Shem, Sons of Noah. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Shem' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
In part 70 of the analysis, we analyzed Katz's and Zeller's names in an attempt to determine their heritage. We concluded that Katz represents a descendant of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah.[a] In Book 16 of City of God, Augustine discusses the line of Shem. From chapter 10:
Of the genealogy of Shem, in whose line the City of God is preserved until the time of Abraham
It is necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of generations descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the city of God after the flood; as before the flood it was exhibited in the series of generations descending from Seth [the third son of Adam and Eve]. And therefore does divine Scripture, after exhibiting the earthly city as Babylon or "Confusion," revert to the patriarch Shem, and recapitulate the generations from him to Abraham, specifying besides, the year in which each father begat the son that belonged to this line, and how long he lived...
When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two nations [the nations of the descendants of Noah], we cannot affirm that while they had but one lip, that is, one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God, and that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations which descend from Shem through Arphaxad and reach to Abraham; but from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only disguised before, or non-existent; whether both cities remained after the flood,—the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed, and in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son [Ham] and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord [Nimrod],—is not easily determined. For possibly—and certainly this is more credible—there were despisers of God among the descendants of the two sons, even before Babylon was founded, and worshipers of God among the descendants of Ham. (emphasis not in original).
Recalling the common 'raham' in 'Graham' and 'Abraham', Will's presence indicates, at a metaphorical level within the movie, that the time of Abraham has come.
a. We also determined that Zeller represents a descendant of Japheth, one of Shem's brothers.
City of God (Dods)
