“And G-d Said”: Language, Translation, and Scripture in Two Works by Walter Benjamin

Abstract

In the works “On Language as Such and on the Language of Man” and the better- known “The Task of the Translator,” Benjamin explores the relationships between languages, and between language and human beings. In this essay, I work first to articulate Benjamin’s theory of language in a more coherent manner, and then to draw attention to the theological underpinnings of this theory. After exploring Benjamin’s understanding of language as metaphysically formative for all creation, I turn to his work on translation in order to demonstrate how such a theologically driven understanding of language impacts how we are to speak and write now.