We have the evidence of the Torah for this point. The Hebrew language was passed down from one person to another until it reached Eber (Eber received it from Noah and Noah from Adam); for Hebrew was the language spoken by Eber (Ever) and it was called Ivrit (Hebrew) after him because he preserved it even during the confusion of tongues at Babel. And Abraham preserved it after Eber. However, while he was in Ur Abraham spoke Aramaic because that was the local language; he retained Hebrew as a language of holiness and used Aramaic for everyday purposes.
This conception, which was held by non-Jewish scholars also until the eighteenth century, contains two principles: that Hebrew was the first of all languages--the language in which the Creator spoke to Adam, and which was spoken by everyone until the time of the Tower of Babel; and that other languages spoken by other peoples came into being in the generation of Babel, Hebrew remaining the language of Eber, and in turn that of the Patriarchs and the Jewish people. The first of these principles is accepted by Ramban, as we can see from his comment on Exodus 30:13, in which he explains why Hebrew is known as "the Holy Tongue" (lashon ha-kodesh):
Because the words of the Torah and of the prophecies, and all sacred pronouncements, were all said in that language, and it is the language which the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks with His prophets and His congregation [when He pronounced] "I am the Lord your God Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt" and "You shall have no other gods before Me" and the rest of the commandments, and the prophecies, and it is in Hebrew that He is called by His holy Names ... and through it He created His world and gave the names of "heaven" and "earth" and of everything that is in them, and His angels and all their hosts--He calls them all by name, Michael [i.e. Who is like God?] and Gabriel [Strength of God], in that language, and in that language He gave names to holy people on earth, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Solomon, and others like them.
Notes
1.Kuzari 2:68
2. Nor in several texts which copy from Ramban, from Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi and Rabbenu Bachya to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in the great Preface to his dictionary. It was found by Rabbi Shaval in an old manuscript of Ramban and appears in his edition, published by Mossad Ha-Rav Kook. Later he also printed it in Mikraot Gedolot; Torat Haim (same publisher).
Translated by Dr Phyllis Hackett
Jewish Perspectives
