What Language Will We Speak in Heaven?
June 10, 2008 – 9:21 pmAny takers?
I can’t imagine that language will still be a barrier once we get to heaven but I haven’t personally seen any scripture that describes communication in heaven. I found an article that states the following:
My ancestors stoutly maintained that it would be Dutch, of course. A rabbi I know has told me it will be Hebrew; every baby, he said, still remembers the language that will be restored in Heaven, the language of Eden, as evidenced by the fact that a child’s first word is often abba (”Father” or “Daddy” in Hebrew).
It will be none of the languages that now divide us, which began at Babel. Babel and its babble will be reversed. This was foreshadowed at Pentecost, where distinctive languages were preserved, not muddled, yet each person understood everyone else. Perhaps there will be as many languages as there are individuals, and yet at the same time only one. What is sure is that there will be no misunderstanding. Language, like clothing, now both reveals and conceals, unveils and veils meaning. In Heaven, language, like clothing, will only reveal.
Can someone point me in the right direction?
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7 Responses to “What Language Will We Speak in Heaven?”
You hear me say this constantly, but I still want to know what you mean by “heaven”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html
Generally I would agree with the articles premise that “This was foreshadowed at Pentecost, where distinctive languages were preserved, not muddled, yet each person understood everyone else. Perhaps there will be as many languages as there are individuals, and yet at the same time only one. What is sure is that there will be no misunderstanding.”
By Jack
on Jun 11, 2008
By heaven I mean “where believers go after they die”.
By Jeremy
on Jun 11, 2008
To paraphrase Tom Wright, the New Testament is far more concerned with the life after the life after death than it is what we commonly call “heaven”(namely, some disembodied bliss completely disassociated with any physical habitation).
Essentially, heaven is not my home; a restored creation is.
By Jack
on Jun 11, 2008
How common is that school of thought? I’ve never heard about a “life after heaven”.
Based on your language comment, you believe that each person will still speak their own language but will understand other languages just fine?
By Jeremy
on Jun 11, 2008
That school of thought was incredibly common prior to the second great awakening. We’ve lost a lot of it (and many, many others) through much of what came as a result of the massive theological shift that took place through the “awakening” movements.
N.T. Wright (Bishop of Durham in the Anglican church) is probably the most public, notable advocate of this position in regular circulation. I’ve got some sermons preached by another fellow I like around the time of Easter, Ascension and Pentecost along the same lines.
I’ve found that the more I immerse myself in the language of the New Testament, I find it to speak often that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” but that the larger drive is towards the resurrection of the body and the restored creation.
I’d strongly recommend N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope” ( http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Hope-Rethinking-Resurrection-Mission/dp/0061551821 ) if you want to chase any further reading or at least peruse the time magazine article. I find him to be an incredibly engaging writer and speaker.
I can’t be pinned down too quickly on how I think linguistics will work (whether we’re talking disembodied-bliss-heaven or a restored creation). I do agree that the linguistic phenomenon of Pentecost was a foreshadowing of the realities that will exist in the restored creation. I’m not willing to say whether we’ll all speak the same language or we’ll just all understand each other. I think the impetus in the event is towards “restored order” where the other pinnacle of linguistic phenomenon is recorded as the confusion of languages and dispersion of the people at Babel (imposed chaos) as narrated in Genesis 11.
By Jack
on Jun 11, 2008
Revelation 21 talks about a new heaven and earth being created. Is this the life after heaven after death that you speak of (life on earth -> physical death -> heaven -> life on new earth/heaven)?
By Jeremy
on Jun 11, 2008
Indeed.
The “new creation” teaching has its roots in Old Testament (Isaiah). I would argue that the restoration towards that new creation is the sine qua non of the New Testament teaching on the “Resurrection” (both of Jesus after his burial and by his disciples on “the last day”). The apostle Paul references this theme in 2 Corinthians as well when he speaks towards “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, behold the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Literally translated, Paul’s phrase is “If in Christ, there is new creation, the old is passing away, the new has begun”. (We can discuss finer points of translation at another juncture)
The resurrection of Christ began the “putting to rights” of that which went terribly wrong at the fall. (Consider Isaiah 65:17-25 for the prophetic description of the fuller “putting to rights”) If we understand what happened at Adam to be a gross imbalance towards the pervasiveness of death and a great boon for increasing entropy, Isaiah’s teaching seems to be towards a reversal of that imbalance; begun (and progressively increasing) by the work of Jesus in his death and resurrection.
I think it is also Isaiah’s image of the “New Creation” that Peter has in mind in his second epistle when he encourages faithful believers to persevere in their labors and struggles because “…according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)
By Jack
on Jun 12, 2008