Christians hold that the eight survivors of The Great Flood (Noah and his wife, their three sons, and their wives) disembarked the Ark on Mount Ararat and then migrated to the Plains of Shinar in ancient Mesopotamia. There, rather than multiply and spread throughout the entire earth as God had commanded, this remnant of humanity collectively built a city and a great tower that “reached up to the heavens” and attempted to compete with God. It was there and then that the entire human race was gathered as one race, one people, speaking one language, all the while disobeying God’s command to disperse. “Then God said, ‘Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So, the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth” (Gen 11:7-9). What an incredible story! But is it true? Can it be true? Today there are some 6,000 languages spoken around the world. Can it be that all of these languages came from a common single language, a first language? Linguists (scholars who study languages) tell us that languages evolve and change over time due to migration, mixing, and cultural considerations. These language changes can act as a road map leading back to the language family from which it evolved. Linguist John McWhorter writes, “Typically, speakers leave footprints from their old language in their version of the new one.” Here is an example. If we look at the word father, we begin to understand that some words in various languages have striking similarities. The English word father, is vader in German, padre in Spanish, and padre in Italian. From this simple comparison, it is easy to see

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that English and German are very similar to each other, as are the Spanish and Italian. Similarities between English and German are seen not only in the word “father” but also in many other words. For these reasons, linguists classify both English and German as members of the Germanic family. Likewise, Italian and Spanish are considered members of the Latin family. Based upon these and other comparison criteria, the 6,000 languages spoken around the world are grouped into approximately 400 language families. Much like a family tree, the world language tree becomes more condensed and compacted, moving from the leaves to the branches to the main trunk. Similarly, linguists further classify and group these 400 language families into proto- languages. For example, English falls into the Germanic family, and the Germanic family falls into the Indo-European proto- language family. Other proto-language families include Afro-Asiatic, Mia-Yao, Turkic, and Sematic, among many others. Using the analogy of a language tree, we could say that 6,000 languages (leaves) condense into 400 language families (branches), which further condense into 50 or so proto-language families (major branches).

From this perspective, looking at the world’s languages raises the ultimate question: “Is there evidence that the 50 or so proto-languages are further condensed into a single language? Looking at it from the other direction: “Is there evidence that a single language (trunk) later branches to 50 or so proto languages which later further branch into 400 language families, which eventually branch into the 6,000 languages spoken today? It is an important question because, according to Christianity, all languages should go back to a single language, the Noahic language spoken by the eight survivors of The Great Flood. In other words, the Noahic language is the singular trunk of the language tree.

The problem is that linguists do not see a linkage between the proto-languages, which indicates they all derive from one singular ancient language. McWhorter argues that those attempts at reconstructing the Noahic proto- language are not considered valid in the field of linguistics and that these reconstructions are horribly biased and, in the end, are “hopelessly untenable.” But why would this be the case? Why do linguists find it impossible to backtrack along the language family tree from the major branches to the main truck? Christianity holds that there was only one language after The Great Flood: the Noahic language. If true, there should be a clear path back to Noah’s language, but there isn’t.

Why? While there are currently 50 proto-language families that linguists have discovered, there is the expectation that more families will be discovered. Perhaps it is that when all is said and done, linguists will discover and recognize approximately 78 proto- language families, one language family for each of the families that were given new languages and dispersed from Babel (cf Gen 10-11). Perhaps this is why linguists can only trace language families back so far and then run into a roadblock. If all the people on earth were gathered after The Flood, and all shared one common language, then each of the approximate 78 families were dispersed in different directions, each with a new language, then what we see is exactly what we would expect. At one point in ancient history, the language of Noah suddenly ceased, and perhaps some 70 new proto-languages suddenly appeared.

Once again, we see “all things merge into one.” Join us next week as we look at the bottlenecking of human history after The Great Flood. Until then, is God really dead?

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore, OK. You can contact him at dr.kerley@ isGoddead.