What Language Did Adam Speak?

First, we need to look at whether Hebrew is a pre-Babel or post-Babel language, and second, what the relationship between the Hebrew words ’iš and ’iššāh are.

Did Language Change Between Adam and Babel?

First, we aren’t told how language changed in the approximate 1,656 years between Adam and the flood. For some context, 1,656 years ago (368 AD), Old English, the beginning stage of English, didn’t even exist, and the Germanic languages that would develop into Old English sounded nothing like English does today. People lived longer before the flood, which would mean that language probably changed less, but with the growth of the human population and possibly splintering off into separate groups, some development of different dialects pre-flood is not out of the realm of possibility.

Directly after the flood, the eight people who survived on the ark spoke the same language, which we can safely assume was either Adam’s language or a dialect of Adam’s language.

Directly after the flood, the eight people who survived on the ark spoke the same language, which we can safely assume was either Adam’s language or a dialect of Adam’s language. But within a few generations, the human population descended from the ark’s passengers underwent the judgment at Babel where God confused their languages. Babel is presented as a universal rebellion, and the confusion of the languages is presented as a universal judgment. When God chooses Abraham to start a new nation that will belong to him in a special way, Scripture tells us that he was initially an idolater (Joshua 24:2). If there was a family that retained the pre-flood language of Noah and his family, we aren’t told.

Was Hebrew the Pre-Babel Language?

Is there something special about Hebrew that indicates it may be the language of Noah? Again, it’s a complex picture. Linguistically, Hebrew is located within a family tree of languages termed Afro-Asiatic languages. It had previous forms, and it developed over time as all other languages have. In fact, there is evidence that the Hebrew text itself underwent updating over time to keep it understandable to its current readers—the form of the text we have today began to be used around 500 BC, during the Babylonian exile, which is why liberal scholars wrongly think that’s when it was written.

All this means that even if Adam spoke an early version of Hebrew (which is itself unlikely), it might be nearly unrecognizable to someone familiar with biblical Hebrew. And it does not seem that there was a godly line at Babel for God to preserve a “special language,” since he took Abraham from an idolatrous culture and family (Joshua 24:2–3).

And there may have been earlier written or oral traditions that Moses brought together to form the book of Genesis, but it is Genesis, not those hypothetical earlier records, that is inspired.

The Hebrew of Genesis 2:23

If Adam’s language was very different from Hebrew, how could Moses quote him in Hebrew? Translation of language probably happened a lot in Scripture. For instance, Pharaoh was not speaking Hebrew to Joseph (Genesis 41:15), nor was a later Pharaoh speaking Hebrew to Moses (Exodus 5:2). Jesus probably spoke most of his teachings in Aramaic, but with the exception of a few Aramaic sayings, Jesus’ words in the Gospels are communicated to us in Greek.

It is not wrong for the Bible to translate from the language a person was speaking into Greek or Hebrew because the same thoughts can be communicated in different languages.

It is not wrong for the Bible to translate from the language a person was speaking into Greek or Hebrew because the same thoughts can be communicated in different languages. This is important in the realm of Bible translation because God commanded us to take the gospel everywhere, which means that each language needs its own Bible translation so people can read about Jesus and believe in him.

God knew that he would inspire Scripture in Hebrew, so he was able to structure it in such a way that it would be perfectly suitable for what he wanted to convey, including preserving wordplays where applicable. Because we affirm Babel is a supernatural event, there is no problem with including the idea that God engineered certain languages to have certain characteristics.

Hebrew does preserve a similarity between the word for man and woman (a similarity English also has, even though it is clearly not the language Adam was speaking). Most sources I consulted claim that ’iš and ’iššāh only sound similar and have different etymology. However, the fact that both words have similar irregular pluralizations (’iš pluralizes to ’ănāšîm, while ’iššāh pluralizes to nāšîm) may indicate that the two words are related.

Incidentally, similar issues of Hebrew wordplay from someone who probably wasn’t speaking Hebrew arise in Genesis 5:29, where there’s a wordplay with Noah and nuach, the Hebrew word for comfort. However, the name itself could be translated, similarly to how Eve is translated to Zoe in the LXX of Genesis 3:20. For a modern example, Charis and Grace are both female names, Grace being the translated version of Charis (Greek).

Language and Inspiration

God inspired Genesis at the time of Moses to accurately portray Adam’s words in Hebrew, regardless of the language Adam was speaking.

God inspired Genesis at the time of Moses to accurately portray Adam’s words in Hebrew, regardless of the language Adam was speaking. If you want to learn Hebrew, don’t learn it because Adam might have spoken it; learn it because God inspired 2/3 of Scripture in that language, and there are a lot of really cool aspects of Scripture you can better understand in the original language.

We can still affirm that Genesis 2:23 communicated what he said in the best way possible in biblical Hebrew, including a wordplay affirming the very close interrelationship between man and woman.