I have been thinking lately about the idea that, for me as a languages person, the Tower of Babel is one of God's most merciful miracles.

Leaving the theological underpinnings to our pastors, I notice it could have been much worse. If God had just intended to break up the mass of humans trying to supplant Him, He could have given every single person on earth his own individual language so no one could communicate with anyone else. He could have planted a rudimentary language in each group that would take them thousands of years to develop. Instead, he apparently came up instantaneously with over 7000 languages with fully developed grammars. Ancient writings show us that, though each language has changed over the centuries, they were fully developed in their own time. What an amazing miracle. People who study languages and grammar know instinctively that God's intelligence is beyond our understanding. We have a very high view of His holiness.

Then in the Great Commission He reversed at least part of Babel. People like Jim Elliott were to learn the languages of isolated people in order to deliver the precious words of salvation to every people group on earth. Now having a common language can further God's Kingdom rather than be an attempt to supplant God. Jim Elliott learned Spanish to go to Ecuador, which was nothing like Quichua, the dominant language before Europeans arrived in that area. He learned that, too. Yet Babel had somehow made a completely different language exist in the jungle right next door to the Quichua people. It was Auca/Waorani. Jim Elliott had to learn that language from one captured servant girl among the Quichuas. Otherwise, the Aucas/Waoranis were completely closed off from the rest of the world.

Last week, Andres, Ariuka, and I were talking about I John 1 where we see in English that we make God a liar if we claim to have no sin. I had noticed, reading it in Spanish, that we make God "mentiroso" (an adjective that would be translated "liar-ous"). So Andres pulled out his phone and checked the Greek. It had a noun, liar, like the English. That was a very fun conversation for me, reading Bible verses in several languages at once. Just like the italics show us in the KJV, all languages flow differently.

God's mind is astonishing. The languages He created are beautiful. I have only studied four others, Spanish, Russian, Greek, and German, from the relatively tiny part of the world called Europe, but all four differ greatly, despite the fact the countries speaking them are very close together. In Russian, there are many fewer verb forms than usual, but each verb has two words to represent the action, one for imperfect (continuous) action and one for perfect (completed) action. I believe God decided that at Babel. Greek has "verbals" where a verb is turned into a noun by adding a particular ending (so "contemplates" can turn into a word for "person who contemplates"). German makes new nouns by gluing three or four nouns together in one word. Spanish is so soft that there should be a law making all lullabies Spanish!

I don't know how these languages have changed since Babel but God does. And if we truly do continue studying throughout eternity, I plan to learn how every language He created developed from Babel onward. To my mind, Babel and those processes (which He knew in advance) reflect His glory in a truly miraculous way!