Lingua Dei, lingua hominis: Sacred Language and Medieval Texts

Abstract

"Lingua dei, lingua hominis: Sacred Language and Medieval Texts." It is a commonplace of medieval history that Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were revered as sacred languages. This article investigates the sources and consequences of this tradition through the remarks of medieval authors themselves. In particular, it tries to identify the nature of the sacrality of these three languages and that which distinguishes them from other languages for the Middle Ages. While medieval philosophers were very much interested in language-its origins, nature, and relationship to the conceptual order-it is especially medieval liturgists and commentators upon Scripture who promoted the notion of three sacred languages. For these, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin enjoyed a special nimbus from their association on the titulus of the Cross. Surprisingly, it is not so much their liturgical function as their prophetic character which determined their sacrality: either as the primordial language of mankind, or as the language of inspired texts. For the Roman Church, Latin enjoyed a certain primacy of honor as the language of prophetic texts and as the language of Roman imperium, an imperium transferred to Christendom by divine plan. But until the coming of Antichrist, it was believed, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin would endure as sacred languages.