Language Dates Back To God

Common Sense Commentary:  The Middle English word "language" derives from an Old French word, "langue" which means "tongue" which came from the Latin word, "lingua".  That, of course, dates back to Babel where God seperated the nations by languages (tongues).  When the Bible says the early Christians spoke in "tongues" it simply means languages.  They had the Great Commission to carry out and couldn't do it, not being able to speak the many languages of foreign Jews arriving in Jersulem for the  O.T. Feast of Penticost.  That was the sole purpose of being empowered to speak a language they did not know. When various foreigners were present, an interpreter was required.

All human language is a work in progress.  Time and change alter everything but God.
"For I am the Lord; I change not." Mal.3:6.  Since Babel, the sounds and meanings of words have mutated or deviated from what they originally were, many times.  Some of the meanings have completely changed. Just in my lifetime, American English has changed in many ways.  WWII brought young men and women together, from every state, into the military services.  A Texan and a boy from Brooklyn could hardly understand each other.  They spoke two very different dialects of the same language.  There must have been at least six or seven distinct dialects in our nation.  Many well traveled people could tell almost any American what state he/she were from, by their diction.  Radio and television commonality have homoginized American English so that we all sound very much alike now. 

Even the meanings of words change.  The word vulgar once meant "unrefined". Now it means indecent. "Gay" once meant an effervesent or happy attitude and people named their new-born girls that.  They certainly do not do so today.  "Terrible" is supposed to mean "horrible".  "Terribly" is now often used for "exceedingly".  Can a thing be terribly good? .... Only if it is delicious poison.

My point is, that the English language has changed considerably in the last four hundred years since King James had Bible Scholars translate my King James Bible. The newer versions of the Bible, though the words are easier to understand, being contemporary English, are not always accurate to the true meanings of the Received Texts (Textus Receptus).  Therefore, every student of the Bible should have an old dictionary, an old concordance and a King James Bible for their study.  When a Greek or Hebrew word is translated several different ways, I read them all, and every reference, to get the most accurate meaning.  Some Greek words require two or three English words to define them because there is no exact English counterpart word.
  
This is why our founding fathers not only founded our nation but also our first schools and colleges.  Harvard, Yale, Columbia and others. Their primary purpose was, that children study the Bible, even Greek and Latin, to have a more complete understanding of English words.  This required the importation of many thousands of King James Bibles for those schools.  Preachers were generally the teachers. 

My reason for using the King James exclusively, is because, though in Old English, it is more accurate to the Received Texts and because of it's poetic beauty.  If you use a "modern" version, there are now dozens, you need a King James to moderate the newer
version's deviations from central truth.  But .... that requires much more "stud y" by the
"stud ent", which is exactly what 2Tim.2:15 says to do. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth."  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Jn.14:6.  The Bible is our map to that "way", "truth" and "life".
He also said, "I am the light of the world".  That "light" is shinning through the prism of God's Word, the Bible. 

It is immencly interesting that the "Word" of God says that He "spoke" the worlds into existence, when He said, "Let there be....", in Gen.1 and God's "Word" then says, in John 1 that Jesus was not only there, but that He did the creating.  Notice that in John 1 the "Word" is capitalized which means it is a proper name of Jesus.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made..... He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.....And the Word  was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten (Son) of the Father,) full of grace and truth." It could not be clearer that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God, the root and source of the written word of God.... the Holy Bible. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..."
2 Tim.3:16.  So be very very careful how you handle and use it. RB