How Many Languages Came From Babel?

Answer:

And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. (Genesis 11:6)

Genesis 10:32

Genesis 11:13–14

There were at least 78 families that came out of Babel with new languages because Genesis 10 gives a listing of most of these families.

We left off Noah and his three sons since they are not listed in Genesis 10 as having been divided (Genesis 10:32). We also left off Peleg as he was probably just born or very young and kept the language of his parents, since the language division occurred “in the days of Peleg” (Genesis 10:25).

Some people in Genesis 10 were intentionally left out so that they could be discussed in Genesis 11. For example, Selah had other sons and daughters in Genesis 11:14. So that means there were a minimum of 78 language families and possibly a few more. Now these language families gave rise to almost all of the languages we have today. German, English, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Austrian are all part of one language family. Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian are all part of another language family. If you tally these language families up around the world, there are less than 100 language families in the world today. This is a good confirmation of what the Bible says about the origin of languages at the Tower of Babel!