События в восьмом столетии третьего тысячелетия

After the death of Noah, his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons lived for quite a long time near the Ararat Mountains in the eastern Armenian country. When they multiplied into such a great multitude that they were already cramped in that country, they rose from the east and went, looking for more spacious and fertile land for their settlement, so as not to feel constrained by their multitude and have an abundance of earthly goods. Going to the country to which Arphaxad had retired with his tribe before them, they found a field, a flat and vast place in the land, later called the land of Senaar (which was then also called Chaldea and Babylonia), and settled there between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in beautiful and fruitful places. People, having moved to another place (from Armenia to Senaar), changed their previous way of life to another: for they forgot the admonitions of the forefather Noah and the flood execution that came from God, sent to the first people for their sins, which they heard about from their fathers, and deviated into evil deeds and nasty iniquities. As before the flood, as long as Adam and Seth were alive, until then the “sons of God” (the tribe of Seth) by their name and spent their lives pleasing God, as sons to their father, and when Adam and Seth died, the sons of God no longer became God’s, but sons of the opposite, falling into many iniquities, just like after the flood, as long as Noah was alive and ruled virtuously over humanity born as the father and ruler of all, until then people lived in the fear of God, and when Noah died, they threw away the fear of God and followed their lusts until they provoked God to anger and were scattered to all ends of the earth with their languages divided. Then “the whole earth has one mouth, and one voice for all; and the man said to his friend: Come, let us make plinths and bake them with fire; and let us build ourselves a city and a pillar, the top of which will reach to heaven, and let us make a glorious name for ourselves, before we are even scattered across the face of the whole earth (Gen. 11; 1, 3, 4). They took up their work and for them there were plinths (bricks) instead of stones, and clay (mountain resin) instead of chalk. However, this work of theirs was not pleasing to God, since they began with pride and not for the glory of God, but for the glorification of their name, for they were careless about the name of God, but heeded their own greatness. The leader in this disgraceful deed was the aforementioned son of Hus and grandson of Ham, Nevrod, an Ethiopian and a giant. It was He who prompted everyone to pandemonium, proclaiming to people what was contrary to God, calling Him cruel and unmerciful to the human race, since in the days of their fathers He brought a flood across the face of the whole earth and destroyed everything that lived on it, from man to livestock, beast and bird. Nevrod told the people: “What will we do if God wants a second time, as before, to bring a flood to destroy us, as He destroyed the first people? Hear therefore my advice, O people! Come, let us build a great and high tower, reaching to heaven; and when God wants to cover the earth again with a flood, at that time we will ascend the tower and escape the flood. Let us also build a city by the tower, so that we will not be far from it; for when the flood waters begin to approach, we will easily reach the tower, being near it, and thus God will not be able to destroy us with the waters. Let us be glorious for the sake of the tower and the city, and our memory will be forever.” When the proud Ethiopian Nevrod spoke thus, people, like madmen, quicker to evil than to good, listened to this insane and ungodly advice and obeyed Nevrod as their boss, and began the building. Thus the tribes of Shem and Japheth became opposed to God and destroyed their freedom by enslaving themselves to the slave tribe of Ham - Nevrod; for they all obeyed him as their lord and master, and did all the works that he commanded them. Eber, one of the forefathers of Christ, the son of Salah, the grandson of Cainan, the great-grandson of Arphaxad and the great-great-grandson of Shem, he alone was a righteous husband and a true worshiper of God and, together with his tribe, did not deign to do this ungodly deed and separated from them. They, in their useless construction of the tower, worked for forty years and raised its height above the clouds, but could not finish their work and complete their intention. For the Lord came down and confused their languages ​​into seventy-one languages, and the seventy-second language remained the language of the Evers, which received its origin from Adam. Since Eber was not an associate of the creators of the tower, therefore the language of the forefathers in him and his tribe was preserved intact, and from that time his tribe was nicknamed the Jews, and the language received the name of the Hebrew language. The number of divided tongues corresponded to the number of tribes of princes, who each ruled over their own tribe when the tower was built, for there were seventy-one of them, and above them was Nevrod as ruler, king and lord. When the confusion of languages ​​took place, no one began to understand what the other was saying: some of the creators ordered to bring