The title of Collins’s book describes genetic code—and by extension, the physical universe as a whole—as a language God uses to communicate with us. The term “genetic code” is itself a linguistic metaphor, expressing the fact that genes store information that describes their function and determines traits that are passed along from generation to generation. When presenting the news of the genetic code at the White House in 2000, President Bill Clinton and Collins spoke of the code as “our own instruction book, previously known only to God” and declared that “we are learning the language in which God created life” (2). These statements reflect such biblical texts as Psalm 139: “Your eyes beheld my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me” (Psalms 139:16).

The Word of God is a central concept in Judeo-Christian belief, referring to God’s intention or message as expressed in creation. The Book of Genesis in the Old Testament presents God as speaking the universe into being, while the Gospel of John portrays Jesus as the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14). Collins alludes to this tradition when calling the genetic code a language of an intricately structured elements and proteins in which God expresses His creative activity and power.