What Language Did Noah Speak? (Explained!)

Being a mythic figure, it is difficult even to speculate about the language that Noah spoke. Jewish tradition holds that there was a “proto language”, otherwise known as the “Adamic language”, which predated all known languages today, and Noah may have spoken this. Others hold that he simply spoke Hebrew. It is an impossible question to answer with certainty.

Unlike many biblical figures, there is little debate about the historicity of Noah.

He is generally agreed to be an entirely mythic figure, or at the very least based on an individual so hopelessly lost to time that we may never know anything at all about them.

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting question, so let’s dive into it.

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Was Noah a real person?

Before we get into the specific question of the language he spoke, it’s important to address the question of historicity.

Many biblical figures are of all but certain historicity—scholars almost universally agree, for example, that Jesus existed.

Moses, on the other hand, is widely agreed to be mythic, though some scholars hold that there was such a person at some point in the 13^th Century BC.

On the other hand, there is no serious debate about the historical Noah.

It is a myth, the story a fable, and few would even argue that the story itself is meant to be seen as literal—rather, as an allegory.

Noah, then, did not really exist, and thus he did not speak any language.

But of course, this is not the end of the debate.

To theologians it remains an interesting question for a number of reasons.

Language and the word is a massively important part of both the Old and New Testaments and of Judeo-Christian theology in general.

There’s also a fairly clear divide between true historical events in the real world and pure myth.

With that in mind, let’s dive into the question of what language Noah might have spoken.

What was the language of Noah and his sons?

There are debates about this question even among those who do not believe in any historical Noah, so there are a few potential answers to this question.

Firstly, one argument relates to what is known as the “Adamic language”.

As the name suggests, this was the language of Adam, the original first language spoken by any human being in Judeo-Christian myth.

This was in a sense the “proto language” which was spoken in the early days of creation.

Of course, historically, such a language could not have existed.

But it is the best guess of most theologians that this would have been the language of Noah.

There is one vitally important story to understanding this in the Bible, and this the story of the Tower of Babel.

We will look at the specifics of this story shortly, but the important point is that Judeo-Christian literalists posit that there was a time in man’s mythic history when everyone spoke the same language—presumably, the Adamic language.

This language, however, was confounded, and so groups of people separated and were not able to understand each other, thus giving rise to languages we might know.

Others believe Noah may have spoken Hebrew or a form of Proto-Hebrew.

There’s not much reason to believe this other than the fact that it became the language of the Bible, but even scholars at the time agreed Hebrew was not the language that had been spoken during this mythic era of the Bible.

So, in other words, we have no idea what the language of Noah would have been.

It would have been recorded in Hebrew in the Old Testament, but this naturally doesn’t tell us anything about the language he actually spoke.

What was the Tower of Babel?

The Tower of Babel is a very important story in the Old Testament and represents a turning point in the mythic history of humanity according to the accounts of the Bible.

As mentioned, tradition holds that humans all spoke a single language at one point.

In Genesis, there is a story of a united human race who sought to build a tower so high it would reach the heavens and its roof would be the sky.

God, angry at their hubris, destroyed and smashed the tower before it was completed, confounded human language, and scattered them around the world.

This is why humans all speak different languages.

Thus, the language that Noah spoke is now entirely inaccessible to us as it was entirely eradicated by God.

How many languages did Noah speak?

According to Genesis, Noah is said to have lived for some 900 years.

In that time, you would expect that he would have learned several languages.

However, if we follow the same tack we have so far taken, that Noah spoke a proto language of some kind, then he would only have ever needed one language—indeed, there would only ever have been one language for him to know, as the Flood predates the smashing of the tower of Babel.

While there are many Christian and Jewish literalists who believe that there really was a historical figure called Noah, archaeology, scholarship and historical evidence does not support this.

While there are many biblical figures whose historicity is either certain or up for debate,

Noah is not thought by most to have been a real person—therefore, there will never be an ultimate answer about what language he spoke.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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1 thought on “What Language Did Noah Speak? (Explained!)”

Rheco

April 19, 2024 at 12:24 am

you can not just say he is not real.. he is not real based on what? based on: “the time is so ancient and it’s impossible to check if he existed” therefore he is not real.. what is this logic