grants the parallels while denying that the story is about bricks and mortar at all. The one language all the earth shared becomes a harmony of evils, the passions and vices of the soul agreeing with one another; the city and tower they build are a fortress of wrongdoing raised against heaven; and when God scatters the builders he is driving impiety out of the world, so that the city of wickedness is never finished. When God says let us go down and confuse their language, speaking as if to helpers, Philo explains the plural: God is one ruler, but he leaves punishment to his subordinate powers so that nothing evil proceeds from him directly. He does not dismiss readers who take the verse as the origin of Greek and foreign languages, but asks them to go further. Edmund Stein, a scholar in Warsaw, translated the treatise for the German edition of Philo's works begun in Breslau in 1909.

Key concepts

Who were Philo's opponents in On the Confusion of Tongues?

They were members of his own community, raised under the Law of Moses and discontented with it. Their argument was that Scripture contains the same kind of fables Jews mocked in Greek literature, and they used the Tower of Babel as their chief example, comparing it with Homer's giants and with a Greek fable about animals losing their common language. Philo writes to answer them without denying the resemblance.

What does the one language of all the earth stand for?

It stands for a symphony of evils: the passions and vices agreeing with one another inside a soul, and cities and nations joined in wrongdoing. Philo treats this agreement as the opposite of the harmony of the virtues, which rests on right reason. The shared language of Babel is not a lost golden age but a league of wickedness.

What does confusion mean in On the Confusion of Tongues?

Confusion is the destruction of the distinct qualities of things that are blended, so that the original parts no longer exist as themselves. Philo distinguishes it from mere mixture, in which the parts survive. When God confuses the builders' language, then, the league of evils is not merely disturbed but broken up so that it can no longer act together.

Why does God speak in the plural at Babel, according to Philo?

Because God, though one, works through subordinate powers, and he leaves punishment to them. That way nothing evil proceeds from him directly, and he remains the cause of good alone. The plural in let us go down is not a sign of many gods but of one ruler acting through the powers that serve him.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Is Genesis Just Another Book of Myths?

If Scripture tells the same kind of story as Homer, why revere the one and laugh at the other? Philo grants the resemblance and denies the conclusion.

The critics came from inside Philo's own community: people raised under the Law of Moses and discontented with it. Babel was their favourite exhibit. Homer tells of Otus and Ephialtes piling mountains to climb into heaven, and a Greek fable of a time when all animals spoke one language until they asked for immortality. How was Genesis different? Philo concedes the parallels and denies that the story is about bricks and mortar at all. He does not dismiss readers who take it as the origin of the world's languages; he asks them to go further.

scriptural interpretation
allegory
language
epistemology
knowledge
reasoning
sense perception
creation

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One Language as a Harmony of Evils

Can agreement itself be the problem? Philo reads the one language of Babel as the vices of a soul, and of whole nations, singing in tune.

All the earth had one language: for Philo that is a symphony of evils, the passions and vices of the soul agreeing with one another, and cities and nations wronging each other in concert. The city and tower they build are a fortress of wrongdoing raised against heaven. Against them stand those who honour one father, right reason, and admire the ordered harmony of the virtues; their life is peaceful but not idle. When God confuses the builders' language, the concord of evils is broken up, and the city of wickedness is never finished.

vice
virtue
moral psychology
soul
passion
justice
peace
self-mastery
intention

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Why God Says Let Us

If God is one, whom is he addressing when he says let us go down? Philo's answer keeps punishment, and anything evil, at a distance from God.

When God says let us go down and confuse their language, he speaks as if to helpers. Philo explains the plural carefully. God is one ruler, but he has subordinate powers, and he leaves punishment to them so that nothing evil proceeds from him directly. The same principle, he suggests, explains why the making of the human being, a creature capable of wrongdoing as well as good, is also told in the plural. God remains the source of good alone, and the work that involves evil is done by others at his command.

monotheism
divine goodness
divine transcendence
theodicy
punishment
divine providence
moral responsibility
evil

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Within this work

passages held: 72
distinct concepts: 151
by passages held, corpus-wide: #576

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “vice” and “virtue”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 17 pairings. 61 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
vice	virtue	8
moral psychology	vice	6
soul	vice	6
allegory	soul	5
moral psychology	virtue	5
passion	vice	5
moral psychology	passion	4
passion	virtue	4
soul	virtue	3
allegory	moral psychology	2
allegory	scriptural interpretation	2
allegory	vice	2
moral psychology	soul	2
passion	soul	2
allegory	virtue	1
cosmology	scriptural interpretation	1
scriptural interpretation	soul	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

