Part 3

IX. While like symbols represent like objects, the same agents are often indicated by different symbols.

Thus, a church may be symbolized by a city and a woman; and government, by a beast and a mountain, &c.

23. INSPIRED EXPLANATIONS OF SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS:—

Ancient of Days—The Most High.—Dan. 7:9, 22. Candlesticks—Churches.—Rev. 1:20. Carpenters—Destroyers of governments.—Zech. 1:21. Days—Years.—Num. 14:34. Ezek. 4:4-6. Horns, of a wild beast—Kings or kingdoms succeeding to a divided empire.—Dan. 8:22 and 7:24. Heads, of a wild beast—Kings or forms of government.—Rev. 17:9, 10. Image, of different metals—A succession of governments.—Dan. 2:37-42. Incense, or odors—Prayers.—Rev. 5:8 and 8:4. Lamb, the—Christ.—Rev. 5:6, 9, 10. Lamb’s wife—Risen saints.—Rev. 19:7, 8. Lake of fire and brimstone—The place of the second death.—Rev. 20:15. Likeness of a man—The Lord.—Ezek. 1:26, 28, and 8:2, 4. Linen, fine and clean—Righteousness of saints—Rev. 19:8. Mountains—Kings, or forms of government.—Rev. 17:9, 10. New Jerusalem—The redeemed Church, or the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.—Rev. 21:9, 10. Revivification of dry bones—Resurrection of the dead.—Ezek. 37:11, 12. Stars—Angels, i.e., messengers of the churches.—Rev. 1:20. Souls of martyrs living again—The first resurrection.—Rev. 20:4, 5. Stone, becoming a mountain—Kingdom of God.—Dan. 2:45. Waters—Peoples.—Rev. 17:15. Wild Beasts—Governments.—Dan. 7:17. Woman—A city.—Rev. 17:18. Explained to be a church.—21:9, 10.

24. TROPES are figures of various kinds, used to illustrate the subjects to which they are applied.—They embrace the Simile, Metaphor, Prosopopœia, Apostrophe, Synecdoche, Allegory, &c.

25. LAWS OF FIGURES—(a.) “The terms in which they are expressed are used in their ordinary and literal sense.”—Lord.

(b.) “The agents or objects to which figures are applied are always expressly mentioned. Figures, in that respect, differ wholly from symbols, which never formally indicate, unless an interpretation is given, who the agents, or what the objects are which they represent.”—Ib.

(c.) “The figurative terms are always predicates, or are employed in affirming something of some other agent or object; and are therefore either nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.”—Ib.

(d.) “As their terms are used literally, the figure lies, when they are employed in an unusual manner, simply in their being applied to objects to which they do not properly belong.”—Ib.

(e.) “They are used accordingly in all such cases for the purpose of illustration, and their explication is accomplished, not by assigning to them some new and extraordinary meaning, but simply by conjoining with them the terms of a comparison which expresses the relation in which they are employed.”—Ib.

(f.) “It is in metaphors and personification only that acts and qualities are ascribed to agents and objects that are incompatible with their nature; or do not properly belong to them.”—Ib. Theo. & Lit. Jour., vol. 1, p. 354.

26. A SIMILE, or comparison, is an affirmation that one agent, object, or act, is like, or as, another,—there being a real or imaginary resemblance. Sometimes only the mere fact of a resemblance is affirmed. At others, the nature of the resemblance is indicated.

Examples.—“As for man, his days are as grass.” Psa. 103:15. “Whose garment was white as snow.” Dan. 7:9.

27. ANTITHESIS is a contrast, or placing in opposite lights things dissimilar.

Example.—“The wicked are overthrown and are not; but the house of the righteous shall stand.” Prov. 12:7.

28. A METAPHOR is a simile comprised in a word, without the sign of comparison. It is an affirmation of an object, incompatible with its nature—i.e., it affirms that an object is, what literally it is only like; or attributes to it acts, to which its acts only bear a resemblance.

Examples.—“He is the Rock.” Deut. 32:4. “Her gates shall lament and mourn.” Isa. 3:25.

A metaphor may be a simple affirmation of what an object is, or it may embrace “the agent, the act, the object, and the effect of an action.”—Lord.

(a.) When an object is affirmed to be what it only resembles, that of which the affirmation is made is always literally expressed.

(b.) “When a nature is ascribed to an object that does not belong to it, the acts or results affirmed to it are proper to that imputed nature, not to its own.”—Lord.

(c.) “The meaning of a metaphorical passage is precisely what it would be if a comparison only were affirmed.”—Ib.

29. AN ELLIPTICAL METAPHOR is where the figure is incomplete. An object, instead of being affirmed to be what it only resembles, is introduced by the name proper only to that resemblance. The literal name of the object and the affirmation to complete the figure are to be supplied.

To find the meaning of an elliptical metaphor, trace the word through the Bible, and find to what object such metaphorical term is applied. Example.—“And in that day there shall be a Root of JESSE, which shall stand for an ensign of the people.” Isa. 11:10. Explanation.—“I [JESUS] am the Root and the offspring of DAVID.” Rev. 22:16.

30. PROSOPŒIA, or PERSONIFICATION, is an address to an inanimate object, as if it were a person, and had intelligence.—Lord. Example.—“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.” Deut. 32:1.

31. AN APOSTROPHE is a digression from the order of any discourse, and a direct address to the persons of whom it treats, or to those who are to form a judgment respecting the subject of which it treats.—Lord. Example.—“Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom: give ear unto the law of our GOD, ye people of Gomorrah.” Isa. 1:10.

32. AN ALLEGORY is a narrative in which the subject of the discourse is described by an analogous subject, resembling it in its characteristics and circumstances—the subject of which it is descriptive being indicated in its connection. Examples.—See Ezek. 31:3-9; Ps. 80:8-16; Jud. 9:8-15.

Past historical events, instead of supposititious ones, are sometimes used for illustration. When thus used they serve as allegories, without affecting their original historical significance. Example.—Gal. 4: 22-31. See also Rom. 9:7, 8; 1 Cor. 9:9, 10, and 10:11.

33. A PARABLE is a similitude taken from natural things, to instruct us in the knowledge of spiritual. Examples.—Matt. 13th, and 21:28-41.