Has a believer ever said to you, “You are making your life as a Christian too complex. You have lost the simplicity that is in Christ.” ( 2 Corinthians 11:3) That might be so, to a degree, but what about David’s admonition in Proverbs 1:22, “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?”
Should we expect our walks with the Lord to be simple and void of questions or controversy? Maybe it is best to ask,”Does the Word convey effortless meaning and messages in a straightforward manner?”
As a student of literature, I learned fairly early to recognize what are termed literary devices easily found throughout short stories, novels and speeches to bring meaning to a message without being straightforward in stating the intent of a passage. As abundant as these devices are in American classic and contemporary works, they equally abound within Scripture.
Literary devices, I would contend, do not make Bible study entirely simple, effortless, and unquestioning. Instead, they tend to make Scriptures beautifully intricate.
Here are examples in the use of hyperbole, meaning an exaggeration used for emphasis or rhetorical effect.
Idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. Examples in English would be “to pay through the nose,” “break a leg,” and “a bee in your bonnet.” Here’s a biblical example:
Is this next example truly possible? Known as imagery, it is the use of figurative language to represent objects, actions or ideas.
Another very common tool is metaphor, a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two seemingly unlike things.
· James 3:6, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity."
Have you ever seen a tongue ablaze? I doubt it.
The frequent use of literary devices in the Bible can cause a sentence, when taken literally, to make no sense.
In the end, I would be more inclined to view Scripture as being more complex than simple. Have you ever witnessed a Christian say unto a sycamine tree, “Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea” and it actually happened? Of course not.
In Wally Lamb’s novel I Know This Much to Be True, the central event in the novel is the actual dismembering of the hand of Dominick Birdsey’s brother, a schizophrenic identical twin who took Jesus’ statement to “cut it off” to its literal conclusion.
Therefore, it is best to learn how to rightly divide the word of truth so as not to interpret and respond inappropriately.
Should we expect our walks with the Lord to be simple and void of questions or controversy? Maybe it is best to ask,”Does the Word convey effortless meaning and messages in a straightforward manner?”
As a student of literature, I learned fairly early to recognize what are termed literary devices easily found throughout short stories, novels and speeches to bring meaning to a message without being straightforward in stating the intent of a passage. As abundant as these devices are in American classic and contemporary works, they equally abound within Scripture.
Literary devices, I would contend, do not make Bible study entirely simple, effortless, and unquestioning. Instead, they tend to make Scriptures beautifully intricate.
Here are examples in the use of hyperbole, meaning an exaggeration used for emphasis or rhetorical effect.
- II Chronicles 1:15, "Also the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones."
- Mark 9:43, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched."
Idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. Examples in English would be “to pay through the nose,” “break a leg,” and “a bee in your bonnet.” Here’s a biblical example:
- Matthew 23:24, "Blind guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel!"
Is this next example truly possible? Known as imagery, it is the use of figurative language to represent objects, actions or ideas.
- Revelation 12:1, "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars."
Another very common tool is metaphor, a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two seemingly unlike things.
· James 3:6, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity."
Have you ever seen a tongue ablaze? I doubt it.
The frequent use of literary devices in the Bible can cause a sentence, when taken literally, to make no sense.
In the end, I would be more inclined to view Scripture as being more complex than simple. Have you ever witnessed a Christian say unto a sycamine tree, “Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea” and it actually happened? Of course not.
In Wally Lamb’s novel I Know This Much to Be True, the central event in the novel is the actual dismembering of the hand of Dominick Birdsey’s brother, a schizophrenic identical twin who took Jesus’ statement to “cut it off” to its literal conclusion.
Therefore, it is best to learn how to rightly divide the word of truth so as not to interpret and respond inappropriately.