Against Flaccus (In Flaccum)
Written as a demonstration of divine justice, this account of the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE and of the prefect Philo blamed for them stands with his historical and apologetic works.
EN
Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae I–III)
The first surviving treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, Philo's long verse-by-verse reading of Genesis, covering its second and third chapters in three books.
EN
Every Good Man Is Free (Quod omnis probus liber sit)
Written in the manner of the Greek schools rather than as commentary on Moses, it is, with On the Eternity of the World, one of Philo's philosophical treatises.
EN
On Abraham (De Abrahamo)
The first of Philo's lives of the patriarchs in the Exposition of the Law, following On the Creation of the World; its companions on Isaac and Jacob are lost, and On Joseph continues the set.
EN
On Cultivation (De agricultura)
Noah the farmer is a subject Philo splits across two treatises; this first one is built on the difference between near-synonyms, and On Planting continues it.
EN
On Dreams (De somniis I–II)
A treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, in two surviving books on the dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Pharaoh's court.
EN
On Drunkenness (De ebrietate)
Of the two books on drunkenness known in antiquity, this is the one that survives; it sits between On Planting and On Sobriety in the Allegorical Commentary's run on Noah and the vine.
EN
On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)
Hagar's flight and the angel who finds her, Genesis 16:6–14, read within the Allegorical Commentary.
EN
On Joseph (De Josepho)
The life of the statesman in Philo's series of patriarch lives within the Exposition of the Law. It follows On Abraham; lives of Isaac and Jacob, now lost, once stood between them.
EN
On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De congressu eruditionis gratia)
Philo's reading of Genesis 16 as a theory of education, set within the Allegorical Commentary; On Flight and Finding continues Hagar's story.
EN
On Planting (De plantatione)
The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.
EN
On Rewards and Punishments (De praemiis et poenis et de exsecrationibus)
The closing treatise of the Exposition of the Law, on the rewards, punishments, blessings and curses the Law sets before its hearers.
EN
On Sobriety (De sobrietate)
A short sequel to On Drunkenness in the Allegorical Commentary, on Noah waking and pronouncing his blessings and curse. Its Greek title names exactly that: what Noah prayed for and cursed once sober.
EN
On the Change of Names (De mutatione nominum)
Genesis 17 and its renamings, from Abram and Sarai to Jacob and Joshua, read in the Allegorical Commentary; it also carries Philo's clearest statement that God has no proper name.
EN
On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)
Two short commentaries joined under one title: the cherubim at Eden's gate, then the birth of Cain. Within the Allegorical Commentary it picks up where the three books of Allegorical Interpretation stop.
EN
On the Confusion of Tongues (De confusione linguarum) you are here EN
On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)
A portrait of the Therapeutae, classed with Philo's historical and apologetic writings; it opens by referring back to his account of the Essenes, the active life to this contemplative one.
EN
On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)
The overture to Philo's Exposition of the Law, the series that goes on to lives of the patriarchs and a code of laws. It stands apart as his reading of the creation story in its literal order.
EN
On the Decalogue (De decalogo)
The hinge of the Exposition of the Law, turning from the lives of the patriarchs to the written law.
EN
On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)
The companion of Against Flaccus: an eyewitness history of the embassy Philo led to Gaius, and the fullest account he left of his own public life.
EN
On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi)
Among Philo's philosophical treatises, the one that names the Greek schools and their arguments most openly.
EN
On the Giants and On the Unchangeableness of God (De gigantibus; Quod Deus sit immutabilis)
Two treatises that editions usually separate but that read as one commentary, in the Allegorical Commentary, on the verses of Genesis leading up to the flood.
EN
On the Life of Moses (De vita Mosis I–II)
Philo's biography of Moses in two books, usually counted with the Exposition of the Law though it stands on its own.
EN
On the Migration of Abraham (De migratione Abrahami)
Abraham's call in Genesis 12, read as the soul's migration toward God; in the Allegorical Commentary it follows On the Confusion of Tongues in the order of Genesis.
EN
On the Posterity of Cain (De posteritate Caini)
The last of the Cain treatises in the Allegorical Commentary, following Cain from his exile through his descendants.
EN
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini)
One of the run of treatises on Cain and Abel in the Allegorical Commentary, taking up the brothers' offerings in Genesis 4.
EN
On the Special Laws (De specialibus legibus I–IV)
The largest work in the Exposition of the Law, in four books; it follows On the Decalogue and is followed by On the Virtues.
EN
On the Virtues (De virtutibus)
A pendant to On the Special Laws in the Exposition of the Law, gathering laws under the virtues they train rather than under the Ten Commandments.
EN
The Worse Attacks the Better (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat)
It follows On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain in the Allegorical Commentary and carries the brothers' story on to the murder itself.
EN
Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)
Best known for its long passage on the Logos dividing the world into opposites, this reading of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 belongs to the Allegorical Commentary.
EN

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On the Confusion of Tongues

Overview

Key concepts

Who were Philo's opponents in On the Confusion of Tongues?

What does the one language of all the earth stand for?

What does confusion mean in On the Confusion of Tongues?

Why does God speak in the plural at Babel, according to Philo?

Themes of the book

1Is Genesis Just Another Book of Myths?

2One Language as a Harmony of Evils

3Why God Says Let Us

Within this work

What this book thinks together

Works held

Is Genesis Just Another Book of Myths?

One Language as a Harmony of Evils

Why God Says Let Us