The Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel, and the Road to Emmaus While linguists are debating over decades for a persuasive theory, Bible has much to say even at the very beginning of the book of Genesis about language. The author of Genesis presumes God carries out His will and performs His mighty act of creation simply by His speech. We are faced by the statement that God said in each day of God s creation. The word of God is not merely a tool of communication in biblical perspective. It carries the power of God together with it and the result of existence according to the will of God. As what said in Isa55:10-11, the word that comes out from God will surely accomplish His will 1. Similar to God revealing His sovereign power through His utterance, Adam, before the fall, also plays a role as a representative of God to fulfill God s mandate by naming the animals. Genesis 2:20 says, the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field. At that point, we notice that Adam does not hold any discussion with God, or seeking advice from God in his naming of animals. Also, it seems that God is pleased with whatever name Adam gave to the animals. Adam carried out God s mandate so well to a stage that whatever he spoke, it was true and it was done according to his will. It is in this setting that we ought to question, what is the relationship in between God and Adam in the matter of speech? How can Adam pleased God with his word whenever he speaks? Moises Silva, in his book of God, Language and Scripture, says that it is because of God created Adam in his own image that Adam can speak since God Himself speaks. It is of course consists of some distinctive differences in God s speech and Adam s speech since Adam s speech depends on the true 1 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Isa 55:10-11
knowledge of God. Moises Silva pointed out that when Genesis tells us that God created man in His own image, the focus is not on some specify quality but on human beings in totality, including speech 2. When the Holy-trinity decided to make man in Their image, according to Their likeness; and let man rule over His creations 3, God did also granted Adam the gift of language in order for him to rule. This gift from God carries power in making things true if and only if man rely on the true knowledge of God in their speech. Besides, with this gift from God, man also accomplished his intended purpose through speech. This is the condition and the characteristic of human language before the fall. Not too far from the beginning that Genesis recorded the fall of Adam (representative of men) in his disobedience to God s command. Since then, sin has entered into the world and immediately affected Adam and Eve, including their speech. Though they continued to bear the image of their Creator, but they are no longer in the same glory as before. They were in agony and frustration in their rule of creations. They used language to evade responsibility (Genesis3:12-13). Communication since then became sinful, lacking in truthfulness and men use speech for evil and idolatrous purposes. Generations after Adam and Eve used language in violence to carry out their sinful wills which include murder, challenge God s sovereignty, selfishness, etc. As a result, communication became filled with frustration, not accomplishing its intended purpose. The communication is affected by the lack of skill in speaker or author, so do the misunderstanding in hearer or reader. As time goes by, the corruption of communication grow deeper and deeper. Communication groans and suffers for losing its truthfulness and its original purpose since the fall of Adam until today 4. 2 Moisés Silva, 1990, p 23. 3 Genesis 1:26 4 Gen3:18-19 & Rom8:21-23.
Since then, the corruption of sin deeply affected the entire language system until today. Right before the calling of God to Abram, in Genesis 11:1-9, the author of Genesis portrays a very significant event related to the corruption of language, the story of the tower of Babel. Moises Silva pointed out that this record is neither to answer the historical curiosity about the development of civilization nor to give explanation on the existence of languages in our age 5. It could be that this story can describe better on the account for the origin of language families. However, the main purpose for this story is to provide a backdrop to the call of Abram. God intended to carry out His saving plan through His covenantal call and promises to Abram, to restore the position of man from the fall, including the fall of speaking truthfulness. When men planed to make use of language and words, together with their possessed skills to carry out their sinful mission to glorify themselves in the land of Shinar, the Lord came down and confused their tongues. Since then, they were no longer able to understand one another. Communication, both in conveying and interpreting a text meaning, has become a very difficult task to achieve. Miscommunication occurs since then, failure to speak truthfully scattered around the corners. Men were making efforts to reconstruct the unity of language since then. If we are sensitive enough, almost all linguistic theories that we have, both in semantic and pragmatic, assume the truthfulness of utterance in communication. It seems that truthfulness must be the base of any possible linguistic theories. However, it is exactly the definition of truthfulness and how to promote truthful speaking that linguists find it difficult to explain. Furthermore, it is exactly the failure in speaking truthfully that makes human conversation a very complicated task to perform, both in speaking and in writing. Besides requiring the speaker to speak what he intended to speak without making false description, the truthfulness of speech also includes the knowledge of the speaker about his speaking content, and how well he makes his utterance clear enough to his audience(s). Bible warns a lot about the evil speech. There are verses in Old Testament command God s people not to harm our neighbor through deceitful words. Some examples of these verses include 5 Moisés Silva, 1990, p 27-28.
