Communicating Complex Biblical Concepts in Everyday Language
The Bible itself attests to the power and clarity of divine communication, stating that "Day to day uttereth speech, And night to night sheweth knowledge" (Psalm 19:2 YLT) and that "The unfolding of your words gives light, giving understanding to the simple" (Psalm 119:130 LEB). However, communicating complex biblical concepts in everyday language involves navigating various challenges and employing specific strategies.
One challenge arises from the inherent difficulty of some biblical texts. For instance, the Hebrew in Isaiah 28:13 is noted as "difficult to understand," with some scholars suggesting the words might be "intentional nonsense to illustrate the point that the people were so spiritually blind that God’s clearest revelation was nonsense to them" [4]. This highlights that even divine communication can be perceived as obscure by those unwilling or unable to grasp its meaning.
The concept of language itself is central to biblical understanding. The Tower of Babel narrative in Genesis 11 illustrates how a confusion of languages can "curtail their unified sinful ambition" [3]. Conversely, the day of Pentecost, where diverse languages were understood, is seen as a "symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion" [3]. The apostle Paul also addresses the importance of understandable speech in 1 Corinthians, noting that "every language, and every word in a language, has a meaning in it, an idea annexed to it, which it conveys to him that understands it" [5]. He emphasizes that speaking in an unknown tongue, even if divinely gifted, requires interpretation for the benefit of others [7]. Paul compares speaking in tongues without interpretation to the lisping of a child, contrasting it with the clear understanding that will come in heaven [2].
To make complex concepts accessible, biblical writers and early Christian communities often used "compact teachings," which might have been "adapted bits of creeds, hymns, or prayers" [6]. These concise formulations helped convey core doctrines, especially when addressing false teachings [6]. The prophet Ezekiel's experience of God showing him "things" which were literally "words" is described as an "appropriate expression," with Augustine calling such visible words "the visible word" [1]. This suggests that complex spiritual truths can be communicated through tangible, understandable forms.
Sources
- Ezekiel (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Ezekiel 11:25: things . . . showed me--literally, "words"; an appropriate expression; for the word communicated to him was not simply a word, but one clothed with outward symbols "shown" to him as in the sacrament, which AUGUSTINE terms "the visible word" [CALVIN]. Next: Ezekiel Chapter 12”
- 1 Corinthians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 1 Corinthians 13:10: When I was a child I spake as a child,.... That cannot speak plain, aims at words rather than expresses them, delivers them in a lisping or stammering manner: hereby the apostle illustrates the then present gift of speaking with divers tongues, which was an extraordinary gift of the Spirit, was peculiar to some persons, and what many were very fond of; and yet this, in its highest degree and exercise, was but like the lisping of a child, in comparison of what will be known and expressed by saints, when they come to be perfect men in heaven: I understood as a”
- Genesis (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Genesis 11:7: 11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).”
- Isaiah (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Isaiah 28:13: 28:13 one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there: The Hebrew here is difficult to understand. The words might be intentional nonsense to illustrate the point that the people were so spiritually blind that God’s clearest revelation was nonsense to them (see 6:9-10).”
- 1 Corinthians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 1 Corinthians 14:10: There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices,.... "tongues", or "languages", as the Syriac version renders it; that is, as many as there are nations in the world; there may be seventy of them, as the Jews say there were at the confusion of languages at Babel; there may be more or less: and none of them is without signification: every language, and every word in a language, has a meaning in it, an idea annexed to it, which it conveys to him that understands it, and that cannot be done without a voice ordinarily speaking.”
- 1 Timothy (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on 1 Timothy 2:5: 2:5-6 Compact teachings, as in this passage, occur throughout the letters to Timothy and Titus (see also 1 Tim 3:16; 2 Tim 1:9-10; 2:8, 11-13; Titus 3:4-7). They might be adapted bits of creeds, hymns, or prayers that were known to the churches. The doctrines referenced probably relate to Paul’s trouble with the false teachers; it appears that their teaching undercut the universal appeal of the Good News and the effectiveness of the Gentile mission. The false teachers also had a deficient understanding of Jesus and his salvation. 2:5 There is one God and therefo”
- 1 Corinthians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 1 Corinthians 14:13: Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue,.... The Hebrew, or any other, the gift of speaking with which is bestowed upon him: pray that he may interpret; that he may have also the gift of interpretation of tongues; for as has been before hinted, these two gifts were distinct; and a man might have the one, and not the other; a man might speak in an unknown tongue, so as to understand himself, what he said, and be edified, and yet not be capable of translating it at once into the common language of the people; and if he could not do this, he would ”