Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Rational Sheep and the Word of God

The Scriptures tell the story of humanity with a profound sense of language. The first action of God is speech: “Let there be light!” God does not teach man to speak – we can only assume from the Biblical story that humanity and speech exist together from the beginning. God brings the animals to Adam, “to see what he would name them.” Animals could not exist within the human world and not be named. This is not because there is something inherently “nameable” about animals – rather it is human beings who must name. I say that we must name, because it is an instinct:

Read more at Gloy2GodforAllThings

The above paragraph reminds me of a Celtic tradition where they would name things to have power over those things - such as a haunted hill or pass. Once those things were named you could then invoke that name to have power over it.

This tradition also passed to people, who would be given a name at birth, but would later be given names for appearance, or deeds. Oft times the birth name would be kept secret and the honorary name would be used instead.

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