If he was trying to prevent people from communicating with each other, why did he, for example, make German and Dutch really similar, or Russian and Ukranian? Or Hindi and Urdu? Or Hebrew and Arabic? They're all neighbouring languages.
God's a lot smarter than me so it doesn't fall to me to question Him, but surely it would have made more sense to, say, put the Japanese language next to the Spanish language instead of Portuguese?
I mean, if the goal was to "confuse their language so they will not understand each other"...
2007-01-20 17:58:58 · 17 answers · asked by XYZ 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
My guess is that His intent was not to completely keep people from ever being able to communicate with each other, just to confound those particular people.
If you came home from work and your wife could only speak Spanish, even if you understood it, wouldn't that confound you? ;o)
And don't you have days like that even with people who speak English? Some days I feel like I've entered a weird "Twilight Zone" episode where everything I say sounds English to me, but is apparently incomprehensible to everyone around me. Language is still confounding at times.
2007-01-21 14:50:53 · answer #1 · answered by Contemplative Chanteuse IDK TIRH 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
And then again, maybe this is just a story told by ancient peoples without any scientific philological/linguistic knowledge.
I'm not sure whether this is a serious question or an ironic way to make a point. If serious, look into the history of language to see how people can trace their development over time. German and Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian are all much more recent developments from older, common parent languages.
2007-01-20 18:09:34 · answer #2 · answered by Underground Man 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The German and Dutch language of our days were not around during the days of the tower of babel. Languages evolves for many reasons (e.g conquest, trade, cultural exchanges among nations) and it is logical to think that neighbouring cultures will have a higher tenancy to be affected by each other. Therefore you neighbouring languages being so similar...
Think about this, God, in His wisdom confused people's language for good reason. But man, in his human ways (stated above) seeks to work against God.
2007-01-20 18:05:43 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
think what's going to occur if via the web, inside 50 years all people shall be talking one language and in an effort to final for a few generations till the historic languages are forgotten. then comes a cataclysm and destroyes the web, as good as today's shipping. folks turn out to be remoted once more and reinvent their languages :) that is type of just like the tower of babel.
2016-09-07 21:39:53 · answer #4 · answered by vite 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At one time, everyone spoke a single language. But some people became proud of their accomplishments and gathered to build a monument to themselves—the tower of Babel. The building project was brought to an abrupt conclusion when God caused the people to speak different languages. Without the ability to communicate with one another, the people could not be unified. God showed them that their great efforts were useless without him. Pride in our achievements must not lead us to conclude that we no longer need God. This story is told in Genesis 11:1-9.
2007-01-20 18:02:31 · answer #5 · answered by djm749 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the point was that the people were disobedient. As a group speaking the same language they were scheming to oppose God and his punishment was for their own best interest, which was to confuse the language which hindered and stopped their efforts of disobedience.
Of course over time people learned to understand each other because people have brains to do this but the biggest reason was to prevent the people from going against God's will.
2007-01-20 18:09:36 · answer #6 · answered by S C 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think Lithuanian stands out, or something like that. Plus a lot of the aborigine languages are way different. I'm not sure though I gotta look it up...
Basque, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language
2007-01-20 18:01:26 · answer #7 · answered by Atlas 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The reason the Tower
camecrashing down
is more symbolic than
factual i think.
it may of represented
a wake up call to those
who built up too many hopes
based on untruths and deceit
only to see them come crashing
down around them inthe end
2007-01-20 18:08:31 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hold on, I'm just putting my religious logic cap on......
Perhaps, those who sort of understood each other decided to hang around together?
You know, one tribe who could speak German ran into a tribe that could speak sort of almost German and decided to settle in the country next to them.
Nah, it doesn't make sense to me either.
.
2007-01-20 18:04:36 · answer #9 · answered by Labsci 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
All of the languages you mention came into use long after the Tower's day... and they are similer because they have common origins.
2007-01-20 18:03:54 · answer #10 · answered by idahomike2 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