Figurative language in the Bible • Kernbeisser

Sweeter than honey

“How sweet to my palate are your words, more than honey to my mouth!”
(Ps 119:103, Rev. Elbf.)

The Bible is rich in figurative language and figures of speech. We ourselves also frequently use figurative comparisons in our language. They help us communicate emotions, or they deepen the statement. The Psalm quote above says: “How sweet are… your words”. Of course, words are not really sweet. This is a visual language. We can only hear words, never taste them.

The psalm writer uses this imagery to say something about God’s word. It is not meant literally here. We intuitively grasp that he is expressing something positive with this. The sweetness is pleasant, it does him good. To express the comparison even more clearly and also more personally, he says “how sweet are to my palate” your words. It is an extension of the statement – with the help of another image. The palate figuratively represents the whole person of the writer. God’s word is good for him as a human being, like sweetness is good for the palate.

In the second part of the sentence, the comparison is taken even further and strengthened:

A. “How sweet to my palate are your words,
B. More than honey to my mouth!”

The sweetness is compared to honey in the second line. The increase says: Sweet are your words to my palate, more than honey to my mouth. Even sweeter than honey are God’s words. This cannot be increased any further (see also Prov 16:24).

If you feel this way about the Bible, it is a great richness. The comparison to honey is figurative, and this verse is also used quite literally in some Jewish traditions as an example to teach children the value of God’s Word. At about the age of eight, the study of Torah and learning of the Hebrew language is begun. This beginning is celebrated with a small ritual. The words of this verse are carved in wood. The crack is smeared with honey and the children are allowed to lick this out, which they certainly enjoy doing. To this it is well to say, “As sweet as this tastes, so good is God’s Word.” In this way, an everyday foodstuff found its way into the Bible as figurative language and was transferred from there back into everyday life as an example.

Not everything is literal

The Bible as God’s Word is reliable, but not everything is literally true. This is not the case even in our everyday language. Figurative language and figures of speech symbolically explain important relationships, but are not to be confused with essence. The example above is not about honey and certainly not about beekeeping.

Note: Figurative language explains the main theme, but is never the main theme.

Examples

“A land overflowing with milk and honey”.
Deut 27:3

Milk and honey symbolize the fertility of the land, and indirectly explain that it is good to live there.

But it should not mean (as I have known someone) that as a Christian one should live only on milk and honey. When I take the words out of context and interpret them so quite literally, the words lose their original meaning. The text becomes merely a projection surface. The way this man proceeded disregarded the imagery on the one hand, and on the other hand he disregarded the context, which speaks of a promise for Israel, and of a concrete land. When this happens in the life of faith, trust is replaced by projection.

Figurative language is a richness of our language. We think in pictures, draw comparisons, explain pictorially. All of this makes our language come alive. Visual language should not lead to false conclusions. In order for us to take advantage of the richness of figurative language, it is worth thinking about these things. Here is another example:

“A lamp unto my foot is thy word, a light unto my path.”
Ps 119:105

The Bible gives “light” for our daily “walk”, helps us to lead our life. The imagery also says that in dark “night” we can light our way well. But this verse does not say that the word (the Bible did not exist yet!) is a concrete lamp.

Metaphors

Famous are the eight “I am” words from the Gospel of John:

“I am the bread of life”(Jn 6:35 Jn 6:48).
“I am the bread from heaven”(John 6:41).
“I am the light of the world”(John 8:12 and John 9:5).
“I am the door”(John 10:7)
“I am the good shepherd”(John 10:11).
“I am the resurrection and the life”(John 11:25).
“I am the way and the truth and the life”(John 14:6).
“I am the true vine”(John 15:1).

They are metaphors. Figures of speech like these explain relationships and functions. They symbolize important statements. Literally, Jesus is not a piece of bread, He is not a door, and the profession of shepherd, as far as we know, He did not exercise. The imagery says something about Jesus. Figurative language can point to the subject in just a few words.

When Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” these are not separate parts, but they belong together. It is a single statement. If we listen carefully, Jesus says: “I am the true way to life” (figure of speech Hendiatris, “One through three”). It is a compiled statement with only one theme.

