[65] But the sons of earth have turned the steps of the mind out of the path of reason and transmuted it into the lifeless and inert nature of the flesh. For “the two became one flesh” as says the lawgiver (Gen. 2:24). Thus they have debased the coin of truest metal and deserted from their post, left a place that was better for a worse, a place amid their own people for a place amid their foes. It was Nimrod who began this desertion.
[66] For the lawgiver says “he began to be a giant on the earth” (Gen. 10:8), and his name means “desertion.” To that most wretched of souls it was not enough to stand neutral, but he went over to the enemy, took up arms against his friends and withstood them in open war. And therefore to Nimrod Moses ascribes Babylon as the beginning of his kingdom. Now the name Babylon means alteration, a thought akin to desertion both in name and fact, for with every deserter change and alteration of purpose are the first steps. And so the conclusion would follow which Moses, holiest of men, lays down that, even as the wicked man is an exile without home or city or settlement, so also he is a deserter,
[67] while the good man is the staunchest of comrades. For the present sufficient has been said about the giants. Let us turn to the words which follow in the text.