ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that O. Procksch and Gerhard von Rad have artificially loaded the argument in favour of a 'dynamic' view of words by wrongly polarizing the discussion around two views of language which are portrayed as alternatives. According to a number of biblical scholars the spoken word in ancient Israel 'is never an empty sound but an operative reality whose action cannot be hindered once it has been pronounced'. Several modern writers betray a fascination for analogies drawn from military weaponry. Von Rad makes a similar assessment about the relation between words and the reality which they signify. In contrast to the more modern notion that language merely conveys ideas, the Hebrew and his neighbours were 'unable properly to differentiate between word and object, idea and actuality'. Neither ancient nor modern society depends on mistaken ideas about word-magic in order to support the belief that words do things.
