02. The First Language of Humanity!

02. The First Language of Humanity! “In the beginning, God created language.” Among the records that preserve the history or events of this world, the oldest recorded book is the Bible. The first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, states: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Just as all things in the world began from here, language also began at this time and has reached us today through the Korean script and language we use. It is like parents giving birth to and raising their children; God’s love created the heavens and the earth and provided all the necessary background for humans to live. However, despite this, humans betrayed God, but God sent His only Son to save the betraying humans. Just as the history of God’s love for humanity has flowed down to today, language, too, was created by God and given to humans to use, and it has flowed down to us through various developments and changes. So, how did these things flow down through what process? To understand this concretely, we need to think about a few concepts. First, among the records that the Creator created the heavens and the earth, the part that says “created the heavens and the earth” is recorded as: “When was it created?” The Bible declares this in one word: “In the beginning.” This “beginning” refers to an unknown point in time when the heavens and the earth were created, which is the beginning of the concept of created time. The heavens and the earth mean that all forms of all things, including their tangible and intangible characteristics, were created. “In the beginning” refers to the first world where everything on this earth began, called “the beginning” or “that beginning.” In this sense, the word “beginning” itself became the only word that signifies the beginning and start, and it is a unique concept and expression‎ for the created point in time. The time that began then has flowed down to now, and although we do not know how much longer it will flow, the Bible also declares that there will be a final day when this time ends. The first form of language created on this earth was sound itself. Strictly speaking, while all creatures in the world were created from nothing, the only thing used in the creation process was “Logos” (Greek for “word,” “reason,” “plan”), which means “the Word of God.” This word was conveyed in the form of sound because there were no characters yet for the recipient to hear or for the sender to convey the meaning. The Creator declared and commanded what He intended and planned with words, and the heavens and the earth were created. That is creation, and that is when the creatures were formed. However, if we look at the creation process, we cannot find a point where sound was created as a material. The reason is that there is no exact record of it. Of course, the reason for the lack of records is that the Bible could not record every detail of creation, and also because the Bible did not record things that were not directly related to the gospel. So, when was sound created? Although the Bible does not explicitly record this point, we can infer when sound was created by carefully examining the records of creation. It is naturally understood that sound was already created when God created the heavens and the earth, as seen from the principles of creation and matter. If we look closely at the things expressed in the creation process in Genesis 1 and 2, except for light, all are described as tangible things, but sound as a material is intangible, similar to light, based on human senses. Through the statement that “In the beginning, there was the Word of God,” we can infer that sound was created before light. The reason is that God first declared, “Let there be light!” with words. And if we think about the fact that the sound must have already occurred during the process of the sky being in the midst of the waters and separating the waters on the second day, we can naturally infer that sound, like light, was created on the first day. And on the third day, when the waters gathered into one place and the dry land appeared, how grand and majestic must the sound have been? The fifth day was the period when the most beautiful sounds were expressed since the creation of sound, as all kinds of creatures were created, birds chirped, and all creatures made their own sounds, like various instruments coming together to form an orchestra, glorifying the Creator and manifesting His glory to the fullest. And the being created on the sixth day to carry out the most important task of glorifying God and revealing His glory more than any other creature was ‘man’. He created the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the livestock, all the creatures that move along the ground, and all the plants for the animals to live on. To man, He gave all the seed-bearing plants on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it for food (meat was allowed much later). And He commanded man to be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over all the animals. God gave man the ability and right to think, act, and choose actively because He entrusted man with the greatest task of creation. And every time man fulfilled his role well, God was most pleased and delighted with the creation of man among all creatures because only humans actively used words and songs to directly praise God. This was the greatest purpose for which God created man, and He entrusted all creation to man to rule over and fulfill this purpose. However, the concept of a day in Genesis may differ from the 24-hour day we use today. The Bible expresses that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day, which is an intentional expression‎ to help humans, who live within the framework of time, understand a concept that is completely beyond our comprehension. Thus, while giving humans the maximum authority and the ability to choose and decide everything, God warned them about only one thing: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” This command was given to see if they would keep and obey God’s word or become proud and disobey, distancing themselves from God. And at this time, sound was already being used as a means of communication between the Creator and the first humans, and between humans and animals. The evidence can be clearly seen in the account of Genesis. God, seeing that the first man Adam had no suitable helper, caused him to fall into a deep sleep, took one of his ribs, and made a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam. The two communicated through language. How delighted Adam must have been to say, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” Not only that, but later, Eve, despite committing an irreversible great sin, is seen conversing with the serpent.The meeting of man and woman symbolizes the meeting of the Creator God and humans, and the future meeting of Jesus, the bridegroom, and His people. What is linguistically important here is that God did not give Adam and Eve the raw material of sound for them to develop into a more sensory and convenient language through continuous effort, but rather, He gave them a complete language capable of communication from the start. Through this, God used language as a means of communication with humans. However, looking at human history, we can see how people used this language. God gave humans and animals a language that could be understood by both, allowing them to communicate with God and understand His will fully, and to communicate with animals, ruling over and enjoying everything. Adam and Eve lacked nothing. However, despite this, the two disobeyed God’s command, “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and fell into the serpent’s deceit, eating the forbidden fruit, thereby forfeiting the qualification given by God, bringing about the first and greatest misfortune in human history.