Identifying Hyperbole in Scripture
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Then much of our poetry which also use hyperboles to convey a sense of love etc. should be read with a grain of salt as well.
What do we do then, red card every book, that has ever been written and use them to keep us warm at night.
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
You're a doubter.
You have no idea what men were capable of back then. MANY were sons of angels which made them Giants as well as stronger and faster than we can even imagine. Others, down their genetic line, had other angelic strengths and abilities.
Trust Scripture as a default setting. That is the only way to find Truth.
Also, hyperbole is a characteristic of literature.
Surprise! The Holy Bible is NOT literature!
ChristisGod
Well-Known Member
Pluck out your eye, cut off you hand , turn the other cheek , hate you mother, father, brothers , . These are just a few on many in scripture.
Gen2Rev, I gave an example of what might be hyperbole, and it happened to concern a physical attribute. Your response is that I "have no idea what men were capable of back then." (How in the world do YOU know what ideas I have and don't have? You don't know me at all!)
Hyperbole goes well beyond physical attributes. Happy to give another example:
The concluding verse of John’s gospel says that “there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the whole world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Flip to the very next page and the very next Biblical verse in Acts 1:1, where we are told that Luke’s gospel “wrote about all (Gk. pantōn) that Jesus did and taught from the beginning, until the day he was taken up to heaven.” Luke says he was comprehensive; John says he didn’t scratch the surface. I would say BOTH are hyperbole. How about you?
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, but you're just thinking too small. That's the point of my previous post. You are a doubter; that is a dead-giveaway of a lack of faith.
Your faith, and knowledge of Jesus and Scripture, is just not full enough to be commenting on the topics you're commenting upon.
The last verse of John is unbelievable to you because you think too small. You immediately assume (which you should never do to begin with - for many reasons) that what is written there is impossible and you throw it into a category of exaggeration; that's what hyperbole means in literature.
The Bible is God's Holy Word. It has Power ... GREAT Power. Can you comprehend that or do you refuse to believe it?
John 21:25 speaks of a being that is Far, ... FAR greater than you can possibly imagine in your limited human, doubting, mind.
Again, you are assuming something about that verse. You are assuming that it is only speaking of things that may have taken place in a window of time between Christ's physical birth by Mary and His ascension after His crucifixion. Approximately a 33 year window of time.
What John is referring to is a period of time that we have absolutely zero record of. That we have no idea of. He is referring to Jesus' activities from a time prior to Creation and backwards to eternity ... and running up to the very moment that John wrote the words.
John 1:1 tells us a tiny bit about this.
Luke 24:27 tells us a tiny bit more.
Jesus Himself tells His disciples about all that He was personally involved in with every single prophet from Moses to John the Baptist. You could write a Bible-sized book about the events of just ONE of those Prophets' lives.
On to your next faithless verse example.
Acts 1:1 doesn't say what you claim it says. It says that the author made a treatise of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.
Now, neither of those verses prove the point you are trying to make. And you should really pray for faith because you are here disrespecting the Bible and God's (Jesus') accomplishments in it.
There is no way the world could hold the writings of everything that Jesus ever did.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the Bible is WAY more than you think of it. You should learn to have some real reverence for the very Word of God Almighty; the only Truth that is left in a world that is completely full of lies and deceit. And, whether you mean to be or not, you are contributing to those lies and deceit.
Again, you don't know what I think of it, or what reverence I have for it.
More to the point, your comment that the Bible is "the only Truth that is left" in this world is either hyperbole, or excludes the truth of your own statement (which, after all, is not found in the Bible)!
Grailhunter
Well-Known Member
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally as in not usually possible.
Examples;
I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse,” or “I've seen this movie a hundred times,” or “It cost an arm and a leg” or "I will keep an eye out for you."
As far as the Bible it certainly exists but as far as biblical interpretation and understanding it is over used...kinda like amnesia...it usually only happens in Hollywood. As far as use, hyperbole is usually used to explain away scriptures that people do not like or understand. It best to look at the scriptural context or the cultural context, even scenarios...and sometimes there is no clear ramifications in which case some speculation, which is ok, as long as you keep it in the realm of speculation....not a firm belief.
