Community Magazine October 2014

36 Community magazine AND THE TOWER OF BABEL NATHAN AVIEZER One of the most interesting events in the Torah is the incident of the Tower of Babel. The Torah (Beresheet 11:1-9) relates that at one time everyone spoke the same language, and they assembled together to build a mighty structure – the Tower of Babel. Gd was displeased with this plan, and He dispersed the people and “confounded their language.” This population dispersal led to the development of different nations and gave rise to the various different languages of the ancient world. And Gd said, “Behold, they are one people with one language, and this is what they begin to do. What they propose to do should be withheld from them. Let us descend and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s language.” And Gd dispersed them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because from there G-d confused their language and scattered them over the whole earth. (Beresheet 11:6-9) The account of theTower of Babel offers no details about which peoples and languages developed as a result of the dispersal of the population. This information is given earlier, in chapter 10 of Beresheet, which is devoted to the genealogy of Noah’s three sons: Shem, Ham, andYefet. Each of Noah’s sons is described as the progenitor of more than 10 nations, and a list is given for each son. Of specific interest to us is the fact that the dispersal of Noah’s descendants did not simply result in separate peoples, but also led to the development of separate languages, as explicitly stated in the Torah: From these [descendants of Yefet] were separated in their lands – each according to its language , by their families, in their nations. (10:5) These are the descendants of Ham, by their families, by their languages , in their lands, in their nations. (10:20) These are the descendants of Shem according to their families, by their languages , in their lands, by their nations. (10:31) Scholars do not agree on the exact geographical locations of the various Noahide languages, but such differences in detail are not relevant for our discussion. We shall compare the development of the Noahide languages, as related in the Torah, with the latest findings in linguistic research. In the eyes of many, the Torah’s description of the spread of languages reads more like a mythological tale than a realistic account of past events. However, in contrast to this widespread misconception, we shall see that the Torah text is, in fact, in agreement with recent discoveries in comparative linguistics. The Languages Of Shem And Ham The Semitic and Hamitic languages, attributed to the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem and Ham, are all related, and linguists classify them as belonging to theAfro-Asiatic family of languages (in the linguistic context, “Afro” means North African and “Asiatic” means Middle Eastern). The Afro-Asiatic languages of the ancient world included Hebrew, Assyrian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Aramaic, Amorite, Moabite, and Cushite. All these names are familiar from the Book of Genesis. Because of the close correspondence between these ancient languages and the names appearing in the Torah, they were previously called the Hamito-Semitic family of languages. However, linguists now prefer the termAfro-Asiatic. It is the Yefetide languages that raise difficult questions about the Torah’s account of the spread of languages. As we will see, however, the Torah and modern linguistics are, in fact, in close agreement. The Languages Of Yefet The most interesting feature of the Yefetide languages is their vast geographical scope. As the accompanying map shows (on top of next page), the Yefetide languages listed in the Torah were spoken throughout Europe and deep into Asia. The European branch of the Yefetide languages extends from Greece through Germany and as far west as Spain, whereas the Asian branch extends from Persia through the ancient Kingdom of the Medes (present-day northern Iran and Afghanistan) and as far east as ancient India (present-day Pakistan). The Torah’s account of Yefetide languages implies the following: 1. There should be a linguistic relationship between the various Yefetide languages, including ancient Greek and German (European) and ancient Persian and Indian (Asian). 2. The Yefetide languages should show signs of having originated near Turkey, since they all developed during the dispersal of Noah’s descendants after the flood. Recall that Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat, which is in eastern Turkey. 3. The most ancient of these languages should have originated around the date of the flood, about 4,000 years ago. 4. The languages of Yefet did not spread by conquest. The Torah The Spread of Languages