Hebrew the first language?

[Marcelo]

Have you read anything from James Harris i.e. names of God? if not you might see it interesting...

It seems to be interesting, but it's too expensive for me to buy. Now that I'm retired, I see everything as expensive.

The Name of God; From Sinai to the American Southwest by Dr. James R. Harris (Book) $19.95

Professor James R. Harris, a foremost expert on ancient Near Eastern languages, shares the culmination of over three decades of work uncovering an ancient alphabetic script used by peoples of the Negev (Israel) and the ancients of America. He traced the name of God, or “Yah” (abbreviated from “Yahweh”) from Proto-Sinaitic (Proto-Canaanite) depictions to New World petroglyphs in America demonstrating Hebrew influence. 259 pgs hardcover.
The Name of God; From Sinai to the American Southwest by Dr. James R. Harris (Book) quantity
Category: Books & Magazines

And, besides, the above information is enough for me: Harris traced back the name Yahweh from the Proto-Canaanite language.

 

[iamsoandso]

It seems to be interesting, but it's too expensive for me to buy. Now that I'm retired, I see everything as expensive.

The Name of God; From Sinai to the American Southwest by Dr. James R. Harris (Book) $19.95

Professor James R. Harris, a foremost expert on ancient Near Eastern languages, shares the culmination of over three decades of work uncovering an ancient alphabetic script used by peoples of the Negev (Israel) and the ancients of America. He traced the name of God, or “Yah” (abbreviated from “Yahweh”) from Proto-Sinaitic (Proto-Canaanite) depictions to New World petroglyphs in America demonstrating Hebrew influence. 259 pgs hardcover.
The Name of God; From Sinai to the American Southwest by Dr. James R. Harris (Book) quantity
Category: Books & Magazines

And, besides, the above information is enough for me: Harris traced back the name Yahweh from the Proto-Canaanite language.

I understand I am retired myself... http://net.lib.byu.edu/imaging/negev/ if you google his name, and add "Old Negev",,,Proto- Canaanite (things similar) a lot of his research will just be on the www. (I could not afford the book either,lol)...

Also you can find things he wrote about the Pueblo Indians,,,in their cave writings the name "Yah"(in their language/hieroglyph ...

 

[Marcelo]

I understand I am retired myself... http://net.lib.byu.edu/imaging/negev/ if you google his name, and add "Old Negev",,,Proto- Canaanite (things similar) a lot of his research will just be on the www. (I could not afford the book either,lol)....

Thanks, I'll do that! Now, look what I found:

Is Hebrew the oldest language on Earth?

Jeff Benner, 20+ years teaching Biblical Hebrew and Bible interpretation.

Was Hebrew the first language spoken in the world?

I am going to answer this question from a Biblical Perspective and from this perspective, the answer is yes, Hebrew was the first language spoken in the world.
According to the Bible, all people spoke one language (Genesis 11:1) until the construction of the Tower of Babel in southern Mesopotamia, which occurred sometime around 4000 BC. During the construction of the Tower, God confused the language of man and scattered the nations (Genesis 11:7,8).
The first quotation in the Bible is in Genesis 1:3 when God said;

יהי אור y’hiy or (let there be light)​

This is Hebrew, but one could easily argue that he spoke these words in another language, but was “translated” into Hebrew at some point. Fair enough. So let’s take a look at another piece of evidence that is often overlooked.
In ancient times the name of a person was a word or phrase, taken from their language, characteristic of that person. As an example the name Adam means "man" in the Semitic language since Adam was the first "man". Eve means "life" because Eve is "the mother of all the living" (Genesis 3:20). Below is a list of the names, and their meanings, found from Genesis chapter one to chapter five. Each of these names are of Semitic origin as the words used within the names are Semitic words.

According to the Biblical account, Noah and his three sons and their wives escaped a catastrophic flood in a boat. At some point after the flood, the descendants of Noah began to build the "Tower of Babel". At which time God came down and confused their languages and the "Tower" was abandoned and the people scattered across the land, "each to his own tribe and language". This event occurred sometime after the birth of Shem, Ham and Japheth's children. Below is a list of the names of their descendants as found in Genesis chapter ten.

It is not until about the time of the Tower of Babel that we find names that are not Hebrew, they are of a different language.
Since all of the names up to the time of the "Tower of Babel" are Hebrew names, it is most likely that the Hebrew language existed from Adam to the Tower of Babel. To be fair, it is possible that these “foreign” names were translated into Hebrew names, but if this were true, why didn't they translate the existing foreign names into Hebrew?

