Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In the Hebrew Bible, lashon [לָשׁוֹן] and safah [שָׂפָה] are both translated as ‘language’. In Genesis 10, survivors of the flood went their separate ways each according to their lashon. In Chapter 11, the builders of the Tower of Babel all spoke the same safah. Focusing on lashon, it changes radically over the Biblical millennium. From ~1400 BCE, lashon describes ways in which individuals speak. By 550-450 BCE, it was synonymous with ‘nation’ or ‘people’ and used in a manner more familiar to us today.
Author: Stanley Dubinsky
Institution: University of South Carolina
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409315105