There are also several metaphors of God himself, for example:

“God is light”(1Jn 1,5)
“God is love”(1Jn 4:8 1Jn 4:16)

In all these metaphors, the verb “to be” is used as a link. This is not always the case in Greek. When a comparison is involved, as here with the metaphors, the verb is used (“I am…” and “God is…”). But there are cases where the verb is missing. Then it is no longer a matter of comparison, but of direct statement, of essence, so to speak. This cannot be reproduced in the German language, because in our country the word “sein” is always used, even when it is missing in Greek. Let us look at such a case:

“God [ist]Spirit”(John 4:24).

Now that is no comparison. This is not about a function, but about the essence. In Greek, it means “God spirit”. The verb “to be” is missing, expressing an equality of essence. God is essentially spirit. In Greek, this does not require a verb. It is “often omitted except when it is used to express a metaphor, as in ‘This is my body’. When present, this is usually an indication that the statement should be understood in a figurative sense and not literally” (The Sacred Scriptures Concordant Version, I, Lexicon and Concordance, page 28, gr. “eimi“).

Now, when it is written “God is light”, it is a metaphor, a comparison that we read like this: “God is like light”. When we read “God is love,” we understand “God is like love. Because: He is not a lamp and also not a feeling. If we want to compare our God with anything, it is with light or love. Wherever in Greek the verb “to be” is used in a collocation, it is a comparison and we can mentally complete it with “like”. It expresses characteristics of God. But what He is essentially, that is “spirit”.

Examples

Understanding figurative language and figures of speech can also help in evaluating doctrinal statements.

Example 1: Doctrine of transubstantiation

An example is the doctrine of transubstantiation (a real tongue twister and perfect for a pun) of the Catholic Church. Here it is assumed that in the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) the host is “changed” into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. According to them, there is a transformation of substance. The doctrine was established as dogma in the Council of Trent, which took place in various stages between 1545 and 1563. The wording read:

“Let him who says that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the substance of the bread and wine remain, and denies that miraculous and unique transformation of the whole substance of the bread into the body and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, leaving only the forms of bread and wine, be charged with anathema.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Here it is explained without further ado that anyone who denies this transformation is subject to the “anathema”, i.e. is seen as a heretic and is excommunicated. That’s how it goes with councils. Let us now test this teaching against the Bible. There is an incident here that must be taken as a basis. It is the statement of Jesus:

“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and said the blessing, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, Take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood, that of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.”
Mt 26,26-28

The question here is: Is this a metaphor, or is this an equality of essence? Is the bread like His body, and the wine like His blood – that is, a symbol – or does Jesus mean that the bread and wine were “changed” into the body and blood? Consequently, the too absurd question: Did Jesus drink his own blood? This can now be determined.

We found: A metaphor is present when the verb “to be” is used. An essence equivalence occurs when the verb is absent. In these words of Jesus, the verb to be was used. It is about a comparison. I therefore personally reject the doctrine of substance transformation. There is a misinterpretation of the figure of speech. Bread and wine are only symbols because they are metaphors. This can be further justified from the use of the verb “to be”.

Example 2: The hollow earth

The misinterpretation of figurative language and figures of speech is also encountered in other teachings. One of these teachings is the doctrine of the hollow earth. This is a really bizarre thing. I have read various books about it, and talked to people who consider this view to be the right one. It is propagated as “biblical universe” and is supposed to show the Bible in the right light more than any other view. The gauge is available in different variants.

The first variant goes like this: The earth is no longer a disk, and it is true that it is round, but… we do not walk on the outside, but on the inside. The earth is hollow, and the whole universe, so to speak, is enclosed in this sphere, with heaven and God’s throne in the center. It is a closed universe. So for us to visualize this, Australia would not be “Down-Under” but “Up-Above”. A really unusual view! The closer you get to the sky, the more you shrink, so that there is enough space even for moon landings and the like, because between the sky and the earth still fly the planets. This view is most likely to be justified by Bible verses. We are still coming to that.

Insofar as biblical passages are quoted, it is almost without exception a matter of figurative language that is interpreted literally, for example:

“And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of heaven”.
Gen 1:14

The interpretation then means that it is about lights that are fixed to a fixed sky extent. Lamps are suspended from the ceiling, so to speak. Similarly concrete one imagines other data about the heavens and the earth. The conclusion of all inferences is then that the earth is hollow, with God in the center, and we walk all around on the inside of the sphere. But they are inferences, because nowhere the earth is described as hollow.

