Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi,

in recent discussion it has been brought forward the theory that  
Hebrew was the original language spoken in the garden of Eden. Typical  
lines of evidence are Adam's play on words when he names woman i$$ah  
because from man she was taken.

Looking into this further I found that the oldest mention of such a  
theory is probably to be found in the book of Jubilees which some hold  
to be older than the account in Genesis itself and to have been given  
to Moses on mount Sinai. Many early Christian churches held the book  
to be canonical but it was ruled out  by the Jewish definition of the  
canon in the 1st century and after Constantine took hold of  
Christianity he followed suit and Jubilees was decanonised for many  
Christian churches.

According to Jubilees, I take it, that Hebrew was the original  
language spoken by all preflood. Writing was taught to Enoch by  
angels. After the incident at Babel Hebrew was forgotten. The angels  
taught it to Abraham and after his death it was forgotten again. So  
the angels taught it to Moses.

Considering recent events of the last century that makes the Hebrew  
language more resurrected than the only fools and horses sit com?

James Christian

--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.