Editing Adamic language (section)

=== Opponents ===
By the 17th century, the existence and nature of the alleged Adamic language was commonly discussed amongst European Jewish and Christian mystics and primitive linguists.<ref name="Noordegraaf">{{Cite journal |last=Noordegraaf |first=Jan |date=1983 |title=Nog eens Hedendaagsch fetischisme |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_voo004198301_01/_voo004198301_01_0009.php |journal=Voortgang |publisher= Stichting Neerlandistiek VU |volume=4 |issue=10 |pages=193–230 |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref> [[Robert Boyle]] (1627–1691) was skeptical that Hebrew was the language best capable of describing the nature of things, stating:
<blockquote>I could never find, that the Hebrew names of animals, mentioned in the beginning of Genesis, argued a (much) clearer insight into their natures, than did the names of the same or some other animals in Greek, or other languages (1665:45).<ref name="Noordegraaf"/></blockquote>

[[John Locke]] (1632–1704) expressed similar skepticism in his ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]'' (1690).<ref name="Noordegraaf"/>