How do we read the Bible when we hear such things? The biblical story is factually correct for me. However, it is not an attempt at scientific description. It is not written here: “I explain to you now objectively how the universe works scientifically”, but there is a completely different subject. The theme is that God calls lights into existence through His Word. He acts. From our standpoint on earth, it is correctly noted that the lights are “in” the expanse of heaven (hb. b-rqi, “in” the expanse, so not “at” the expanse). That is our perception.

These words explain something about the origin of our world, but the subject is God Himself. The first words of the Bible are “In the beginning God created. This tells us what it is all about. It is about God. He is central in this sentence. And creation, wherein we stand, tells of Him(Rom 1:20). This is the link with our reality. The writer of Psalms says: “The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.”(Ps 19:2). This is imagery, not scientific explanation – and we should understand it that way.

The second variant also sees the earth as round, and we actually walk on the outside, but on the inside others walk again. The earth is hollow, but inhabited. It would be an inner world of the earth, with two entrances, once at the north pole and once at the south pole. On Google Earth there are a few crevasses that have been marked as access points to the inner world. Imagination knows no boundaries. In the context of our consideration, the question is whether we can recognize and evaluate these considerations as aberrant.

The latter view is also particularly strongly advocated by a Mormon. An extraordinary combination, compounded by this man’s endorsement of another doctrine, that of the British Israel Movement, that all Western peoples should be the lost tribes of the people of Israel. His own family tree has therefore traced back to the Vikings. Better safe than sorry.

Not everywhere where “biblical” is written on it, there is also bible in it

Why am I giving these examples? Not everywhere that says biblical on it is actually biblical in it. In the second variant, the speculative character is easy to see through. But the first variant also raises question marks. Both variants do not lead to Christ. We should recognize this: They center on something else, namely an assumption about this world. It is more of a world view than a Christ view, and that should make us bright-eyed.

Figurative speech

There are many more examples of visual languages. They are beyond the length of this article. Therefore, only a few things should be pointed out. Often we find in the Bible data that correspond to our human perception. For example, in the following account from the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul was caught in a storm on his way to Rome by ship:

“But when the fourteenth night had come and we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors thought that land was approaching them.”
Acts 27:27

In reality, it will probably have been the other way around: Not the land approached the ship, but the ship approached the land. For the perception of the people on the ship, however, the land appeared on the horizon, and came closer and closer. From a perception point of view, the statement was correct. However, from the objective side, the statement was wrong. Similar is the case with other biblical passages.

As we read, let us each imagine how the people who wrote down the biblical words saw it. The text tells. To assume that any “hidden truths” are contained and we must “look for the truth behind the words” is as far-fetched as assuming that words have a magical quality and must therefore be taken “literally” always and everywhere. If we first read the text as a report or text written for other ordinary people, then we can listen, bearing in mind that figurative language is used again and again, which we should not distort as “literal”.

Furthermore, we should not infer beyond what is written, as it is said:

“So condemn nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light even the hidden things of darkness and reveal the intentions of hearts! And then everyone will have his praise from God. Now this, brethren, I have referred to myself and Apollos for your sake, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, lest you puff yourselves up for one against another.”
1Cor 4,5-6

Deepening

Questions for the conversation

Have you ever heard about figurative language in the Bible?
Read Jotam’s fable(Ri 9:7-21) and discuss figurative language (What is figurative, what is literal? How did the audience understand it?)
When Paul writes “not to think beyond what is written”(1 Cor. 4:5-6), what did he mean?
Some people get confused when you talk about figurative language. There is a fear that the Bible is not reliable. Here it needs a differentiation. Share about how the reliability of the Bible and the theme of figurative language relate to each other.
Other people fundamentally distrust the Bible, and summarily declare the entire Bible to be figurative language. This, of course, frees us from any challenge to God’s Word – it all relativizes to legends and myths. Share about why a clear differentiation is needed here as well.
Why is figurative language in the Bible an enrichment for Bible reading?

Reading tip

E.W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech.
Standard work on figures of speech and figurative language in the Bible.
Available online or as a book.