I will give you an example: I often quite these verses to make people think...they have baffled scholars for centuries. That being the one about hating your mother and father and do not boil a kid it its mother's milk.
Even professors will not have a good explaination for these.
Except one, a female professor at Cambridge, that I had lunch with in an open air café.
Luke 14:26
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
She explained,
As you know know people gave various excuses for not joining Christ's ministry...Usually something to do with their family or they were rich. This probably occurred often. The statement in Luke appears to be a statement of exasperation, where all the excuses were wearing on His patience. The scriptures go on to explain what a person had to consider before going on to do serious ventures, which included giving up their possessions.
The other about not boiling a kid in it mother's milk was a Hebrew expression about not doing something overtly cruel in nature.
Of course this is still speculation, but definitely I believe it is a possibility. Better than discounting the scriptures as a whole defining them as hyperbole.
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally as in not usually possible.
Examples;
I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse,” or “I've seen this movie a hundred times,” or “It cost an arm and a leg” or "I will keep an eye out for you."
As far as the Bible it certainly exists but as far as biblical interpretation and understanding it is over used...kinda like amnesia...it usually only happens in Hollywood. As far as use, hyperbole is usually used to explain away scriptures that people do not like or understand. It best to look at the scriptural context or the cultural context, even scenarios...and sometimes there is no clear ramifications in which case some speculation, which is ok, as long as you keep it in the realm of speculation....not a firm belief.
I will give you an example: I often quite these verses to make people think...they have baffled scholars for centuries. That being the one about hating your mother and father and do not boil a kid it its mother's milk.
Even professors will not have a good explaination for these.
Except one, a female professor at Cambridge, that I had lunch with in an open air café.
Luke 14:26
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
She explained,
As you know know people gave various excuses for not joining Christ's ministry...Usually something to do with their family or they were rich. This probably occurred often. The statement in Luke appears to be a statement of exasperation, where all the excuses were wearing on His patience. The scriptures go on to explain what a person had to consider before going on to do serious ventures, which included giving up their possessions.
The other about not boiling a kid in it mother's milk was a Hebrew expression about not doing something overtly cruel in nature.
Of course this is still speculation, but definitely I believe it is a possibility. Better than discounting the scriptures as a whole defining them as hyperbole.
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
You have demonstrated what you think of the Bible and your level of reverence for it with your own statements about it. It's not hard to see.
All Truth is God's Truth. God's Truth is the only Truth.
If I speak of something that is true, it is God's Truth. There is no such thing as somebody having their own truth - as popular New Age concepts like to teach.
Clearly, you didn't know what those verses were referring to and now you don't want to talk about them.
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GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
There's a lot more to it than that.
Boiling meat in milk was a traditional recipe at that time. Not only that, but doing overtly cruel acts is a necessity for worshiping pagan (demon) gods and was something the pagan nations did ritually.
So no, God wasn't just referring to a general idea of not doing cruel things, He was being very clear about not doing something that was specifically detestable to Him and, for that specific reason, was also relished by the demon gods of the surrounding nations. They did exactly that, and much, much worse.
Just like placing newborn babies into ovens; or into the huge brass hands of the Molech statue that was heated by fire from below and within.
Grailhunter
Well-Known Member
There's a lot more to it than that.
Boiling meat in milk was a traditional recipe at that time. Not only that, but doing overtly cruel acts is a necessity for worshiping pagan (demon) gods and was something the pagan nations did ritually.
So no, God wasn't just referring to a general idea of not doing cruel things, He was being very clear about not doing something that was specifically detestable to Him and, for that specific reason, was also relished by the demon gods of the surrounding nations. They did exactly that, and much, much worse.
Just like placing newborn babies into ovens; or into the huge brass hands of the Molech statue that was heated by fire from below and within.
