Confusion of Tongues

We live in a world where many people have relegated the Bible to the sphere of ancient myths, mostly in an effort to discredit the Bible’s power and its truth within.  The Bible is the very word of God.  And as a result, it does not require the consent of man to deem it anything more or less.  Its Truth cannot be so easily dismissed.  Indeed, in the Psalms, it even says, “Truth will spring up from the ground.”  Dismiss it as myth, but it is still the Truth.  And as such cannot be hidden.

So I chuckled last week, when I read in the Wall Street Journal (Friday, April 15, page A4), an article entitled “The Mother of All Languages” about the evolution of spoken and written words.  Researchers have now “discovered” that all languages have come from a single language somewhere near or in Africa, a startling revelation based on distinct units of sound, called phonemes.  The study points to a catalyst that researchers have pinpointed to have caused migration of humans from Africa to all parts of the globe.  That unexplained catalyst was indicated by a “a sudden and marked shift in how modern humans behaved…likely caused by a key innovation:  complex language…”   Furthermore, the researchers point out that “Only humans have the biological capacity to communicate with a rich language based on symbols and rules.  Without language, culture as we know it wouldn’t exist, so scientists are keen to pin down its origins.” 

Note the words “sudden and marked shift.”  Hmmmm, well, let’s try Genesis 11. 1-10.  “And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”  So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.” (Genesis 11. 6-8)

They would discount the Tower of Babel as a myth, but flaunt their own theories as startling discoveries.  The Truth is there.  They are not discovering truth as much as they are uncovering it…  even if they slap their own names on what was revealed in Scripture thousands of years ago.