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Wherefore, as the fact of all using one language did not secure the
absence of sin-infected men from the race, for even before the deluge
there was one language, and yet all but the single family of just Noah
were found worthy of destruction by the flood,, so when the nations,
by a prouder godlessness, earned the punishment of the dispersion and
the confusion of tongues, and the city of the godless was called
Confusion or Babylon, there was still the house of Heber in which
the primitive language of the race survived. And therefore, as I
have already mentioned, when an enumeration is made of the sons of
Shem, who each founded a nation, Heber is first mentioned, although
he was of the fifth generation from Shem. And because, when the
other races were divided by their own peculiar languages, his family
preserved that language which is not unreasonably believed to have been
the common language of the race, it was on this account thenceforth
named Hebrew. For it then became necessary to distinguish this
language from the rest by a proper name; though, while there was only
one, it had no other name than the language of man, or human speech,
it alone being spoken by the whole human race. Some one will say: If
the earth was divided by languages in the days of Peleg, Heber's
son, that language, which was formerly common to all, should rather
have been called after Peleg. But we are to understand that Heber
himself gave to his son this name Peleg, which means Division;
because he was born when the earth was divided, that is, at the very
time of the division, and that this is the meaning of the words, "In
his days the earth was divided."2 For unless Heber had been still
alive when the languages were multiplied, the language which was
preserved in his house would not have been called after him. We are
induced to believe that this was the primitive and common language,
because the multiplication and change of languages was introduced as a
punishment, and it is fit to ascribe to the people of God an immunity
from this punishment. Nor is it without significance that this is the
language which Abraham retained, and that he could not transmit it to
all his descendants, but only to those of Jacob's line, who
distinctively and eminently constituted God's people, and received
His covenants, and were Christ's progenitors according to the
flesh. In the same way, Heber himself did not transmit that language
to all his posterity, but only to the line from which Abraham sprang.
And thus, although it is not expressly stated, that when the wicked
were building Babylon there was a godly seed remaining, this
indistinctness is intended to stimulate research rather than to elude
it. For when we see that originally there was one common language,
and that Heber is mentioned before all Shem's sons, though he
belonged to the fifth generation from him, and that the language which
the patriarchs and prophets used, not only in their conversation, but
in the authoritative language of Scripture, is called Hebrew, when
we are asked where that primitive and common language was preserved
after the confusion of tongues, certainly, as there can be no doubt
that those among whom it was preserved were exempt from the punishment
it embodied. what other suggestion can we make, than that it survived
in the family of him whose name it took, and that this is no small
proof of the righteousness of this family, that the punishment with
which the other families were visited did not fall upon it?
But yet another question is mooted: How did Heber and his son Peleg
each found a nation, if they had but one language? For no doubt the
Hebrew nation propagated from Heber through Abraham, and becoming
through him a great people, is one nation. How, then, are all the
sons of the three branches of Noah's family enumerated as founding a
nation each, if Heber and Peleg did not so? It is very probable
that the giant Nimrod founded also his nation, and that Scripture has
named him separately on account of the extraordinary dimensions of his
empire and of his body, so that the number of seventy-two nations
remains. But Peleg was mentioned, not because he rounded a nation
(for his race and language are Hebrew), but on account of the
critical time at which he was born, all the earth being then divided.
Nor ought we to be surprised that the giant Nimrod lived to the time
in which Babylon was rounded and the confusion of tongues occurred,
and the consequent division of the earth. For though Heber was in the
sixth generation from Noah, and Nimrod in the fourth, it does not
follow that they could not be alive at the same time. For when the
generations are few, they live longer and are born later; but when
they are many, they live a shorter time, and come into the world
earlier. We are to understand that, when the earth was divided, the
descendants of Noah who are registered as founders of nations were not
only already born, but were of an age to have immense families, worthy
to be called tribes or nations. And therefore we must by no means
suppose that they were born in the order in which they were set down;
otherwise, how could the twelve sons of Joktan, another son of
Heber's, and brother of Peleg, have already founded nations, if
Joktan was born, as he is registered, after his brother Peleg,
since the earth was divided at Peleg's birth? We are therefore to
understand that, though Peleg is named first, he was born long after
Joktan, whose twelve sons had already families so large as to admit of
their being divided by different languages. There is nothing
extraordinary in the last born being first named: of the sons of
Noah, the descendants of Japheth are first named; then the sons of
Ham, who was the second son; and last the sons of Shem, who was the
first and oldest. Of these nations the names have partly survived, so
that at this day we can see from whom they have sprung, as the
Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but partly have been
altered in the lapse of time, so that the most learned men, by
profound research in ancient records, have scarcely been able to
discover the origin, I do not say of all, but of some of these
nations. There is, for example, nothing in the name Egyptians to
show that they are descended from Misraim, Ham's son, nor in the
name Ethiopians to show a connection with Gush, though such is said
to be the origin of these nations. And if we take a general survey of
the names, we shall find that more have been changed than have remained
the same.
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