Language Pt. 2 the perfect language

If you're just now joining us, this post won't make much sense without reading PART ONE. I suggest starting there. Then come back and join the rest of the class. Don't doddle.

PERFECT DIAMOND

I believe that the language that Adam and Eve spoke was the very same language that the Lord spoke, when he created the universe. It was a perfect language. This makes sense to me particularly because Adam and Eve never actually learned the language. It was simply given to them. They also acquired this language while they were living in a perfect state in perfect communion with God. Why would he chose for them to use an imperfect form of communication in paradise? Let us remember, that they were created in his image to be like him in just about every way, down to the language.

I have some examples of WHY I think they spoke a perfect language, which I'll get to in a second. First, I want to talk about what a perfect language IS by starting with what it ISN'T.

In every form of human language (written, oral, or signed) the connection between the signifier and the signified is completely arbitrary. Let me explain what that means... There is absolutely no direct correlation between the word "tree" and the actual entity of a tree. There is also nothing about the sound or the shape of the word that universally represents a tree. Furthermore, there is nothing more tree-ish about the English word "tree" than there is about the Spanish word "arbol." Both of these signifiers are simply symbols that we agree upon to represent something - but they have nothing to do with the thing itself. This is the mark of an imperfect language.
There are a few exceptions here: onomatopoeia (omg i totally spelled that correctly on the first try!), and sign language. Also, for anyone familiar with the poems of e.e. cummings, some of his devices create visual effects that represent the subject, i.e. "Grasshoppers." These examples are only partial and still there is only an indirect connection between the signifier and the signified.
Even when we do agree on a meaning for a "word," that meaning is still very vague and open to the interpretation of the listener. When you hear the word "tree," which do you mean?

You can see how much ambiguity is built into our everyday speech. I've also heard that in sign language (especially when spelling), or in lip reading, the goal isn't to catch every single word that is said. In fact, you only truly focus on a few of them and then simply fill in the blanks with whatever is logically missing.

This is one of the prime differences with a perfect language. In a perfect language, there is no ambiguity in meaning at all. It would be impossible to be misunderstood. On top of that, there is a direct correlation between signifier and signified. Words would have only one specific meaning, which would communicate the exact same thing to any person who listened. In fact, the connection between word and being is so strong, that the true word (or expression) for a thing IS the thing itself. Thus, when God says the word "LIGHT," light happens.

Though I came to this conclusion about the nature and power of a perfect language before I heard it elsewhere, other wiser men than I have written the same thing: Plato and St. Augustine, to name a few.

PROPHETIC POWER

From that last revelation, God connected the dots for me to the idea of Prophecy. Biblical prophecy has two major functions: foretelling and forthtelling. Foretelling is the one we more commonly think of, though it occurs much less frequently. It's what we normally think of as predicting the future. The much more common form of prophecy in the Bible (and the one that concerns us here) is forthtelling: in other words, calling things forth, creating. When God tells Joshua "Be strong and courageous," he isn't commanding him to muster something up from inside himself. His words actually create strength and courage in Joshua. Therefore, God actually prophesied the universe into existence.

I believe one evidence of the power of this perfect language come from Adam's first job:

Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

What's understood here is the value of the name in the Hebrew mindset. To the Hebrew speaker name = identity. God wasn't simply giving Adam the task of cataloguing creation - he wanted to let him help create. Yes, the being itself was already created, but it was Adam who gave it identity. He got to put the "lion" into the cat.

Another example of the power of this perfect language comes with the story of Babel. Only with a perfect language could mankind accomplish something so profound that even God admitted they could do anything they put their minds to:

And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them."

He recognizes the danger of a perfect language among a fallen people, so he smashes the diamond.

I'm going to have to split this post again for fear that no one will read it otherwise.