Dave Siemens wrote:
>Your statement gives me great confidence, since both BDB and TWOT specify
>that "lip" in Genesis 11:1 means 'language'. I so approve of the
>everybody's-wrong-but-me attitude. Thank you.
Dave, let's say you ask me to proof read something and I balk at doing
it. So you say, "I'll give you $100 if you will do it."
"Now you are speaking my language," I might reply. Do I mean we are both
speaking English? We all understand terms of expression that don't mean
word for word what we say. "Fountains of the deep" refers to a system of
irrigation to anyone versed in Accadian/Sumerian history. But how long
have we known anything about ancient Sumer? Nothing was known prior to
1830. So why be surprised that all the commentary written prior to 1830 is
As it pertains to Genesis 11, since we know the word for land and earth is
the same, you could say everyone in the land (land of Shinar) was speaking
ancient Hebrew at the time the tower of Babel was being built. Could that
mean by implication the nearby Sumerians were busy building their own
towers in their own cult centers, and in Babylon this was purely a Semitic
undertaking? It could, I suppose. If you like that better, run with
it. But don't look for it in traditional sources who seem to think Sumer
is summer misspelled.
Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago"
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