The God of the universe communicates with us. It’s a shocking thing when we pause to really consider it. Perhaps more shocking is the reality that God has chosen to communicate with us via human language. Language is a complex phenomenon. As we struggle to understand God we must also take into consideration how language works. Much contemporary difficulty with the doctrine of inerrancy stems from a faulty understanding of language. But if we begin from God’s foundation we can work our way through this discussion of linguistics while standing firm on the doctrine of inerrancy.
Two common views of language, which have developed since the 20th century, have affected the way people read and interpret the Scriptures. The first view assumes that language is a strict science whose rules and regularities have an uncompromising nature to them. That is to say, some people apply the rules of language with a sort of woodenness to a text, in this case the Scriptures. As they apply these rules to the study and interpretation of the Bible they will often impose an unnatural use of language to the text that creates discrepancies and misunderstandings in the Bible. Language is far more dynamic than some philosophies of linguistics allow. There is a richness and a multi-dimensional nature to human communication that deserves to be upheld and affirmed, even as we use it to interpret the Scriptures.
The second view goes to an opposite extreme. Postmodern linguistics have often pointed out that language is contextually bound. This is, of course, true. All language operates within a specific culture which helps to establish meaning and make communication possible. Some philosophers have, however, used this reality to conclude that language is a prison from which we cannot escape, and therefore the Bible cannot stand as a transcendent revelation from God. To suggest that God’s Word can communicate a universal message to all people throughout all time is to ignore the limits of language, they would say. One wonders, of course, why such philosophers continue to write about this problem when their own writings too will fail to communicate their point universally. In practice, it seems, they do not actually affirm their own understanding of the limits of language.
These two views have and continue to dominate the difficulties many people have with the interpretation of the Bible today. As we wrestle in the coming weeks with the linguistic issues confronting the doctrine of inerrancy we will want to address specifically these two challenges. But there is an important, preliminary, point we can make at the start to ground our discussion: God is the creator of human language.
When we talk about and discuss human language, and even as we talk about different philosophies of linguistics (we will pay careful attention to Structuralism in the coming weeks), we must also begin with the realization that God is the creator of language. Human reasoning about language should not be equated with truth. The ways in which God uses language, and the ways he speaks about communication need to inform our philosophical foundation. We will explore in the coming weeks the reality that God has created language to be both diverse and fluid, and yet able to communicate real truth. Though there may be a seeming tension here, it is really reflective of God’s Trinitarian nature. He is diverse and yet concrete. His nature is the paradigm from which he creates all things, and that applies to language too. God, as creator, then, is the determiner of language’s nature and use. We ought to submit to him even as we wrestle with the difficulties inherent in linguistics.
From this starting place we can begin to unpack the relationship between linguistics and inerrancy. As usual, starting with God and moving forward solves many problems.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 