If we look into secular explanations of where languages, written and oral, come from we’ll find a wide array of speculative answers, none of which are very satisfying, and maybe even a little confusing—this linguist believes this or that archaeologist believes that. In fact, if we look at the secular world-view of our origins, it is a messy, confusing, self-contradicting set of possibilities—not really any solid answers.
In Genesis Chapter 11, we have everyone speaking the same language (Gen 11:1). In rebellion against God, the people decide to stay where they are and build a city to honor themselves. As part of the construction project, the people start building a massive monument to “reach into heaven” (Gen 11:4; NASB).
God “comes down” (Gen 11:5) to see what the people are up to. When He sees that they have not spread across the face of the earth per His instructions, He confuses their language—what does that mean? One night they went to sleep all speaking Hebrew (probably not the Hebrew we know; we’ll talk about this later) and when they woke in the morning, some of them were speaking some form of ancient Chinese and others were speaking some African dialect with clicks, while others were speaking an old form of German, and so on.
The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language… Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Genesis 11:6,7; NASB
From this, the people that spoke the same language grouped together and migrated across the globe. In Genesis chapter 10, we have the table of nations—while this is laid out before chapter 11, Moses is explaining the origins of all the nations stemming from the “Babeling” of the languages.
But those languages have not remained the same, have they? Let’s just use English as an example: Old English is the oldest known form of English. In the mid-5th century, Angelo-Saxon settlers brought it to Great Britain; we have written works in Old English from the mid-7th century. In 1066, the Norman conquest changed Old English to Middle English, which sounds nothing like the English we speak today. Middle English lasted until 1500 A.D. Also, Middle English isn’t anything like the English used after 1500. How hard is it to read the King James Bible? It was published in 1611 (John Wyclif’s translation was published in 1382, check it out), and the English used there is close to what we use, but there are still passages where we think, “Huh?” Thank God for modern translations!
God confused the single language (by creating new languages) in Genesis 11, and all those languages have changed and blended, and are not what they were then. But all languages started from the Babel incident. When we start from the Bible, our understanding of things around us is much more simple and clear, right?
As always, trust in Jesus!