Words, words, words
“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 2 for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. 3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Proverbs 3:1-3 ESV). What is meant by the word “heart?” I’ve been reading the Revised English Bible of late and it renders the closing phrase: “inscribe them on the tablet of your memory.” This makes sense, helps to understand “heart” in this context. I was reading the awful story of the unnamed women in Judges 19 along with an analysis by Phylis Trible in her book, Texts of Terror, where she draws attention to a subtle Hebrew wordplay. In this terrible story, the unnamed women, taken as a concubine by a Levite, runs home to father after a falling out. It is unclear whether she left in rebellion or out of anger at the Levite’s behavior. In any event, the Levite follows her to dad’s house to “appeal to her and bring her back” (Judges 19:3 REB). Trible suggests an alternate rendering of the Hebrew: “to speak to her heart, to bring her back” (Trible, 67). She cites two more examples of similar Hebrew word usage. After the humiliation of Jacob’s daughter Dinah by Shechem, Trible renders Genesis 34:3 as “he loved the young woman and spoke to her heart” as opposed to the more traditional “spoke tenderly to her.” The other example is from the promise of restoration to wayward Israel placed on the lips of Hosea who declares Yahweh’s intention to bring Israel to the wilderness to, in Trible’s rendering, “speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:14-16). I mention this to point out the need for good words to get across the intended meaning. Something is always lost. Translating across barriers of language, culture, and time only add to the difficulty, but no language can ever convey exact meaning. I propose a sacramental view of language where language becomes a window or lens that opens and facilitates understanding and knowledge to some degree. Knowledge is made present and real in some mysterious way through words. Knowledge, by the way, is not just information. Consider what is meant by “Adam knew his wife.” This is entirely different than saying “Noah knew that the waters had subsided.” Knowledge can be relational. Consider John 10:25-38. Jesus has been asked to “speak plainly” whether he was the Christ or not. His answer, of course given in words, refers to “works” that “bear witness” to who he is and who he is related to. “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know…” (John 10:37-38 ESV). Words here serve to illuminate works that are difficult to understand. What God is doing is often confusing. Thankfully, we have words that open a window onto, provide a lens to perceive the action. We desperately need some good words.
