Jubilees 3:28

Pseudepigrapha

27 And on that day on which Adam went forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savour an offering, frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame. 28 And on that day was closed the mouth of all beasts, and of cattle, and of birds, and of whatever walks, and of whatever moves, so that they could no longer speak: for they had all spoken one with another with one lip and with one tongue. 29 And He sent out of the Garden of Eden all flesh that was in the Garden of Eden, and all flesh was scattered according to its kinds, and according to its types unto the places which had been created for them. 30 And to Adam alone did He give (the wherewithal) to cover his shame, of all the beasts and cattle.

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1.40

Classical

4 God therefore commanded that Adam and his wife should eat of all the rest of the plants, but to abstain from the Tree of Knowledge; and foretold to them, that if they touched it, it would prove their destruction. But while all the living creatures had one language at that time, the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, shewed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily, and in obedience to the commands of God.

 Notes and References

"... Jubilees portrays animals as even more rational than in the Bible. Language is important to Jubilees and is original to creation. Thus, it seems that even animals spoke Hebrew in the beginning. Targum Neofiti (Genesis 11:1) may also hint that animals could speak with humans and each other: “and all the inhabitants of the earth were of one tongue and one speech, and in the language of the Temple they used to converse, for through it had the world been created in the beginning.” Others writing around the time of Jubilees also unquestioningly accepted the idea of original animal speech. Josephus notes that at that time, “all the creatures spoke a common tongue” (Jewish Antiquities 1:41; compare 1:50). Philo concurs, “it is said that, in olden times ... snakes could speak with a man’s voice” (On the Creation of the World, 156). The Life of Adam and Eve (37:1–3) records the story of a serpent biting Seth while he was walking with Eve. Eve curses the serpent because it was not afraid to set itself against a human as the image of God, but the serpent “answered in a human voice: ‘O Eve, is not our enmity against you?’” ..."

Wells, A. Rahel 'One Language and One Tongue': Animal Speech in Jubilees 3:27–31 (pp. 319-337) Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 28, No. 4, 2019

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