HOME > BIBLICAL LANGUAGES
Biblical Hebrew | Biblical Aramaic | Biblical Greek | Bible Translation
Earth’s Original Language
Originally, everyone on earth spoke one language, but this language is unknown on earth today. Why? Because we read in the Bible, in the book of Genesis Chapter 11, of a worldwide flood which God sent to wipe the earth clean of every human being, except eight people—a man named Noah, his three sons, and his sons’ wives—and to destroy all land and flying animals, because of the great wickedness of people on earth.
And after this flood, the eight people had offspring and the earth began to be repopulated. However, wickedness once again became widespread on earth and the inhabitants started to take a course against God’s expressed will to gather themselves together in cities as a preliminary step to forming cities and empires to rule on earth. So, God confused the people’s language such that there was now a multiplicity of languages on earth. Thus, only those people who spoke the same language could understand each other and communicate. And, in this way, God put a stop to the people’s evil endeavour. As a result, the original language on earth was lost, in that, no one on earth spoke this language anymore.
What is a Language Today?
A language today is a means of human communication that has a structure consisting of grammar and vocabulary specific to that language. Typically, a language is spoken and written, and may also be conveyed through sign languages. The latter, that is, sign languages, use a visual-manual method to convey meaning instead of spoken words. It is estimated that there are approximately 5,000 to 7,000 human languages in the world.
Biblical Languages
The original Bible was written in three different languages, namely, Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, and Biblical Greek.
Below are links to information that describes what exactly are Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, and Biblical Greek, and also to learning resources for each of these three languages. Yes, it is highly desirable and doable to learn these three languages! After all, these are the languages which God Himself chose to use to communicate with the human race.
Bible Translation
As of September 2022, of the 5,000 to 7,000 languages in the world the Bible or a portion of it has been translated as follows:
- The Whole Bible – 724 languages
- The New Testament – 1,617 languages
- Smaller Portions of the Bible – 1,248 languages
Source: Wycliffe Global Alliance
Images: Tanner Mardis at unsplash.com. A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic – Alger F. Johns. Biblical Greek – Accordance Bible Software. Paratext Bible Translation Software – Paratext.org.