Definitions One positive step in moving from differences to agreement is to agree upon the definition of terms being used. Since we are writing in English, the following is taken from an English dictionary.
1. "name, n. the mere word by which anything is called, as distinguished from reality."
2. "reality, n. the state or fact of being real, having actual existence."
By these definitions, we see that the "name" or "the mere word by which anything is called" is not the "reality" of the thing itself. The "thing" or "person" exists apart from the "name". In Gen. 1 and 2, we see the creation of all forms of life upon the earth. They "existed"; they were "finished" (Gen. 2:1) and God described them as being "very good" (Gen. 1:31). They had "existence" but they did not have "names" until later. "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call (qara) them: and whatsoever Adam called (qara) every living creature, that was the name (shem) thereof. And Adam gave names (shem) to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field;..." (Gen. 2:19-20).
God existed before there were men to argue, in various languages, about how His name should be called in the various languages of men (Gen. 1:1). Long after there are any physical humans to pronounce any word in any language (Rev. 21:4), He will still exist (Psa. 45:6).In the physical world, men produce physical sounds and assign to those sounds, various meanings, for the purpose of speech or communication. Written symbols are used to represent those sounds so that communication can be accomplished without vocalization. Sounds or combinations of sounds, which have been assigned a meaning, are called "words". Meaningless sound is called "noise". Originally there was only one language on the earth (Gen. 11:1), with one set of words, used to convey meaningful thoughts or feelings.
What exactly do all these "words" mean? Understanding the specific meanings is critical to any meaningful discussion of language and communication."word, n. a speech sound or combination of speech sounds or its representation, used as the smallest unit of meaningful communication by language; any single linguistic unit that forms a grammatical part of speech..."
"communication, n. the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writing or signs; that which is communicated or imparted..."
"speech, n. the faculty or power of expressing thoughts and emotions by articulated sounds and words."
"speak, v. to make communication or disclosure by any means; convey significance; to utter words..."
"sound, n. the sensations produced in the organs of hearing by certain vibrations or sound waves conveyed by the atmosphere, water, or other elastic medium; (phonetically) any one of the simple elements that compose vocal utterance; mere noise without meaning."
"noise, n. a sound or sounds of a loud, confused or discordant kind." Meaningless sound.
"meaning, n. the intention of a verbal expression; what is to be understood, signification, as of words; significance or import..."
"meaningful, adj., of significance; of value; filled with meaning..."
"language, n., (from Latin, lingua, the tongue) a system of communication between humans through written and vocal symbols; speech peculiar to an ethnic, national, or cultural group; words especially employed in any activity, branch of knowledge or profession; by extension, the articulate or inarticulate expression of thought and feeling by living creatures..."
From all this, we see that the basic unit is "sound" which is merely "noise" unless it has some "meaning". If a sound or combination of sounds has meaning, it is called a "word" and "words" are sounds which we use to "communicate information" verbally or by written symbols "within a particular language".
Nouns are words which name a person, place or thing. Verbs are words which show action. Adjectives describe nouns and adverbs describe verbs. These are linked together with prepositions, conjunctions, and articles (a, an, the). Pronouns are substitutes for nouns. These eight parts of speech form the bulk of our communications. Names are nouns, but they are also descriptive in nature.All this is based upon "sounds", generated by the human vocal chords and "heard" by the human ear. Outside of the earth's atmosphere, the human voice makes no "sound" and the human ear, hears no "sound" (unless one is in a pressurized spacecraft or suit). Outside of the earth's atmosphere, God still exists as a reality. However, the "sound" of His name, as made by the human voice, or heard by the human ear, does not exist. This illustrates that the name is something other than the reality of the thing itself.
Another example is the worship of "Zeus", "Athena", "Thor", "Hermes" and other Greek "gods". Even though people built altars for them and worshiped their names, the reality was that they had no real existence outside of vain imagination. Their names represented human thought and imagination, but not reality. Names are separate from the reality. Otherwise we would have a problem with the OT since so many called themselves with the "name" of God, using "-yah" and "-jah", not to mention all the Israelites, whom God says are "called by my name". We would also have a problem with the NT, since so many NT Christians had personal names of popular Greek gods. (See "The Pagan Objection" elsewhere in this article.)"A name is a created thing, which God commands us not to worship. We are commanded to worship God, not his name. When we ascribe power to a name, we are ascribing power to something that was created, not to its creator. A name has no significance or meaning without the person. A name only serves to identify. Names and titles applied to God describe his attributes, character, and being. Those who call on a name or title as the way to salvation should read Matthew 7:21-22 and Luke 6:46, which speak of people who call upon and appropriate the name of the Lord but do not do the things that he commands. "
(Source: http://www.bibleresearch.org/law/sacredname.html).
Only "one language"...Gen. 11:1 The world began with only one language, but that was changed at the Tower of Babel.
"And the whole earth was of one language (8193), and of one speech (1697)." (Gen. 11:1).
"And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language (8193);..." (verse 6).
"Go to, let us go down, and there confound (1101) their language (8193), that they may not understand one another's speech (8193)." (verse 7).
"Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound (1101) the language (8193) of all the earth:..." (verse 9)."8193. saphah, saw-faw'; or sepheth, sef-eth';...the lip...: by implication language;..."
"1697. dabar, daw-baw';...a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; ...speech..."
"1101. balal, baw-lal'; a prim. root; to overflow (spec. with oil); by impl. to mix;...confound,mingle, mix, temper..."
Notice that this account does not say that other languages were "added", or "created". It does not say that the original "one language" was preserved by any group of people.
