(Gen. 11:8-9). IF GOD RESTED
FROM ALL HIS WORKS ON THE SEVENTH DAY, HOW DID SUCH A DIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES
SUDDENLY APPEAR?—Answer. It is not thought that the Creator made anything new
with this division of the languages, but he divided the manner and forms of
speech into various kinds of languages. Hence we will find the same syllables
and letters of identical force, albeit put together differently, in the various
languages of the nations, and often even the same nouns or verbs with one
meaning in one language, and another meaning in another. Where we say in the
Psalm in virga ferrea (“with a rod of iron”) (Ps. 2:9), the Greek has εν ραβδω σιδηρα (en rhabdo sidera), but in
Latin “sidera” does not mean “of iron” like in Greek, but “stars.” (Alcuin of
York, “Questions and Answers on Genesis,” trans. Sarah Van Der Pas, in Questions
and Answers on Genesis by Augustine, Ambrosiaster, and Alcuin, ed. John Litteral
[2018], 182)
