אבנימ

Biblical Hermeneutics Part First Chapter 3

By way of introducing the study of Biblical languages as vital to Biblical Hermeneutics, the author gives a broad overview of philological theory on the origins of language. He then traces the major families of languages and their development.

One’s view of the origin of language is directly informed by his view of the origin of man. If we reject the idea that mankind evolved from lower forms of life, and instead affirm that man was created a perfect and complete being by God, then it follows that speech is an inherent part of his nature, given directly by God, not man’s own creation, but God’s. Indeed speech is one of the chief attributes which distinguishes man from the beasts. [Aside: It is an aspect of God’s nature to speak, and that creatively. Man is made in the image of God, hence he also speaks, as a sub-creator, beginning as the arch-taxonomist.]

The confusion of tongues at Babel accounts in part for the wide linguistic diversity among the peoples of the earth. After this initial division, further divergence has occurred over the many centuries as peoples and tribes have split and migrated. Linguistic analysis reveals a limited number of major language groups, e.g. Germanic and Indo-European, whose constituent tongues can all be traced back to a single parent. [Aside: In my own linguistic studies I have observed that the farther back one goes, the more alike are languages, e.g. Anglo-Saxon has more in common with Attic Greek than modern English has with Italian.]

Another major branch is the Semitic, which includes Hebrew. This was the tongue of Abraham, which he possibly adopted from the Canaanites in whose land he dwelt. This language remained constant thence for over a thousand years, until the time of the Babylonian exile, and its speakers lived in the center of the inhabited world. As such it was an the ideal medium for God to employ in speaking to His people.