Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

I have seen a couple of arguments that Hebrew was the 
original language spoken in the Garden of Eden.

One, a theological one, that God kept one language not 
mixed up at Babel, and that was Hebrew.

A second one says that when Moses compiled Genesis, 
he did so by combining previously written documents. 
There is some evidence for this in the text of Genesis as 
it preserves some indications of a previous literary style 
where it closed each section "these are the bringing forth 
of ..." But Moses could have translated those documents 
when compiling Genesis.

While I would like to argue that Hebrew was the original 
language, there is no independent documentation that it 
was. As a result, I believe that any such claim is highly 
speculative.

Though not mentioned, is there any reason to assume 
other than that Abraham used a translator when he visited 
Egypt? The same when Jacob spoke to pharaoh?

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
> 
> 
> Interesting reasoning. I'm not sure why some assume that hebrew was 
> the original
> language. Maybe because of the hebrew names used in Genesis. But 
> these could well
> be just literal translations of the original names or just the way the 
> hebrews
> would automatically remember them after having had their language 
> transplanted at
> babel. But the text doesn't in any way seem to directly state that 
> hebrew was the
> language originally spoken in Eden.
> 
> I liked your suggestion that Ishmael's descendents may have adopted the 
> Arabic
> language based on their place of residency. This made me call to 
> mind a question
> I have had for a long time: When Abraham went to Egypt, what 
> language did he speak
> to them? In the account in Genesis of Joseph remeeting up with his 
> brothers he is
> depicted as having a translator. This seems to suggest that he was 
> speaking Egyptian
> as a part of the facade.
> 


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