Babylon And Philosophy

Et tradidit Dominus in manu eius Ioacim regem Iuda. Quodque traditus scribitur Ioacim, monstrat non adversariorum fortitudinis fuisse victoriam, sed Domini voluntatis. Et partem vasorum domus Dei, et asportavit ea in terram Sennaar, in domum Dei sui, et vasa intulit in domum thesauri Dei sui. Terra Sennaar locus est Babylonis in quo fuit campus Dura, et turris quam usque coelum hi qui ab Oriente moverant pedes suos, aedificare conati sunt. Unde et a confusione linguarum locus nomen accepit Babylon, quae in linguam nostram tranfertur confusio. Simul et animadvertendum secundum anagogen, quod rex Babylonis non potuerit universa Dei vasa transferre, et in idolio quod sibi finxerat collocare, sed partem vasorum domus Dei, quae intelligenda sunt dogmata veritatis. Si enim cunctos philosophorum revolvas libros, necesse est ut in eis reperias aliquam partem vasorum Dei. Ut apud Platonem, fabricatorem mundi Deum, ut apud Zenonem Stoicorum principem, inferos et immortales animas, et unum bonum, honestatem; sed quia iungunt mendacium veritati, et naturae bonum multis perdunt malis, ideo partem vasorum domus Dei, et non omnia vasa integra atque perfecta cepisse memorantur. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Daniel, Caput I Source:  Migne PL 25.498d-449a

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. 1 Since it is written that Jehoiakim was given, it shows that victory was not on account of the adversary's strength, but by the will of the Lord. And a part of the vessels of the Lord he brought to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he placed the vessels in the house of the treasury of his god. 1 The land of Shinar is a place of Babylon in which was plain of Dura and the tower which they tried to build to heaven, those ones who marched from the east. 2 Whence from the confusion of tongues the place received the name of Babylon, which translated into our tongue is 'confusion'. 3 At the same time one must attend to the anagogical meaning, that the king of Babylon was not able to bear off all the vessels of God, and having gathered them fashion them into idols for himself, but only a part of the vessels of the house of God, by which should be understood the teachings of truth. For if you should unroll all the works of the philosophers, it is inevitable that in them you shall find some part of the vessels of God. So in Plato there is a god who is the creator of the world, and in Zeno, the head of the Stoics, there are inferior and immortal souls, and one good, righteousness. But because they join a lie to truth and ruin the good of nature with many evils, therefore they are recorded as having seized only a part of the vessels of the house of God, and not every perfect and clean one. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 1 1 Dan 1.2 2 Gen 11.1-9 3 Understood presently to be from the native 'Bābilim', meaning 'gate of the god(s)'