 

[iamsoandso]

Thanks, I'll do that! Now, look what I found:

Is Hebrew the oldest language on Earth?

Jeff Benner, 20+ years teaching Biblical Hebrew and Bible interpretation.

Was Hebrew the first language spoken in the world?

I am going to answer this question from a Biblical Perspective and from this perspective, the answer is yes, Hebrew was the first language spoken in the world.
According to the Bible, all people spoke one language (Genesis 11:1) until the construction of the Tower of Babel in southern Mesopotamia, which occurred sometime around 4000 BC. During the construction of the Tower, God confused the language of man and scattered the nations (Genesis 11:7,8).
The first quotation in the Bible is in Genesis 1:3 when God said;

יהי אור y’hiy or (let there be light)​

This is Hebrew, but one could easily argue that he spoke these words in another language, but was “translated” into Hebrew at some point. Fair enough. So let’s take a look at another piece of evidence that is often overlooked.
In ancient times the name of a person was a word or phrase, taken from their language, characteristic of that person. As an example the name Adam means "man" in the Semitic language since Adam was the first "man". Eve means "life" because Eve is "the mother of all the living" (Genesis 3:20). Below is a list of the names, and their meanings, found from Genesis chapter one to chapter five. Each of these names are of Semitic origin as the words used within the names are Semitic words.

According to the Biblical account, Noah and his three sons and their wives escaped a catastrophic flood in a boat. At some point after the flood, the descendants of Noah began to build the "Tower of Babel". At which time God came down and confused their languages and the "Tower" was abandoned and the people scattered across the land, "each to his own tribe and language". This event occurred sometime after the birth of Shem, Ham and Japheth's children. Below is a list of the names of their descendants as found in Genesis chapter ten.

It is not until about the time of the Tower of Babel that we find names that are not Hebrew, they are of a different language.
Since all of the names up to the time of the "Tower of Babel" are Hebrew names, it is most likely that the Hebrew language existed from Adam to the Tower of Babel. To be fair, it is possible that these “foreign” names were translated into Hebrew names, but if this were true, why didn't they translate the existing foreign names into Hebrew?

That's interesting. Something to bare in mind is Joshua 24:2 https://biblehub.com/joshua/24-2.htm . In Genesis 24+ https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-Chapter-24/ Abraham has his eldest servant go to find a wife for Isaac, he goes to the city of Nahor. If you follow through the rest of the story looking at the towns mentioned(where their located) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram-Naharaim this is where Laban is also from (Haran).

Gobekli tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevalı_Çori and others are the towns around the same area Abraham's servant goes to get Isaac's wife(my kindred from Gen.24:4) ...

Now these two I think are more probably the other Gods mentioned in Joshua that would have been in the towns around where Terah,Abraham ect. were and very close to Ararat where the Ark rested.

 

[Marcelo]

That's interesting. Something to bare in mind is Joshua 24:2 https://biblehub.com/joshua/24-2.htm . In Genesis 24+ https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-Chapter-24/ Abraham has his eldest servant go to find a wife for Isaac, he goes to the city of Nahor. If you follow through the rest of the story looking at the towns mentioned(where their located) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram-Naharaim this is where Laban is also from (Haran).

Gobekli tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevalı_Çori and others are the towns around the same area Abraham's servant goes to get Isaac's wife(my kindred from Gen.24:4) ...

Now these two I think are more probably the other Gods mentioned in Joshua that would have been in the towns around where Terah,Abraham ect. were and very close to Ararat where the Ark rested.

After a quick reading I came to the following conclusion: Hebrew probably is indeed the oldest language on Earth. It was handed down from Adam to Abraham and he brought it from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Since the Canaanites didn't have a unified language (there were many tribes with many languages) it was relatively easy (over time) for Hebrew to become dominant in that area. Linguists say Hebrew is a Canaanite language, but I think it would be more correct to say that Proto-Canaanite was a Hebraic language.

 

[Kavik]

After a quick reading I came to the following conclusion: Hebrew probably is indeed the oldest language on Earth.

Hebrew is no older than any other Semitic language which developed from Proto-Semitic, which in turn (P-Semitic) started out as a dialect/branch of Proto Afro-Asiatic.