The Power of the Written Word.

The Power of the Written Word.

It used to be that correspondence was the only form of long-distance communication of any length.   Over 3000 years the little marks made on paper had meaning and power.  Historically, writing was used by governments, religious leaders, philosophers and other wise "men."  The rulers of any civilization knew that to have the power to write, and to read, meant that you had the power to influence, inspire, create, infuse, en-passion,  entrall, convert, confuse, and educate.  Therefore, most rulers made sure that those in power were the only ones who had the skill to read and write.

The earliest writing was almost certainly religious in nature.  Words stood for the many aspects and beliefs about creation.  The word became more than the word; it became THE WORD.  There was so much power in some words that they were written down only once, and buried or burned thereafter.  To look upon even the written symbol for such a word was forbidden.  In the land of UR, and the culture of the Sumerians, words were the magic of life; instructions in how to bring into existence what was needed to survive.  Truly, the word was THE WORD.

In other cultures, the standard oral tradition gave way to written commandments, proclamations, instructions, rules, and laws.  The campfire stories, myths and legends were frozen in their telling by words.  Multi-generational cultures became possible, more so, because of words.  The teachings could be passed down now, with more accuracy to greater numbers of people.  Such works were revered, as they are even today.  (The Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Code of Hammurabi.)

The ancient alchemists used written words as sources of power, in their incantations.  The makers of shields, swords, armor, and other forms of physical protection wove words of power into their works.   The Heraldry of nobles almost always included a family motto, phrase, word, or passage.  For many families, it became a generational rallying cry and mission.  It raised kingdoms and sometimes tore them down.

In late antique Babylonia (third–seventh centuries A.D.), for example, countless ceramic bowls were inscribed with prayers, curses and healing rituals written in the Jewish-Aramaic script.  The spiraling, cramped inscriptions of the bowls often encircled drawings of bound demons and other evil spirits. Writing, even in this late period, was still invested with the power to bring prayers and curses to life.

Words were used by many to protect, guard, warn and punish.  Curse inscriptions often protected tombs, monuments, graves, burial grounds, and other places for the dead.  A name could be written down on a piece of parchment, as a signal for that person to be killed.  Secret societies used the written word, hidden in codecs, to enforce the judgment or law of those societies. 

Words also meant the difference between life and death.

In ancient Israel, the simple act of erasing an author’s name was tantamount to wiping out a person’s very life.  Judaism and Christianity use the imagery of the Book of Life.  The Book of Life is the tome in which the names of every person who was created are recorded.  In Ezekiel 4, where one of the six heavenly envoys "who had the scribe's inkhorn upon his loins" is told to mark the righteous for life, while the remainder of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are doomed. The Psalmist likewise speaks of the Book of Life in which only the names of the righteous are written "and from which the unrighteous are blotted out". Even the tears of men are recorded in this Book of God. "Every one that shall be found written in the book . . . shall awake to everlasting life".

A deep and personal and basic need is fulfilled in the written word.  Famous works of literature were born out of the need to record, to bear witness to, to describe reality as it was experienced by the writers throughout history.

For many, it was their only outlet, their only way to express themselves.  Remember the works that came from such prisoners as Martin Luther King, Don Quixote, Paul (of the early Christian Church), Mahatma Gandhi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ezra Pound, and Nelson Mandela. 

Words on a page show us the moment and time, the vision and belief of the author at the time of that writing.  Diaries, letters and other correspondence have helped to fill in the lives of John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Martin Luther, Anne Frank, Albert Einstein, and many others.


Words have power.   This really is the last word!