We may wonder where all the languages came from. We might even wonder where language itself came from. Those who advocate that we came from lower animals have a problem. Lower animals have no languages. Of course, they argue, this is a part of the evolutionary process. Yet evolutionists suggest that language began when cavemen uttered a series of grunts, which later became words. But the study of languages has revealed little about their origins. Encyclopedia Britannica suggests that languages go back about five thousand years.
The Bible tells us the first man, Adam, had language skills sufficient to name all the animals. Notice what the Bible says in Genesis 2:19-20:
And out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a help suitable for him.
The Bible also reveals that God spoke into being the universe and all in it. At least nine times in Genesis 1 we find the statement “And God said.” We have no other adequate explanation for the beginning of language except for the Bible. Some linguists have argued that there is sufficient evidence among the various languages of the world to indicate that there was once a universal language. Of course, that is what the Bible teaches us. In fact, the Bible teaches us in Genesis 11 that God disbursed languages to frustrate the plan of the human race to build a tower to heaven. Observe Genesis 11:6-9:
And Lord said, Behold the people are one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they imagine to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there did the Lord scatter them aboard upon the face of all the earth.
As we study language, we learn that there are several different language families. There is the Indo-European language family, consisting of English, German, Latin, Greek, and others. Then there is the Semitic language family, consisting of Hebrew, Arabic, and similar languages. It is interesting that God revealed His will and word to us in two very distinct languages—Hebrew and Greek.
Paul was conversant in at least two languages. He spoke Hebrew to the crowd in the temple when he was arrested. And He spoke Greek to the elite in Athens. As far as we know, he wrote all his letters in Greek.
In I Corinthians 14 Paul took up the question of languages in the body of Christ when believers get together. Our Bible translates the word languages as “tongues.” Now I will discuss THE PROPER FUNCTION OF TONGUES, from I Corinthians 14:10-22:
10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them [is] without signification.
11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh [shall be] a barbarian unto me.
12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual [gifts], seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in an [unknown] tongue pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding a...
