Old Testament believers have always had great devotion to naming family members, events, and experiences in general with names that fit the person, the event, or the experience. From the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Trumpets, or the names of Abraham and Sarah, a Bible student is extremely unwise if he does not pay great attention to the meaning or words. The names of the first ten generational leaders from Adam to Noah, as listed in Genesis chapter five, is a wonderful message of prophetic promise concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. The First Testament is a breathtaking book without the study of words, but with that study it leaps from the pages.

Adam and Eve were Sumerians and historians call the land where the Garden of Eden was located Sumer. The language of the Sumerians is said to be the first language ever discovered and is documented to approximately 4,000 B.C. The Encyclopedia Britannica said, "The earliest attested documents in cuneiform were written in Sumerian, the language of the inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia and Chaldea from the 4th until the 2nd millennium BC, and were discovered at the site of the ancient city of Uruk (Biblical Erech). They were in a pictographic type of cuneiform in which objects were represented by the repetitions of strokes and circles." (Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 3, p. 791, Fifteenth Edition.) Another statement of meaning that reflects on this article was as follows, "Language scholars have not been able to prove the relationship of Sumerian to any other known language." (Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 11, p. 384, Fifteenth Edition.)

Now, we have this first language spoken for approximately 2,000 years from approximately 4000 B.C. to 2000 B.C. of which there is no proven connection to any other language. It was pictographic but seemed to suddenly disappear. Now, we move to the Bible. Adam and Eve and their descendants unquestionably spoke the oldest language. Every living person was speaking the same language when the people decided to build the tower of Babel. The Bible says, "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter." (Genesis 11:1-3). So, the Lord decided to investigate and then acted to halt their haughty plan. "And the LORD said, Behold, the people is 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. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Genesis 11:6-7).

The Word of God is perfect. At the Tower of Babel the Creator gave the people different languages, but the original language was given to no one. The language of the Sumerians was spoken by one and all; so, they were all stripped of that language and a babbling display of languages was the result. Even our English and the Jewish Hebrew were both the language of babbling. How great must have been the language of the Sumerians? Our language historians would suggest that their language was a development out of a caveman mentality. Yet, we speak today of the few people that have a photographic ability as being especially brilliant; and to some degree they are extremely intelligent. Pictographic ability is the foundation of a photographic memory. We connect words to other words already known and our mind makes a pictorial or audio connection. In that way, we do not forget the information received.

I believe that the language of Adam and Eve was indeed brilliant and that they thought and spoke a pictorial language that enabled them to remember, speak, and write with perfect memory. Whatever they saw they remembered and spoke of all things according to the characteristics of everything they saw or experienced. Family members carried the truths of God from generation to generation without difficulty. Even the bodies of the Heavenly planets followed a pattern and the people understood the entire movements and could discern much truth from God's perfect creation. The Psalmist affirmed the facts of a creative language. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun." (Psalm 19:1-4) Even nature's language has been confused with the zodiac and astrology in which men look to the planets instead of the Creator of those planets.

Our God promises a return to the pure language for all people. "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent." (Zephaniah 3:9). The word turn means "to return." I believe this pure language is indeed the language spoken by the Sumerians and will once again be spoken by all the inhabitants of the earth. We will have pictographic minds that will enable us to commune with the entire redeemed multitude and to know everyone as we share the New Heaven and New Earth together. Just to talk face-to-face with our Heavenly Father as Adam did requires the pure language that the Father gave him at the beginning. No doubt Paul spoke of this. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (I Corinthians 13:12).

Joseph R. Chambers