Traditional Jewish exegesis such as Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 38) says that Adam spoke Old Hebrew or rather its linguistic ancestor Proto-Canaanite, because the names he gives Eve – “Isha” (Book of Genesis 2:23) and “Chava” (Genesis 3:20) – only make sense in Hebrew. This had the consequence that it could not any longer be regarded immutable, and hence Hebrew could not be regarded as identical with the language of Paradise.Īlso, the nature of that original language remains controversial, interpretations showing many nationalist flavours: In his Divina Commedia, however, Dante changes his view to the effect that the Adamic language was the product of Adam. The Genesis is ambiguous on whether the language of Adam was preserved by Adam’s descendants until the confusion of tongues (Genesis 11:1-9), or if it began to evolve naturally even before Babel (Genesis 10:5), into what is usually called Chaldaic:ĭante in his De Vulgari Eloquentia argues that the Adamic language is of divine origin and therefore unchangeable. Adamic is typically identified with either the language used by God to address Adam, or the language invented by Adam (Book of Genesis 2:19). These are the statements about the Adamic language and the Tower of Babel as Abrahamic texts, beliefs and traditions show:Īdamic was the language spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They may have even spoken a language that no longer exists today. Some simply call it the Adamic language spoken by Adam and his descendants. Have any Christian scholars or mystics have any possible hints as to what Adam’s language actually may have looked like? From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 9 That is why it was called Babel-because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”Ĩ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”ĥ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.ģ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Genesis 11:1-9 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. We see in the Book of Genesis that the whole world spoke one tongue prior to the destruction of the Tower of Babel: I am not interested in "how did Adam and then Eve, learned to speak", but rather is it possible to know the language that was spoken by Adam and Eve from an historical viewpoint or at least how close we can get to an original source? Is it possible to know the language that Adam and Eve spoke?
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