Not a traditional recipe within the Hebrew culture.
Either way it is still speculation and I am ok with that.
Lambano
Well-Known Member
Oh, good grief.
Of course it is. The Holy Bible contains many recognizable literary forms, including poetry, narrative, figures-of-speech, sarcasm, irony, humor, tragedy, lament, polemic, and yes, hyperbole. Correctly identifying the form is "merely" part of the interpretive problem.
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Lambano
Well-Known Member
If we took Jesus's words literally, we'd have a lot of guys and a few gals who are reading this with their left eye only and typing with their left hand. (Matthew 5:27-30 reference)
ChristisGod
Well-Known Member
and with no handsIf we took Jesus's words literally, we'd have a lot of guys and a few gals who are reading this with their left eye only and typing with their left hand. (Matthew 5:27-30 reference)
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
Also, hating your family members means your feelings for them being tantamount to no love in comparison to your love for God.
That's not too far-fetched.
God tells us that we must love Him with all our ability.
That means not what's leftover after divvying up to our family members.
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
The Bible is viewed through two types of eyes in this world.Oh, good grief.
Of course it is. The Holy Bible contains many recognizable literary forms, including poetry, narrative, figures-of-speech, sarcasm, irony, humor, tragedy, lament, polemic, and yes, hyperbole. Correctly identifying the form is "merely" part of the interpretive problem.
If you see God's Sacred Word as literary poetry, have at it.
There are certainly some beautiful portions of Scripture, but poetry is creative, artistic, writings of man.
The Bible will never be within any category of that kind to those with true reverence for God's Word.
It is the Sacred Word of the Almighty Creator. It will never be a good book to curl up with next to the fire with a cigar and a glass of Scotch as many false christians like to make of it.
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
There is a major difference between exaggeration for the sake of exaggeration and symbolic language with deep meaning.
'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse' is hyperbole. It is exaggerative language with no deep meaning. It is exaggeration for the sake of exaggeration.
"If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out." is a purposeful message from God Almighty. If someone were to honestly believe that their eye caused them to sin and they removed it, God would honor that sacrifice.
But even if it's taken as a serious symbolic message to Christians, meaning to sever ties with people, or life situations, that are harmful to your soul and your salvation, it is a very profound message intended, by God, to be taken very seriously. God is telling us to do it with great haste and no second thoughts.
Those with no reverence for God, or Scripture, see exactly what He intends for those people to see.
Poetry and children's meaningless rhymes and riddles.
God hides Truth from the unbelieving, faithless, masses. The Bible is rendered an old book of second-rate literature full of hyperbole and inaccurate history and science.
It is rubbish to the spiritually blind.
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Jesus said, "IF your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." Does my hand cause sin? No. The corruption of my flesh is where sin comes from. Cutting off the hand isn't enough. What causes you to sin, cut if off, cast it away. We must cut off the flesh. Be crucified with Christ.
If we dismiss it as hyperbole, then we never get to that truth.
Much love!
GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
Thank you, Marks.
My mind went to the concept of separating ourselves from our physical, corruptible, bodies before I posted, but I forgot to include it.
Yes. Our physical bodies are, unbeknownst to many, actually part of this fallen world. They are what cause all manner of temptation within our spirit and they are what the devil and his demons can most directly influence. The devil actually has a legal right to our flesh.
That is a big part of our daily battle as Christians.
Good call.
Grailhunter
Well-Known Member
There's a lot more to it than that.
Boiling meat in milk was a traditional recipe at that time. Not only that, but doing overtly cruel acts is a necessity for worshiping pagan (demon) gods and was something the pagan nations did ritually.
So no, God wasn't just referring to a general idea of not doing cruel things, He was being very clear about not doing something that was specifically detestable to Him and, for that specific reason, was also relished by the demon gods of the surrounding nations. They did exactly that, and much, much worse.
Just like placing newborn babies into ovens; or into the huge brass hands of the Molech statue that was heated by fire from below and within.
I responded to this already.
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