No 6

(Human Language)

The origin of human language - the ability of men and women to communication with one another in intelligent, symbolic, often abstract speech and writing is a complete mystery. The World Book Encyclopedia states,  “No one knows how language began because all people who are not disabled have the ability to speak; language has probably existed as long the human species” (Vol 12 p. 65). “No languageless community has ever been found” - Atlas of Languages, New York, NY p 10. There are approximately 6000 languages spoken on the planet and linguists say that they evolved from 100 “families of languages”. That is not too difficult to imagine, right? However, The Bible says in Genesis 11 :1 that the whole earth was of “one language and of one speech”. So where did the languages come from?? There is really only one answer and as simple as it may sound, it has never been challenged. The origin of human language is traced back to the Tower of Babel as discribed in Genesis 11 :1-9. But, for a moment, let’s try and rationalise. Let’s pretend that a race of people who already spoke a certain language decided to invent; let’s say… the English language (English, of course comes from the Germanic family). What should they have done? They would’ve had to invent new words that never before existed to say the same things that they were saying in their own language. Why would any race of people do that? It makes no sense; languages are passed down from generation to generation and that’s how it has been for thousands of years. There have been several attempts (600 languages) over the centuries to have a universal language that would be spoken by all the nations of the world. Esperanto was the most successful. Approximately 10 million people have learned this langauge since it was invented in 1887 and approximately 2 million speak this language today. The Lord said to Moses when He asked him to go to His people in Egypt - “Who hath made man’s mouth or who maketh the dumb, or the deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord?” (Exod 4 :11). If we believe the Bible for our salvation, the Bible can be trusted in that languages came from the Lord at the tower of Babel.