Divine Language

25/3/23, 10:30 Divine language - Wikipedia
Divine language
Divine language, the language of the gods, or, in monotheism, the language of God (or angels),
is the concept of a mystical or divine proto-language, which predates and supersedes human
speech.
Abrahamic traditions
In Judaism and Christianity, it is unclear whether the language used by God to address Adam was
the language of Adam, who as name-giver (Genesis 2:19) used it to name all living things, or if it
was a different divine language. In Islam, Arabic is the language God revealed the final revelation.
Some Christians see the languages written on the INRI cross (Syriac, Greek and Latin) as God's
languages.[1][2][3][4]
Indic traditions
In Vedic religion, "speech" Vāc, i.e. the language of liturgy, now known as Vedic Sanskrit, is
considered the language of the gods.
Later Hindu scholarship, in particular the Mīmāṃsā school of Vedic hermeneutics, distinguished
Vāc from Śábda, a distinction comparable to the Saussurian langue and parole. The concept of
Sphoṭa was introduced as a kind of transcendent aspect of Śábda.
Occultism
In 1510, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa published Book I of his De Occulta Philosophia (translated to
English in 1651 as Three Books of Occult Philosophy). Chapter 23 "Of the tongue of Angels, and of
their speaking amongst themselves, and with us" – he states:
We may doubt whether Angels, or Demons, since they are of pure spirits, use
any vocal speech, or tongue amongst themselves, or to us; but that Paul in some
place saith, If I speak with the tongue of men, or angels: but what their speech or
tongue is, is much doubted by many. For many think that if they use any Idiome,
it is Hebrew, because that was the first of all, and came from heaven, and was
before the confusion of languages in Babylon, in which the Law was given by
God the Father, and the Gospell was preached by Christ the Son, and so many
Oracles were given to the Prophets by the Holy Ghost: and seeing all tongues
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_language# 1/4
have, and do undergo various mutations, and corruptions, this alone doth
alwaies continue inviolated.
Later, in chapter 27, Agrippa mentions the Divine Language again:
But because the letters of every tongue, as we shewed in the first book, have in
their number, order, and figure a Celestiall and Divine originall, I shall easily
grant this calculation concerning the names of spirits to be made not only by
Hebrew letters, but also by Chaldean, and Arabick, Ægyptian, Greek, Latine, and
any other...
In the late 16th century, the Elizabethan mathematician and scholar John Dee and the medium
and alchemist Edward Kelley (both of whom were familiar with Agrippa's writings) claimed that
during scrying sessions, a "Celestial Speech" was received directly from Angels. They recorded
large portions of the language in their journals (published today as "The Five Books of the
Mysteries" and "A True and Faithful Relation..."), along with a complete text in the language
called the "Book of Loagaeth" (or "Speech From God"). Dee's language, called "Angelical" in his
journals, often known today by the misnomer "Enochian", follows the basic Judeo-Christian
mythology about the Divine Language. According to "A True and Faithful Relation..." Angelical
was supposed to have been the language God used to create the world, and then used by Adam
to speak with God and Angels and to name all things in existence. He then lost the language
upon his Fall from Paradise, and constructed a form of proto-Hebrew based upon his vague
memory of Angelical. This proto-Hebrew, then, was the universal human language until the time
of the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel. After this, all the various human languages
were developed, including an even more modified Hebrew (which we know as "Biblical Hebrew").
From the time of Adam to the time of Dee and Kelley, Angelical was hidden from humans with
the single exception of the patriarch Enoch – who recorded the "Book of Loagaeth" for humanity,
but the book was lost in the Deluge of Noah.
George William Russell in The Candle of Vision (1918) argued that (p. 120) "The mind of man is
made in the image of Deity, and the elements of speech are related to the powers in his mind
and through it to the being of the Oversoul. These true roots of language are few, alphabet and
roots being identical."
See also
Asemic writing
Confusion of tongues
Dialogues of the Gods - 25 miniature dialogues published by Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd
century BCE
Enochian
Glossolalia
Jindai moji
Language of the birds
Lingua Ignota
Medefaidrin
Sacred language
Twilight language
Universal grammar
Valarin
Zaum
References
1. Pettifer, James (2012-05-03). The Greeks: The Land and People Since the War (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=YCl7utxm46gC&pg=PT193) . Penguin UK. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-241-96321-0.
2. Winkler, Dietmar W. (2018-12-12), "The Syriac Church Denominations" (https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/978

1315708195-8) , The Syriac World, New York: Routledge, pp. 119–133, doi:10.4324/9781315708195-8
(https://doi.org/10.4324%2F9781315708195-8) , ISBN 978-1-315-70819-5, S2CID 186605055 (https://
api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:186605055) , retrieved 2022-03-11
3. Andreopoulos, Andreas (2005). Metamorphosis: The Transfiguration in Byzantine Theology and

Iconography (https://books.google.com/books?id=1UZCTtEuGcMC) . St Vladimir's Seminary Press.
ISBN 978-0-88141-295-6.
4. Brock, Rita Nakashima (2008). Saving paradise : how Christianity traded love of this world for crucifixion
and empire (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/506071107) . Rebecca Ann Parker. Boston: Beacon Press.
ISBN 978-0-8070-9763-2. OCLC 506071107 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/506071107) .
Further reading
"The Divine Language" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053854/http://www.calstatela.e

du/faculty/tbettch/divine_language.htm) . Archived from the original (http://www.calstatela.e
du/faculty/tbettch/divine_language.htm) on 2013-09-21.
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25/3/23, 10:30 Divine language - Wikipedia

Later, in chapter 27, Agrippa mentions the Divine Language again:

Language of the birds

2. Winkler, Dietmar W. (2018-12-12), "The Syriac Church Denominations" (https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/978

3. Andreopoulos, Andreas (2005). Metamorphosis: The Transfiguration in Byzantine Theology and

"The Divine Language" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053854/http://www.calstatela.e

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

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