What it does say is that the "one language" was "mixed", resulting in "many languages" and the people being scattered "abroad upon the face of all the earth." (verse 9).
After Adam, this is the first miracle of the gift of tongues and of the interpretation of tongues, as most, if not all, people suddenly began speaking and understanding new languages.Some who choose to use "Hebrew names" speculate that biblical Hebrew was the original "one language" of Genesis. According to scholars qualified to comment on the subject of ancient languages, and according to the archaeological record, such speculation is in error. The Tower of Babel dates to approximately 2247 BC. Charts of the Semitic language family show a number of languages predating biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The following is an example:
*Eastern Semitic:
Old Akkadian 2500-2000 BC Old Assyrian Akkadian Old Babylonian 2000-1500 BC Middle Assyrian Middle Babylonian 1500-1000 BC
* Western Semitic:
Eblaite 2400 BC Armoite 18th c. BC Ugaritic (Ras Shamra) 1450-1200 BC Early Canaanite 14th c. BC (Canaanite) (Aramaic) Hebrew (Classical/Biblical) 1200-200 BC Old Aramaic dialects 10th-7th c. BC Classical/Imperial Aramaic (includes Biblical Aramaic) 7th-3rd c. BC (W. Aramaic) (E. Aramaic) Jewish Palestinian Aramaic 150 BC-4th c. AD Hatrene 1st c. BC- 3rd c. AD Hebrew, Mishnaic 1st c. - 4th c. AD Syriac 3rd - 13th c. AD Samaritan 4th c. AD Babylonian Aramiac 4th -6th c. AD Christian Palestinian Aramaic 5th - 8th c. AD Medieval Hebrew Modern Hebrew (* Source: Language (OT), The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Tyndale, Vol. 2, page 877.)
These languages are cognates within the Semitic family, but not dialects of one another. For example, Spanish and French are "cognate" Latin languages. They belong to the same family but are still different languages, neither of which were spoken by Caesar (ruler when Latin was the 'official language' of the Empire).
Something that is overlooked in the theory of Hebrew as the 'original' language of man, is that languages are named after the groups which speak them. Groups are not named after the language which they speak. Abraham was a descendent of Eber (for which the Israelites and Jews were called 'Hebrews'. But if Abraham had spoken 'Hebrew', his friends and neighbors in his native land of Ur couldn't have understood him. The Hebrew language was the tongue of the Israelite nation coming out of Egypt in 1491 BC. That nation didn't exist when Jacob took his clan of 72 people into Egypt. Hebrew didn't exist as a language in Palestine until the Israelites arrived under Joshua (c.1451 BC). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each headed up a small family living in a land where the natives spoke Canaanite languages and the international language of Akkadian. (See "Languages of Abram" below).More Than "One Language" The Ugaritic and Canaanite languages predate Biblical Hebrew and archaeology reveals some rather interesting information about their culture.
"Ugarit, Ras Shamra. This important trade centre flourished as the capital of a city-state in N Syria throughout the second millennium BC....The site, known as Ras Shamra ('Fennel Hill') lies" [approximately in the middle of Syria's seacoast]...and about "15 kilometers N of Latiakia [Al Ladhiqiyah]. Excavations were begun in 1929 after a peasant had uncovered a tomb on the sea coast in what proved to be the port of Ugarit, ancient Ma'hadu (now Minet el-Beida). C.F.A. Schaeffer directed a team of French archaeologists for many years (1929-39, 1948-73), and the work continues. Occupation from pre-pottery Neolithic (c. 6500 BC) to Roman times has been traced in fifteen levels. Among major buildings cleared are two temples, one dedicated to El (...c. 2100 BC) and associated by the excavator with the Amorites. An enormous palace, over 900 meters square [2,952 feet], was the major building of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1180 BC). Houses of officials, scribes and a high priest living in the same time were also uncovered. The city had been sacked, perhaps by the Sea People (Philistines) soon after 1200 BC, so many objects lay buried in the ruins.
A vivid picture of Ugarit's wealth and trading connections can be built up on the evidence of pottery and ivory carvings imported from Crete and Greece, and of Egyptian and Babylonian products and things from Asia Minor an Cyprus, as well as the first local 'Canaanite' work in gold and silver, bronze and stone so far unearthed. Most important of all is the large number of written documents recovered from the palace and various houses. Egyptian, Cypriot and Hittite writing systems were all known in the city, but Babylonian cuneiform was the most commonly used. The scribes learnt this writing in Ugarit, and some of their exercises and references books survive. They copied Babylonian literature, or composed their own variations of it. Examples include an account of the Flood, a story about Gilgamesh, and a unique version of the 'Babylonian Job'. There are also proverbs, riddles, and love-lyrics. A hymn in Hurrian has notes which provide clues to its musical accompaniment.... Babylonian was not the scribes' native language, so beside the standard lists of Sumerian and Akkadian words, they compiled others giving equivalents in their own W Semitic language ('Ugaritic') and in Hurrian, another current tongue. These lists are of great value for our understanding of the lesser-known languages. Babylonian was used in daily life for business and administration in the temples, the palace and the big houses. It was the international diplomatic language, so was used for writing treaties....
Ugaritic is closely related to Hebrew and has broadened appreciation of the language of the OT in many ways. [ In other words, Ugaritic has helped us understand some subsequent Hebrew idioms.] It is necessary to realize, however, that the languages are not identical, so what is true of one may not be applied automatically to the other." (Source: Ugarit, Ras Shamra, The Illustrated Bible Dict., Tyndale, Vol. 3, pp. 1605-1609).Names Index / Next
