understand it? In the twentieth century advances in symbolic logic, in structural linguistics,
and in translation theory have given us further tools to aid understanding. But these tools
also have their limitations, and to some extent may have been made possible only by
radical reductionistic assumptions that entered when the attempt was made to make the
subject-matter rigorous.
fill the earth and subdue it, ..." (Gen 1:28). From the beginning language, far from being a
mindless product of emergent evolution, serves not only human communication but divine
communication. Language is a gift that belongs not exclusively to man, but is shared by
God and man. And John 1:1 goes further. By calling the Second Person of the Trinity the
Word, and including an allusion to Genesis 1, John indicates that language as we know it
has its archetype in the very being of God. Language is incomprehensible because God is
incomprehensible in his Trinitarian Being. The meaning of communication has its original
in God himself. Meaning is not scientifically isolatable, as if only the creature and not the
Creator were involved.
that they see before them. But is that all? There can be depths in a reference like this. The
literal serpent, because of his role in the temptation, embodies a particular example of the
larger issue of evil and rebellion against God. Killing this particular serpent would not
necessarily bring an end to sin. Adam and Eve could come to understand that God is
making a promise concerning something much larger and deeper than this particular
serpent alone. The language about the serpent functions both to point to this serpent and to
point beyond it. And the meaning of God's statements will be illumined not merely by
subsequent events, but possibly by subsequent words that carry further explanation. The
explanation will include explanation of what is the larger reality of evil behind the literal
serpent. They may also include explanation of the larger reality of redemption alluded to in
the expression concerning the offspring of the woman.
because of the particular grammatical combination of those words.
dictionary and then putting them together in a particular order. We must attend to God's
meaning. And God's meaning is not boxed in. Rather, it will become evident in the
subsequent events and in the subsequent words of explanation. This early communication
already evokes those later realities in anticipation.
Society, Nov. 18, 2004; to appear in the Westminster Theological Journal 67/2 (2005).