THE SLOW FALL OF BABEL This is the story of the transformation of the ways in which the increasingly Christianized elites of the late antique Mediterranean experiencedandconceptualizedlinguisticdifferences.Themetaphor ofBabelstandsforthemagnificentedificeofclassicalculturethatwas abouttoreachthesky,butremainedself-sufficientandself-contained in its virtual monolingualism – the paradigm within which even LatinwasoccasionallyconsideredjustadialectofGreek.Thegradual erosion of this vision is the slow fall of Babel that took place in the hearts and minds of a good number of early Christian writers and intellectuals who represented various languages and literary tradi- tions.Thisstep-by-stepprocessincludedamoreconsciousdiscovery and internalization of the fact of the existence of multiple other languagesintheworld,aswellassubsequentattemptstoincorporate their speakers meaningfully into the holistic and distinctly Christian picture ofthe universe.   is an Assistant Professor of Ancient History at Jacksonville State University. THE SLOW FALL OF BABEL Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity YULIYA MINETS JacksonvilleStateUniversity,Alabama UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia –,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India PenangRoad,#–/,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/ :./ ©YuliyaMinets Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthe writtenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. 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To the memory of my grandmothers Klara Nikolaevna Sazhneva and Maria Ivanovna Minets Contents Abbreviations page viii Acknowledgments x Introduction: Awakening to Linguistic Otherness   Meeting the Alloglottic Other: The Socio-Linguistic Landscape of the Ancient Mediterranean and the Spread of Christianity   Languages and Identities in Greco-Roman and Jewish Antiquity   The Tower of Babel and Beyond: The Primordial Linguistic Situation, the Original Language, and the Start of Linguistic Diversification   Speaking in Tongues in Christian Late Antiquity   Foreign Languages and the Discourse of Otherness   The Languages of Saints and Demons  Conclusion: What’s in the Language?  Bibliography  Index  vii Abbreviations ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. ,  vols., ed. Alexander Roberts et al. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Pub. Co., –) ANRW II. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte () und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung, ed. Hildegard Temporini. Series : Principat, Bd. : Sprache und Literatur, ed. Wolfgang Haase (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, ) BHG Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca,  vols., ed. F. Halkin (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, ) CCSG Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca (Turnhout: Brepols, –) CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout: Brepols, –) CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Leuven, –) CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna, –) DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers GCS Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte (Leipzig, –) GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies JRS Journal of Roman Studies JTS Journal of Theological Studies LCL Loeb Classical Library (London; Cambridge MA, –) LXX Septuagint (ed. John W. Wevers) viii