What Language Does God Speak?

A Speech Act Reading of Genesis 3:20-23

God speaks. Speaking, according to John Searle, is not merely saying something meaningful, it is rather performing such actions as asserting something as true, directing someone to do some future actions, committing oneself into undertaking some future actions, creating a new state of affairs, and expressing oneself (Searle, Meaning and Expression). The idea that speaking is a form of action goes back Socrates (in Plato, Cratylus, which is the earliest surviving writing that deals with language). John Austin, an Oxford Philosopher of Ordinary Language, developed the idea in his posthumous book, How to Do Things with Words. In speaking, people do things with words.

Work and Rest

Is work a curse and rest a blessing? Genesis 2:1-3 reports that God rested from all the work which he has been doing. Does it mean that God distanced himself from the world and the rest of the creation after completing creating them?

Who Is the Boss?

Genesis 2:18-24

God completed creating the universe and all the things in it, including the land, the living creatures, and the plants by the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-4a). Genesis 1:24-31 and 2:4-24 differently narrate the same story of mankind’s beginning. What are significant differences?

You Are in His Mind (Gen.1:26-31)

The Bible is about God, the world, and humanity. It focuses on the covenant relation between God and his creation. Genesis chapter one narrows down Creator-creation relation from the God-universe to God-world to God-human relation. In this way, the author of Genesis highlights that the making of human beings is the climax of the creation story.