Undoing Babel: The Tower of Babel in Anglo-Saxon Literature by Tristan Major (review)

Reviewed by: Undoing Babel: The Tower of Babel in Anglo-Saxon Literature by Tristan Major Jodi Grimes Undoing Babel: The Tower of Babel in Anglo-Saxon Literature. By Tristan Major. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4875-0054-2. Pp. ix + 289. $54.00. Only a few verses comprise the Tower of Babel narrative in the book of Genesis (Gen. 11:1–9), yet along with the Table of Nations (Gen. 10), the account raises significant questions concerning human nature, God's interactions with humanity, technological advance, and socio-linguistic diversity. The story itself tells of a monolingual people building a tower to reach the heavens only to be thwarted by God, who by "confusing" (Gen. 11:7) their language compels them to spread across the earth in new people groups. The text thus explains the presence of the many languages and nations that develop in the postdiluvian world. Undoing Babel reminds readers of an ancient Hebrew narrative that yet retains its relevance as global challenges increasingly require agreement across cultural-linguistic divides. Tristan Major, an assistant professor at Qatar University, analyzes interpretations of the story through the late Anglo-Saxon period. Examining the reception history of the Babel narrative as it peregrinates to Anglo-Saxon England, Major compares its treatments against the source texts and alongside contemporaneous treatments in historical context to explain how and to what effect the story is interpreted over time. In so doing, the book offers readers a delightful overview of the major authors, texts, and events that shape ideology and theological reform from ancient Judea and early Christian Rome to late Anglo-Saxon England. Major begins his book by citing the relevant passages from the English Revised Standard Version-Genesis 9:28–29, 10:1–32, and 11:1–9–and then opens his introduction with Archbishop Wulfstan's well-known diatribe against paganism. Moving chronologically in seven chapters starting with early Jewish and Christian writings, the book ends with a chapter on the Junius 11 manuscript and a conclusion. This study builds on the work of other scholars, notably Arno Borst (Der Turmbau von Babel: Geschichte der Meinungen über Ursprung and Vielfalt der Sprachen und Völker, 4 vols., 1957-1963), Daniel Anlezark (Water and Fire: The Myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon England, 2006), Bruce R. O'Brien (Reversing Babel: Translation among the English during an Age of Conquests, c. 800 to c. 1200, 2011), and Andrew Scheil (Babylon under Western Eyes: A Study of Allusion and Myth, 2016). Undoing Babel is unique in that it surveys the Genesis account's reception history through the Anglo-Saxon period. Chapter 1, "Early Jewish and Christian Antiquity," overviews the earliest presentations of the Table of Nations and Babel accounts. Compiled within the first five books of Hebrew Scriptures around 500 BCE (28), the [End Page 457] biblical text "does present a strong sense of land entitlement and illicit encroachment" by Ham's descendants (29), which may be why early Jewish authors focus on tripartite divisions in the nations descending from Noah's three sons. Major examines the Dead Sea Genesis Apocryphon, the book of Jubilees, and Josephus's Antiquitates Iudaicae to demonstrate how these writers emphasize ethnology and geography. Josephus's exegesis, Major observes, "emphasize[s] God's wish for the people to colonize the earth" (37). Moving to Christian writers, Major scrutinizes the work of Tertullian, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, and finally, Augustine, who views "the biblical text as both a literal account that informs the ethnic and linguistic diversity in the world, and an allegorical account that informs the struggle of good and evil in the world" (49). The second chapter, "Latin Christian Antiquity," demonstrates how authors employ the biblical text to forge a Christian identity, to establish Christian connections genealogically to the Jewish people, and in some cases, "to demonize heretical groups or wrong-doers in general" (55). Augustine, stressing the importance of humilitas (69) in contrast to the pride demonstrated at Babel, connects Nimrod with "pride. . . wickedness . . . paganism and heresy" (56). This section also shows how early Christian theologians bookend "the diversity of Babel" with "Pentecostal unity" (66). Pope Gregory, consistent with his...

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