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      Question: Who had the first word?


      June 25th, 2007 | by daniel | bible question

      Borrowing a page from Cory and Kendi’s blog I thought I’d post a Bible Question.

      While reading a magazine I saw a short review of the book “The First Word: The search for the Origins of Language” by Christine Kenneally. The review states that the book is “a useful introduction to the exciting new field of evolutionary linguistics.” Apparently the players in the field deny the role of natural selection in the development of language and the field is young.
      So my question is: Were Adam and Eve created with knowledge of language, or was language developed later?

      An ancillary question is: How did Adam and Eve communicate with God?

      Posted in bible question

      3 Responses to “Question: Who had the first word?”

      1. Jason "The Wordsmith" Powers Says:
        June 25th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

        “And God said…” “In the beginning was the word… and the Word was God.” “Night by night pours forth speech…”

        I think that the nature of God is to communicate Himself, since that is the highest good that can ever happen, and since He is the consummate doer of good.

        I think that part of being created in the image of God is being created with the ability to communicate God. A fully realized God is and can be found everywhere, so at the beginning, in Eden, all speech was God speech.

        Also, it says that God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would call them.

        That’s a great question though. Can’t wait to see the other thoughts.

      2. Cory & Kendi Says:
        June 25th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

        In our opinion, Genesis 1 and 2 has a few accounts in which God appears to be speaking directly to Adam. 1:28 He commands them to be fruitful and multiply. In 2:15-17 He commands not to eat from the tree. 2:19-20, Adam names all the living creatures. Also, after Eve is created, Adam has a “direct” quote if you willsaying that she is bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh.” Then at the beginning of Genesis 3, Eve has a quote while speaking to the serpent. To us, at least Adam and Eve were created with the knowledge of speech because they were created as adult human beings. They were not raised by biological parents and thus were the only humans to walk the earth that we know of who were never infants. Herego, they were created with the knowledge of speech. Now, speech seems to be a trait learned from parents and surrounding environment as an infant matures cognitively. Long story short: Adam and Eve created with the knowledge and those after learned.

      3. amelia Says:
        July 2nd, 2007 at 8:13 pm

        I mentioned this post to Jon and he laughed and said, “I have thought of that one a LOT.” He told me that some philosophy guy (I’m such an intellectual, NOT!) said that without language there isn’t a sense of being and that seems to apply with Adam and Eve. If they didn’t have an ability to communicate, they would have no ability to think inside their head and have a sense of being. He said some other stuff too but I thought that part was cool.

        My thought was that God gave them the job of naming the creatures so surely they had to speak to do that!

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