What was the Language of Adam.
Jeff Unsworth
What was the Language of Adam and Eve? (Jeff Unsworth)
The language that God conversed with Adam is not clear in the scriptures.
It could have been an audible language or it could have been a still small voice, as was spoken to Elijah in 1 Kings.
However, Adam did have a language and he used that language to name the animals and his wife Eve.
According to Moses, who wrote Genesis, Adam named his wife Eve, (Hebrew “ish”) Gen 3:20 because she was the mother of all living (Hebrew “Chavah”).
These two words only make sense in Hebrew.
Of course, by the time of Moses, the Adamic language could have developed and these were the words that Moses used to explain the account of Genesis. (This would be an ancient Hebrew tongue)
So Adam spoke a language, “Adamic”.
However, was this an ancient Hebrew tongue?
Adam and Eve had numerous children and each one lived to quite a good age.
We know that before the flood of Noah, the climate was completely different than it is today and enabled men to have a greater longevity.
Seth, Adam’s third son was born when Adam was 130 years old.
Genesis 5:8 records that Seth was 912 years old when he died. “And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died”.
This was 1042 years after creation.
Seth would have spoken his father’s language, whatever it was.
If my math is correct.
The dates of biblical events from Creation.
God created everything. Genesis 1–2
0
Adam became the father of Seth at 130. Genesis 5:3
0 + 130 = 130
Seth became the father of Enosh at 105. Genesis 5:6
130 + 105 = 235
Enosh became the father of Kenan at 90. Genesis 5:9
235 + 90 = 325
Cainan became the father of Mahalalel at 70. Genesis 5:12
325 + 70 = 395
Mahalalel became the father of Jared at 65. Genesis 5:15
395 + 65 = 460
Jared became the father of Enoch at 162. Genesis 5:18
460 + 162 = 622
Enoch became the father of Methuselah at 65. Genesis 5:21
622 + 65 = 687
Methuselah became the father of Lamech at 187 Genesis 5:25
687 + 187 = 874
Lamech became the father of Noah at 182. Genesis 5:28
874 + 182 = 1056
The Flood started when Noah was 600. Genesis 7:6
1056 + 600 = 1656
Noah was born 1056 years after creation, 2948BC. Gen 9:28,29
After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.
So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
This means that Seth was still alive at least to the time of Lamech, the father of Noah.
At this time, according to the Bible, there was only one language on the earth.
Gen 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
So, if there was only one language on the earth, then Seth spoke the same language as Lamech and Noah spoke the same language as his father Lamech and therefore the language that was passed down through the generations from Adam and Seth was the same.
At the Tower of Babel, God confused the languages and separated the peoples.
Whatever the language of Noah was after Babel, would be the language he passed on to his sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth.
We know that Shinar, where the Tower of Babel was built was Babylon in modern day Southern Iraq.
Now, the Bible tells us that there was a city built, 450 miles north of Babylon called Nineveh.
The builder of this city becomes an important point in trying to determine what the Adamic language was.
In the Hebrew Bible, Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11: "Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh".
Some modern English translations interpret "Ashur" in the Hebrew of this verse as the country "Assyria" rather than a person, thus making Nimrod, rather than Ashur, the builder of Nineveh.
The Hebrew Bible and The King James Version based on the The Majority Texts, The Masoretic Texts, The Textus Receptus, The Syriac Text. reads:
Gen 10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
According to this text, it was Asshur that built Nineveh.
Now, the more modern translations based on the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaticus, Codex Alexandrius say:
NIV – Gen 10: 8 Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”
10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar.
11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh,
This translation says that Nimrod built Nineveh.
So, who did build Nineveh, Asshur or Nimrod?
Well, there are a few clues.
1. The people of Nineveh were known as Assyrians, after Asshur.
2. The language of Nineveh was the Semetic language, Aramaic. (Similar to Hebrew).
(Aramaic is a Northwest Semitic Language as is Hebrew)
3. Nimrod wanted to keep all people in one place. It is not likely that he would divide his own kingdom.
4. Nimrod was Noah’s Grt grandson through Ham and his son Cush (the peoples of South west Asia and Africa Ethiopia Egypt Lybia).
The discovery of the fifteen Jubilees texts found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, has since shown that, according to the Jewish sects of Qumran, Genesis 10:11 affirms the apportionment of Nineveh to Ashur.
The attribution of Nineveh to Ashur is also supported by the Greek Septuagint, King James Bible, Geneva Bible, and by Historian Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (Antiquities, i, vi, 4)
Josephus a Jewish historian living in the first century, had access to many ancient historical records from Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Phoenicia and Egypt that are not available today and he wrote in his book, “The Antiquities of the Jews”, which identifies the lands into which the descendants of Noah spread after the Flood.
What he wrote was as follows:
“Shem, the third son of Noah, had five sons, who inhabited the land that began at Euphrates, and reached to the Indian Ocean; for Elam left behind him the Elamites, the ancestors of the Persians. Ashur lived at the city Nieve; (Nineveh) and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others. Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites” (Antiquities Book 1, Ch. 6, Para. 143).
Josephus clearly states that it was Asshur and not Nimrod who lived at Nineveh and that the Assyrians were their descendants and that they were, ”the most fortunate nation beyond others”.
Since Josephus was a devout Jew, this would indicate that those who lived in Nineveh were blessed more than other nations at their beginning; This would not be the case if evil Nimrod had built Nineveh.
Nimrod tried to keep all people in one place.
When Nimrod built Babylon, it was his intention to centralize the human race under his control.
Asshur was Noah’s grandson through Shem and from him came the Middle Eastern nations).
Asshur and Nimrod would have different languages.
Had Nimrod been the builder of Nineveh, the language would have been the same as Babylonian.
Asshur (אַשּׁוּר) was the second son of Shem, the son of Noah.
This suggests that Asshur would speak the language of his father Shem, who spoke the language of his father Noah.
If Adam passed his language on to his son Seth and there was only one language on the earth at the time of Noah, then Adam, Seth and Noah, all spoke the same language.
If the language of Asshur was Semetic, (a form of Aramaic). Then we can conclude that Adam, Seth and Noah spoke a form of Aramaic or ancient Hebrew.
Traditional Jewish exegesis such as Midrash says that Adam spoke the Hebrew language because the names he gives Eve – Isha and Chava – only make sense in Hebrew.