stones, and they brought water, others ordered to bring bricks, and they brought them clay or some other substance. And they became terrible and seemed to have gone mad, for fear fell upon them from the invisible coming of the Lord, and they rushed down from the height of the tower in trepidation. At the same time, at God's command, a strong wind arose, and a storm began, which destroyed most of the tower and killed many of those who showed the greatest zeal in building this tower. So people stopped what they were doing and realized God’s indignation, and looked for one another who could understand what was being said to others. After this, this place and city was nicknamed “Babylon,” which means “confusion” or “confusion,” for there the Lord confused sinful people and confused their languages; that country also began to be called Babylonia. After this confusion and confusion, people dispersed throughout the universe, each to his own part, determined by the forefather Noah. The Shem tribes, descended from the sons and grandsons of Shem, scattered throughout Asia in the eastern countries. The Japheth tribes occupied Europe, the western and northern countries. Ham's tribe partly withdrew to the southern countries of Africa, and partly remained in Asia, Shem's heritage, under Nevrod, who, however, although he was filled with much shame, since his advice was not carried out, and the work he had begun was ruined, however, as an adversary to God, he did not leave there, but with his closest relatives stayed there, living in the city of Babylon, expelling Shem's tribe from that Babylonian country. The Lord not only confused human languages, but also changed the beauty of the human image in many, barely leaving the human likeness in them. For from these creators of the tower, disturbed by the wrath of God, various evil-like generations arose, like degenerates of human nature, half-beasts and half-people, about which we will say something here. Firstly, in various places in the mountains and deserts, creatures with a human likeness appeared, called forest people, or satyrs, living with animals, naked, shaggy, with goat legs and with horns on their heads. They are so fast that no animal can catch up with the satyr, unless he is sick or old. Then there are hippodons, or hippocentaurs, who have a human head and chest, and the rest of the whole body, like a horse, has legs and a horse’s tail. These humanoid creatures are written about in the life of St. Paul of Thebes. One day, Anthony the Great went deep into the desert to find the saint of God, Paul. There was great heat at noon, and the old man was exhausted in body, but was cheerful in spirit and did not return from the journey he had taken. If he did not know where to go, he strengthened himself by saying: “I believe in my God that He will show me His servant whom He promised to show.” After a short time he saw a man like a horse, whom poets call a hippocentaur. Seeing this, the elder armed himself with the saving sign of the cross and boldly asked: “Listen, in what place does the servant of God live?” The beast bowed down at the words of the saint and, unable to speak with a voice, showed with his hand the direction in which it was necessary to go to the servant of God, and quickly ran away from the Monk Anthony. The elder was amazed at the vision of this beast and went where it was indicated. Arriving at a certain rocky place, the elder saw another beast, which was also similar to a man to the floor, but the rest of his body was brutal - the legs of a goat and the horns on his head. The elder was amazed when he saw him, but, armed with unshakable faith, he asked without fear, saying: “Who are you?” The beast, bringing a date fruit as a pledge of peace, said: “I am one of the mortals living in the desert, whom people darkened by delusion call satyrs and honor as one of their gods; I was sent on behalf of my flock to beg you to pray for us to the common Lord, who, when He came into the world, was known by us, and “His message went out into all the earth” (Ps. 18:5). When the beast spoke this, the weary hermit wetted his face with tears with joy, rejoicing at the glory of Christ and the destruction of Satan, and at the same time amazed at how he was able to understand the speech of the satyr. Hitting the ground with his staff, the monk said: “Woe to you, city of Alexandria, for you worship monsters instead of God! Woe to you, prodigal city, in which demons from all over the world have gathered! What answer will you give when even the animals confess the power of Christ, and you consider the forest monsters to be gods?” When the saint said this, the beast ran into the desert. Regarding this beast, let no one think that this is incorrect, since under King Constantius such a humanoid beast, called a satyr, was brought alive to Alexandria, to the great surprise of all the people. When he died, his body, so that it would not rot, was salted with salt and sent to Antioch to the king, so that through him it would be known to others. Androgynes, or hermaphrodites, - each of them has both natures, male and female; Their nipples are male on the right and female on the left. Arimaspi - they have only one eye in the middle of their forehead and constantly wage war with vultures over beads and gold: what the vultures dig up in the mountains, these Arimaspi forcibly take away from them. Astromas - they live in the far reaches of India, have no lips at all, do not eat or drink anything, but only live by inhaling vegetable incense through their nostrils, and the smell of vegetable smell serves as their nutrition. Tanefs - their ears are so large that they cover their entire body. Neuros - they sometimes turn into a wolf for a while and eat the person they catch. Pygmies are very small people, only one cubit tall; live in the mountains of India; They are not long-lived: their wives give birth in the fifth year, and in the eighth year they grow old. These pygmies ride on sheep and goats and shoot from small bows. They have a constant war with the cranes over food, because the cranes eat what the pygmies sow. In view of this, in the spring, the pygmies, having gathered in a great regiment, go with their weapons to the shore of the Ocean Sea, near which their land is located, look for crane nests there and eat their eggs and chicks, so that the cranes, having multiplied, do not overcome them. Cyclops, or veletni - their home is indicated by the Greek poet Virgil in Sicily, under Mount Etna; they are said (as well as the Arimaspians) to have only one eye on their forehead. Manticores live in India and have only the head and face of a man, the rest of their body is that of a lion. In the same countries of India, there are many other humanoid monsters that have neither a head nor a neck, since their eyes are located on the sides and their mouths are in the mouth. There is also another humanoid monster found in the deserts - it is called a kypocephalus; he has the head of a dog, and he makes a terrible gnashing of teeth. Ikochkodan, or pifik, has a partial human resemblance. In heaven there are many other similar monsters that have a human likeness; according to the Western teacher Augustine, they, like us, descended from the forefather Noah, but since the time of the pandemonium they have destroyed the beauty of the human image and the mind, confused by the wrath of God. From that time on, they became not perfect people, but half-beasts and monsters. And this is not surprising, since something similar happened in subsequent times, for Nebuchadnezzar turned into an ox, and Tiridates into a boar, when the execution of God came upon them. Also, among babies being born, sometimes there are certain monsters who, if they were educated and grew up, would give birth to children similar to themselves. So, from all that has been said, it can be understood that when people were thrown into confusion during the pandemonium and many of them destroyed their minds as a result of the wrath of God, they lost the blessing to give birth to ordinary human offspring, as a result of which such ugly degenerates arose from their childbirth, and multiplied, just as before the flood, evil-shaped giants were born from the corrupted sons of God, who were an undoubted evidence of wrath God and executions. From here begins a double history: external church, or civil At the time when the confusion of languages occurred, Eber, having been 134 years old from his birth, gave birth to a son and called his name Peleg, which means “division,” for in his days the earth was divided. Then other sons and daughters were born to him (Gen. 11:16–17). Civil history: the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom and the Assyrian monarchy The proud Ethiopian and giant Nevrod first began in Babylon to exalt his power over people, conquering and enslaving all the surrounding inhabitants, and forcing those who did not want to obey him through torture. He committed violence and murder, and that country trembled with fear of him. He was the first among people to call himself a king and ruled over the people not in a fatherly way, but in a tormenting way. Those who from the beginning were rulers in human generations, like Adam, Seth and Enos before the flood, and Noah after the flood, were not called kings, but fathers, for they ruled their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in a paternal manner. Nevrod was not a father, but a tormentor, persecutor, rapist and predator. That is why in the Holy Scripture he is called a hunter: not because he caught animals, but because he captured free people into his subjection and slavery and stole their property, appropriating the property of others. At this time, Shem's son Assur, being constrained by Nevrod, withdrew from Babylonia as an exile from his inheritance, and went to the upper reaches of the Tigris River. There he found good land, settled on it and created a city near the Tigris River, calling it Assuria after his own name, from which the whole country began to be called Assyria. But then the city of Assuria was renamed Nineveh, in the name of Ninovo, who expanded this city, renovated it and decorated it with magnificent buildings. The Holy Scripture mentions this city in the following words: “From that land (Babylon) Assur went forth and created Nineveh” (Gen. 10:11). Scripture mentions Assyria as the first founder of the city, and Nineveh because it was the most glorious name of this city. At the same time, after the division of languages, the remaining sons of the sons of Noah and their grandsons scattered throughout the face of the earth, created glorious cities for themselves and founded kingdoms, about which ample has been written in various chronographs. You might be interested in: