"The whole earth was of one language." How could this be true?

Question

Genesis 11

11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language
11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

But this could not be true, since by this time (around 2400 BCE) there were already many languages, each unintelligible to the others. Additionally, people existed all over the world way before that time!

Answer 1

I agree with you, and may I add that this is such moronic BS... I mean really, come on People!!! WHY? And why would people believe such blatant fable?

"And that's why there are so many different languages, son."


PPPffft

Answer 2

You would have to see what the word for 'earth' in the original was, for one thing. Sometimes translations just can't reflect nuances. Also, conceptually, the world is what the author knows of it, quite possibly. I mean, the edges of the map were far from filled in.

The problem with the Bible is that people are often playing with two different decks when they try to sort it out. There is what we know now, and what they knew then.

Christians add to this that the hands of the authors were guided by God so that the divine message was accurately transmitted through people and their peculiarities to its audience, further complicating the transmission process from their vantage point.

Even secular literary criticism allows for temporal quirks and singularities that might estrange the text from the modern mind.

To apply the standards of modern scholarship and knowledge to an author writing for a circa 2400 BCE audience (however the date was determined) is possibly the difficulty many experience when exploring the intent of the text. I wonder how many contradictions and conflicts might be dissolved if laypeople (including and especially myself) and scholars took careful stock of the context, language, and culture in which a work was written.

Answer 3

Your Biblical time table is off thousands of years. Aside from that, evolution tells us there was a common ancestor for us all. Perhaps the common ancestor spoke five or six languages? Or maybe the languages developed by spontaneous generation.

Answer 4

All languages derive from one region of the world: mesopotamia.

Ancient Hebrew contains all of the forms of each of the other written languages: ie - phonetical, symbolical, numerical etc.

Your assessment that people lived across the entire globe at that time is based on your preconceived notions of evidence of early people.

Answer 5

Firstly, to understand the bible one must believe it and humble oneself.
Secondly, the bible said the people do spoke different languages but...but.... somehow by God's power understand each other.
Please read it properly you'll find out that they do not speak one language but many but still can understand each other very well.

Answer 6

Did you live back then, do you have authentic written literature from back then? How then do you know what the spoke at all?

If you read slightly farther then that, you will see that God then divided the languages. Tower of Babel. Go on, read it :)

Answer 7

because we all were created in the same place. so we created they same language together. Since no one new came to the group of people we all spoke one language....i bet you didnt get any of that! haha but i know it in my head.

Answer 8

it was no language at one prehistoric time but one language sounds like a narrow minded fable adopted from superstition already accepted .

Answer 9

yeah but at the time there were only 20 people on earth.

Answer 10

It was supposedly one language, something happened in history and many more arose, or we screwed up in history, you dig.