Languages and Babel
“God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). But Nimrod and those like him rebelled and said, “Come, let us build a city and a tower … lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:3‑4). Therefore, God set about to punish them (or let them punish themselves) for refusing to populate the whole earth.
Initially, we may posit that the rebellion had to be carried on covertly. Words were used with different meanings, to create the world’s first underworld language. (Somewhat like modern youth create their own slang.) Apparently, this was the origin of the Sumerian language (later divided into Sumerian‑A and Sumerian‑B, both long since extinct.) [1]
In Genesis 11:7 God said what He will do. Genesis 11:8 tells what He then did. [2] Jehovah God “scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city.” God scattered them, and as they became isolated from one another their languages began drifting apart. (Historical Linguistics confirms that 99% of the world’s people today speak languages that trace back to a common original language. That includes Indo‑European, Dravidian, Semito‑Hamitic, [3] and Chinese languages.) [4]
Archaeology shows that the Sumerian rulers of Babel were cruel to the point that some people rebelled from them; so the city of Kish (Cush) was conquered and destroyed; other people spread far and wide — eventually even to Africa, Australia, and the Americas. As they spread apart, they multiplied to seventy languages by Moses’ time (Genesis 10) and to perhaps seven thousand languages today.
The city was to rule over all people. The tower was to be a shrine “to reach unto heaven” (Genesis 11:4), but this was not a temple dedicated to Jehovah, but Satan! [5] Yet, within a few centuries it was brought to nought.
Possible site of the Tower of Babel with original height, reference [5]
— Br. James Parkinson
[1] Historical Linguistics shows tenuous similarities with Dene‑Caucasian languages (including Chinese) and Nostratic languages (including Indo‑European and Dravidian), but Sumerian is distant from all language groups. (Sumer is the Biblical “Shinar.”) Reference: “Materials from the First International Interdisciplinary Symposium on Language and Prehistory, Ann Arbor, 8‑12 November, 1988” (5 Volumes), ed. Vitaly Shevoroshkin; Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1989‑1992. BPX 25, pages 56‑58; BPX 32, pages 158‑161; BPX 33, pages 334f., 421, 433‑457. Merritt Ruhlen, “A Guide to the World’s Languages,” Volume 1, Classification; Stanford University Press, 1987, page 377. Also, Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Bros., 1959, page 7 ff.
[2] Similar to the “check‑list” of Genesis 1, where six times “And God said, Let …” is followed by what was accomplished, like “And God made …” or “And God created …” (However, Genesis 1:26, 27 tells only that part of the ultimate intent was accomplished at that time: “God created man in his own image …”).
[3] Abraham travelled from Haran to Canaan to Egypt, with no suggestion of a need for interpreters or translators (Genesis 13). Two centuries later, Joseph used an interpreter between the Egyptian (a Hamitic language) he was speaking and the Semitic (from which Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic would later derive) his brethren were speaking (Genesis 42:23). (Joseph understood his brothers perfectly but did not want them to know it.) Thus, we may have a record for a secondary separation of languages recorded in Genesis 10:6, 24, Mizraim (Egyptian) and [H]eber[ew].
[4] People commonly think the language became confused first, and only then the people scattered.
[5] E.g., www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtUNHjDmGOY, especially beginning at the 11‑minute mark.