the ninth commandment which forbid giving false witness against our neighbors (Exodus 20:16), do not bear false report, keep far from false charge (Exodus23:1,7), etc. Similar to Old Testament, the authors of New Testament also warns about the misuse of speech. Paul commanded the church of Ephesians to speak truth with their neighbors, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of mouths, but only what is helpful for building other up according to their needs (Ephesians 4:25-5:4). Other than Paul, Matthew, Peter, James and New Testament authors also stand in a line with this teaching. These teachings in one hand require believers to promote truthful speaking, in another hand hint us the corruption of the world by the evil speeches. The biggest defection in human language is its failure to reconcile with its Origin, who is God Himself. When sin entered into the world, men fail to handle language. Want it or not, men live in this corrupted world plays both active role and passive role in the use of language system. We are being affected by the defective language system, while in the same time hardly avoid ourselves to contribute more corruption to the same system. As a result, language lost its connectivity with its origin, who is God Himself. Men no longer speak in truth and in dignity. Lies are spread all around the corners. Word that we use derived away from its true meaning. The entire language system was corrupted and awaiting for redemption. Post-modernists could be right in seeing the failure of Modernists in their over confidence on Reason that lead to disappointment in the attempt to reconstruct the language system. However, they fail to recognize the true source of knowledge, who is God Himself in person. While God came down and confuse the tongues in the story of Babel, He continues to speak truthfully to His people. He made covenant with His chosen people; He spoke to them through His prophets and written laws. Also, as Mat13 and 1Cor 2:10-14 tell us, only those who are in Spirit can understand the word of God and response to it. Other than that, God has no way to make His word clear to men and He continues to pass over men in their blindness and that they do not understand God s gospel message. Not only so, in God s perfect timing, the very Word Himself, who is the only begotten son from the Father Jesus Christ, incarnated into human flesh, dwelt among the men, full
of grace and truth, as described and testified by the apostle John (John1:1-18). Indeed, Jesus did exercise His power through speech all over His ministry until the audiences at His time amazed and recognized that He speaks with authority and power with Him 6. Not only so, through Christ resurrection, He is now rules with the perfect efficiency of His word, accomplishing all the Father s purposes 7.Through Christ s redemption, believers have been united with Christ in a death like His and were crucified with Him so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, including the corruption of language. And, with Christ s resurrected life in us, we live as a righteous instrument for God and Christ work in us to make us righteous. Part of the righteous act that Christ works in us is to restore the purity of language in us. Therefore, we can speak His word with power to accomplish His purposes 8. Apostle John also reminded us that Jesus is the one who chose us as His people, appointed us so that we can bear fruit that will last in Him. Thus, our speech and writing will be used by God to accomplish eternal and lasting things. Regardless how we Christians exercise the gift of speech, such as to use it for parenting, for teaching, for preaching, for counseling or writing, we share in the ruling of Christ, who speaks and it happens! We speak or write and we see God s purposes accomplished. One of the true marks of church is that she is being sanctified by Christ with His word, as described in Ephesians1:4 to 5: 27. Thus, in men s transgression, language system has corrupted and despaired; but in Christ, the language system has restored. In the road of Emmaus, as recorded in Luke 24:13-35, show us that the original author of the Scripture the resurrected Jesus, has makes His own words justify to the two disciples. He taught the disciples how they should approach in understanding the meaning of the Scripture. It is only when 6 And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out. Luke4:3 7 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, Hesat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 8 1Thess1:5; 1Cor1:18..
we encounter with the source of the language, who is the Word in person, that we can have true interpretation of the text. Of course, The Holy Scripture should be treated differently as compared to other texts because God is the author but others are not. However, the result of Christ redemptive power in one s life also transforms the author that he can now speak or write in truth and dignity. Unless it is on the foundation of Christ redemptive power and the true knowledge of God, there is no way we can have a linguistic theory that can explain everything about everything. Conventional theory and Intentional theory could be very promising, unless it builds its foundation theologically, but not on Logocentrism. The rejection of post-modernists on Logocentrism does not qualify themselves to be the replacement or Lord of language. After all, it seems to me that they are ignoring and suppressing the obvious truth that God had revealed to them that word does consist of meaning. Their rejection of meaning in words served as an evidence of their rebellion against God. For what can be known about God (meaning) is plain to them, because God has clearly shown it to them, ever since the creation of the world. Post-modernists find no excuse about the failure to see the meaning of text. As a Christian, at least to Holy Scripture, we should rejoice in knowing that God (the author) is handling His text so well. We are call to make our very effort to study the Holy Text, because we know the word of God carries along His power to accomplish things according to His will. God said so, He means so, and thing was so!