"It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Revelation 21:6 From the first words of the Bible (Revised Standard Version) to its final “Amen,” the power of language is highlighted as a central aspect of the text. Among the many narrators and throughout the Old and New Testaments remain the words of God. Followers of God are needed to receive these words and are therefore intrinsically linked in a kind of listening covenant. God's words become speech acts with awesome powers. Perhaps the greatest of these is the power to create. Moments of creation constitute particularly important forays into the world of words. The idea that a speech can not only be, but also bring reality into reality, is one of the Bible's strongest selling points. After all, the Bible is a linguistic vehicle of spirituality, a space where words must create their own realities, albeit less concrete than the world itself. In the narrative journey of the Bible, the emphasis on God's words shifts away from their power to create concrete objects. This is replaced by intense attention to the words themselves, the beauty of hearing them spoken, and the importance of finding salvation through them. The power of God's words lies as much in their potential for eternal meaning as in their ability to create through speech acts. The ensuing discussion of language will focus on the early chapters of Genesis through the final chapters of the Book of Revelation, the "first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 5:6). These two sections are not only relevant to a discussion of language because they begin and end the book, but also because the book begins and ends by saluting the power of words. From the beginning, the creation story in Genesis establishes a unique and amazing power in God's words. The reader participates word by word in the progressive construction of the world. It seems that God speaks whenever he can. The sequence of events in these first moments lays the foundation for an emphasis on the voice of God. The fact that “In the beginning God” did not speak, but “created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) is an important first step. The book begins not with an act of speech, but with a silent act of creation. Every creation that follows this, including Adam, will be produced by the words of God. But for now, the silence continues, strangely visualized in the image of "The earth...without form or void, and darkness was on the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2). The “emptiness”, the “darkness” and the “deep” paint a kind of echoing cave of nothingness. It is a space ready for the entry of a voice which will fill it simultaneously with sound and form. This gives the speech act its scene. A list of creations begins with the now familiar “And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). The speech act establishes its pure, even obvious, power in the simple structure of this sentence. God's words parallel their implementation, separated by a semicolon. It is an almost mathematical equation, a sort of perfect symmetry of words with the life they create. The result of this equation is an astonishing revelation. God's words = life. This conclusion will be firmly anchored in the reader's mind after the many repetitions of his equation have filled the chapter with new words, the land with more new life. Even though God “createdthe heavens and the earth" in Genesis I:1, it should be noted that it was only after his speech act had been repeated several times and thus given life to his creation that "the heavens and the earth were created”. finished” (Genesis I: 2). The silent birth of the same heavens and the same earth was not enough. It was God's words, and therefore God's creations, that completed the universe. A privileged relationship is established between God, his words and their products. God's words deliver life and his creations provide ears. Those who listen not only hear God's voice, but find redemption by encountering the force that gave them life. These listeners will become devotees and readers of the Bible for centuries. In order to qualify the words spoken by a mere mortal or printed on a fragile page, the establishment of God's voice must go through a transformation that will adequately glorify His words. In Revelation this transformation of voice into words was completed. The book reminds the reader in its own opening sentences that “Blessed is he who reads the words of the prophecy aloud, and blessed are those who hear” (Revelation, I:3). This idea of ​​an exchange of words and kind ears between God and his blessed creations is therefore a common thread between these two books. In these opening lines of Revelation, the presence of a reader, as opposed to God speaking, represents a shift from God's resounding voice to the words themselves. Words without the real voice of God retain the power of blessing through the word. The words themselves, even those that are “written” (Revelation 1:3), have become an equally crucial force for deliverance. The phrase “He who has an ear” (Revelation 2:17, 3:22, 13:9) is repeated enough to remind us that speaking and hearing the word of God is a blessed exchange. The voice of God is in no way less powerful. God is still absolutely present and central in Revelation. But the importance of his words has increased. It must have something to do with the form of the Bible itself. Apart from the few mortals who actually speak with God, such as the prophets and the saints, a reader of the Bible will have only the words of God to carry him and inspire him with life by his power. This subtle transition from the voice to the words of God was already from Genesis. The process of naming is as much the work of the beginning of Genesis as it is the act of speech. To emphasize the name is to emphasize the importance of how God chooses to call his creatures, in other words, the original words of God. The formula of the speech act comes to include this moment of nomination, which is methodically repeated with each creation. We see how what “God has called” something must be included for the world to be complete. After separating light from darkness, “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” (Genesis 1:5). Only after God names light and darkness does it pass away. This first nomination is therefore a kind of speech act, because just after, the first night and the first morning actually take place with “there was evening and there was morning, one day” (Gen 1:5 ). As Genesis continues, the presence of naming does not diminish and contributes to the progress of language as a central theme. Interestingly, when God decides to “make a helper” to Adam and train “every beast of the field and every bird of the air,” He brings Adam in to give the name. This can be seen as an early example of the burden or blessing of words placed in the hands of man. It is the very beginning of a tradition that allows the Bible to exist by defending the right.