Genesis 11:1 “And the whole earth was of one language and one speech. (6) And the 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 have imagined to do.

I am often surprised when I asked this question as to how many Christians are really clueless as to the answer. Was the Tower of Babel built before or after the flood?  Most Christians, even Bible students cannot answer this question. On the one hand it would seem to be before the flood as we assume everyone spoke one language but then that would also be the case after the flood as Noah and his family were the only humans on the earth so they had just one language.

Look at this verse, the whole earth was of one language and one speech. We quickly assume language and speech are the same, but they not. Why is there a distinction made between language and speech?  Why is this story even included in the Bible? What spiritual value is there to read that the whole earth was of one language and one speech.

As we approach what I and many believe are the last days, I believe this question is going to become very significant.  My first question would be, what was this language? The word in Hebrew for language is sapah which means language, lip, or exalted language.  The word speech is devar.  I have explained in the past that devar are words spoken from the heart, not just “His how you doing.” But words reflecting the honesty of one heart. There is another word used for speech and it is ‘amar, but these are just words of casual conversation. Just a theory, but what if these words devar actually carried power in them, an energy in the very speaking of these words such that God had to remove it from the vocabulary of the people at Babel lest nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Could words have power?  Spoken words give off certain vibrations, when joined with God, I don’t know, maybe?

In answer to the first question, the Tower of Babel was built 100 years after the flood. Prior to the flood it appears Adam died about 100 years before the flood. What made Adam different than all the animals was that he was created in the image of God.  That covers a lot of territory including communication with God. Adam could think, imagine and create and to do this you need a language. A dog does not think in a language, he does not think: “Gee, I am tired, I think I will sleep.”  A dog just follows his sleepy feelings and plops down by mere instinct. Adam used a language to name all the animals. What was that language?  Some scholars call it Edenic. Edenic, it is believed was spoken all the way up to the time of the flood and one hundred years after the flood until God scrambled the language.

It is interesting that Christians have become fascinated with Hebrew in the past few years. They believe there is more to the Word of God that can be found through Hebrew study.  Many who have purchased my books on Hebrew Word study claim this fact to be true.

There is something being taught and embraced among evangelical Christians known as Ancient Hebrew.  In other words there was one script shared by languages as the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, the Hebrews and other Semitic languages.  Eventually by the time of Ezra, Hebrew adopted a script known as the Ketav Ashurit or the square script.  Only Hebrew and Aramaic share this sophisticated script. I don’t doubt that Hebrew was written in Ancient scripts, but this was not the script given by God. This school of thought teaches that the Hebrew is a picture language and shows the origin of its alphabet to be in pictures such as an ox head, a tent peg, a wall, etc.

What is very disturbing to me about this is that Christians are searching for some hidden message in the Hebrew letters using these pictures.  If a word has an Aleph in it they say that there is something about headship or leadership embodied in this word, because that letter originated with the picture of an ox head. The problem is that it is not an ox head but a bull’s head and represented the pagan god Apis. I personally am not comfortable using a pagan symbol to arrive at some truth and neither was Ezra who developed a brand new script called the Assyrian script or Ketav Ashurit.

So, the whole earth was of one saphah language and one devar heart or mind. Saphah and devar tell us that they all not only spoke the same dialect but were in total agreement devar. Therefore there could be no accents, as that could lead to misunderstandings as they frequently do today.  It is believed by some Jewish scholars that each spoke the Hebrew language precisely as God created it at the Tower of Babel and that they were speaking words which carried just the right power, energy or vibrations. As these words would produce supernatural results they likely were misused by ungodly people such that God had to take those words away from them.  So what about this? It these were words in Hebrew that carried certain power is it possible God allowed Godly men like Shem to retain these words and removed them from those who would abuse them?

Shem shared 50 years of life with Abraham who could have passed the secrets of these Hebrew words of power on to Abraham who passed it on to the next generation and the next and had the Christian church not persecuted the Jews for 2,000 years maybe we would be sharing in some of these secret words today which under the power of the Holy Spirit might produce signs and wonders. Or what about this? What was Daniel told to seal up until the last days in Daniel 12:4? “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”  Bingo, words or devar.

I don’t know, only a thought, a theory, I am throwing it out there and you are free to take it and throw it away. But would it not be neat if what Daniel was told to seal up until the last days were actually these secret words of power from the day of the Tower of Babel and when that seal is broken we could have accesss to these words that God took away at the Tower of Babel so that now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. How cool would that be?