Did Our Languages Come From the “Tower of Babel”? - PART 2 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, DIFFERENT THINKING The Bible account says that at Babel, God acted to “confuse their language that they may not listen to [“understand,” footnote] one another’s language.” ( Genesis 11:7) As a result, the workers “left off building the city” of Babel and were scattered “over all the surface of the earth.” ( Genesis 11:8, 9) Thus, the Bible does not say that all modern languages can be traced to a single “mother tongue.” Rather, it describes the sudden appearance of several apparently fully developed new languages, each capable of expressing the range of human feeling and thought and each different and distinct from the others. GRUNTS OR COMPLEX SPEECH? What was mankind’s original language like? The Bible reports that the first man, Adam, was able to coin new words when he named all the animals and flying creatures. ( Genesis 2:20) Adam also composed poetry to express his feelings for his wife, and she clearly described what God had commanded and the consequences of disobeying Him. ( Genesis 2:23; 3:1-3) The first language, then, enabled humans to communicate fully and to express themselves creatively. The confusion of languages at Babel hindered mankind’s ability to combine their intellectual and physical powers. Yet, their new languages, like the first language, were complex. Within a few centuries, men built bustling cities, assembled powerful armies, and engaged in international trade. ( Genesis 13:12; 14:1-11; 37:25) Could they have made such progress without the use of an extensive vocabulary and grammar? According to the Bible, the original human tongue and the tongues introduced at Babel were, not primitive grunts and growls, but complex languages. Modern research supports this conclusion.The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language states: “Every culture which has been investigated, no matter how ‘primitive’ it may be in cultural terms, turns out to have a fully developed language, with a complexity comparable to those of the so-called ‘civilized’ nations.” Similarly, in his book The Language Instinct, Harvard College Professor Steven Pinker states: “There is no such thing as a Stone Age language.” THE FUTURE OF LANGUAGE After reviewing the age and location of linguistic “fossils,” the fundamental differences between language groups, and the complexity of ancient languages, what reasonable conclusion could we draw? Many conclude that the Bible’s account of what took place at Babel is a fully credible explanation. The Bible tells us that Jehovah God confused the people’s language at Babel because they rebelled against him. ( Genesis 11:4-7) However, he promised that he would “give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder.” ( Zephaniah 3:9) This “pure language,” the truth from God’s Word, draws together a people from around the world today. It seems logical that in the future God would unite mankind further by giving them one common language, undoing the confusion at Babel. LEGENDS THAT ECHO THE BIBLE’S ACCOUNT “Once upon a time all the people lived in one large village and spoke one tongue,” according to a story told by a hill tribe in Myanmar. While building a great tower, the builders “gradually acquired different manners, customs, and ways of speech, [eventually] being scattered all over the land.” Similar legends are found among indigenous peoples of Africa, East Asia, Mexico, and elsewhere. If the Babel account had been an invention by Moses, the Hebrew writer of Genesis, would it have cropped up in the legends of such far-flung national and language groups? That is very unlikely. Thus, the existence of such diverse legends and tales testifies to the credibility of the Babel account in the Bible.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 05:04:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015