WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

fable”—as in reading the Sibyl’s myth we can see that the universality of the divine will is
unable to be fashioned through human representation. The hubris behind the building of Babel
above all points to a misunderstanding of the divine authority—to the unwise thinking that God’s
authority comes from a unity that could be represented in one man and not through the silence of
dispersal. When Nimrod builds Babel, he directs his anger towards God’s oppression while
misunderstanding the nature of his sovereignty. He does this in two ways. First, he fashions one
building (and one polity) which would bind all humans to one another in a joint project—against
the divine command to multiply. Second, he attempts to make humanity resemble one image and
one tower whereas the divine will operates in inexpressible silence and confusion.
However, as Gower’s own involvement with Babylonian imagery has shown, the hubris
behind speaking for God is not simply an ethical directive—it is above all an articulation of a
political moment. A quick glance at the story of Babel in Genesis shows how Josephus uses the
figure of Nimrod to translate what is a problem of identity into explicit political terms:
Erat autem terra labii unius et sermonum eorundem. Cumque proficiscerentur de oriente
invenerunt campum in terra Sennaar et habitaverunt in eo. Dixitque alter ad proximum suum
venite faciamus lateres et coquamus eos igni habueruntque lateres pro saxis et bitumen pro
cemento. Et dixerunt venite faciamus nobis civitatem et turrem cuius culmen pertingat ad caelum
et celebremus nomen nostrum antequam dividamur in universas terras. Descendit autem Dominus
ut videret civitatem et turrem quam aedificabant filii Adam. Et dixit ecce unus est populus et unum
labium omnibus coeperuntque hoc facere nec desistent a cogitationibus suis donec eas opere
conpleant. Venite igitur descendamus et confundamus ibi linguam eorum ut non audiat
unusquisque vocem proximi sui. Atque ita divisit eos Dominus ex illo loco in universas terras et
cessaverunt aedificare civitatem et idcirco vocatum est nomen eius Babel quia ibi confusum est
labium universae terrae et inde dispersit eos Dominus super faciem cunctarum regionum.
However the earth was of one tongue and of the same speech. And when they set out from the
Orient, they found a field in the land of Shinaar and they lived in it. And the other said to his
neighbor, come let us make bricks, and let us bake them by fire, and they had bricks for stones and
pitch for cement. And they said come, let us make a city and tower for us of which the top touches
to the heaven, and let us celebrate our name before we are divided in all the lands. However the
Lord descended so as to see the city and tower which the sons of Adam were building. And he
said, look at that, the people is one, and [they have] one language for all, and they have begun to
make this, and they will not desist from their thoughts until they complete these works. Therefore,
come, let us go down and confuse their tongues there so that no one hears the voice of his
neighbor. And so the Lord divided them from this place into all the lands, and they ceased to build
the city, and therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the tongue of the whole earth was
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