The Interpreter Foundation just posted an interesting article by Jeffrey Bradshaw
On the question of whether Gen 11 teaches that there was only one language worldwide at the time of the Tower of Babel, Bradshaw notes the following:
If we take the “one language” of Genesis 11:1 as being Sumerian, Akkadian, or even (as a long shot) Aramaic[16] rather than a supposed universal language,[17] some of the puzzling aspects of the biblical account become more intelligible. For example, “Genesis 10 and 11 would make linguistic sense in their current sequence. In addition to the local languages of each nation,[18] there existed ‘one language’[19] which made communication possible throughout the world”[20] — or, perhaps more accurately, throughout the land.[21] “Strictly speaking, the biblical text does not refer to a plurality of languages but to the ‘destruction of language as an instrument of communication.’”[22]
In summary, Victor Hamilton[23] writes that it “is unlikely that Genesis 11:1-9 can contribute much, if anything, to the origin of languages … [T]he diversification of languages is a slow process, not something catastrophic as Genesis 11 might indicate.”[24] The commonly received interpretation of Genesis 11 provides “a most incredible and naïve explanation of language diversification. If, however, the narrative refers to the dissolution of a Babylonian lingua franca, or something like that, the need to see Genesis 11:1-9 as a highly imaginative explanation of language diffusion becomes unnecessary.”[25]
Notes for the Above
[16] Aramaic would presume a setting for the story no earlier than the beginning of the first millennium BCE, seeming far too late in time.
[17] Whether one thinks about this in terms of the LDS tradition of an “Adamic language” or in some other way.
[18] Genesis 10:5, 20, 31.
[19] Genesis 11:1, 6. It may be significant that the JST for these verses reads: “the same language,” not “one language.”
[20] V. P. Hamilton, Genesis 1-17, p. 350. Drawing a modern comparison, Nibley quipped that it was “like some of these space thrillers on the TV where everybody knows English. No matter where you go in the universe, the all speak the same language” (H. W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, 4:266).
[21] See quote by Nibley above on eretz.
[22] A. LaCocque, Captivity of Innocence, p. 66, citing Paul Ricoeur.
[23] V. P. Hamilton, Genesis 1-17, p. 358.
[24] Drawing a rough analogue between the development of genetic and linguistic differences, Cavalli-Sforza writes (cited in R. T. Pennock, Tower, p. 143): “During modern humanity’s expansion, breakaway groups settled in new locations and occupied new continents [cf. the Jaredites]; from these, other groups broke away and traveled to more distant regions. These schisms and shifts took humanity to very remote areas where contact with the original areas and peoples became difficult or impossible. The isolation of numerous groups had two inevitable consequences: the formation of genetic differences and the formation of linguistic differences. Both take their own path and have their own rules, but the sequence of divisions that caused diversification is common to both. Their history, whether reconstructed using language or genes, is that of their migrations and fissions and is therefore inevitably the same.”
[25] V. P. Hamilton, Genesis 1-17, p. 358.
