Notwithstanding the marked difference in vocab- ulary, style, and thought found in the various Gospels, they all agree, when rejwrtingthe sj^eeches of Jesus, in putting a metai^horical spiritual mean- ing into even the simplest words, such as ' sheep- fold," ' door,' ' key,' ' lamp,' ' bread.' 'water,' ' tish,' 'life,' 'birth,' 'travail,' 'death,' 'love,' 'hell' (yfevva), 'jianidise,' etc. This is true even in the case of rejwrters who themselves lackel jx)eric and spiritual insight, and who not infrequently mis- understood the inner meaning of Jesus" words.* Sometimes, as in the references to ' meat " and 'leaven' (Jn 4^-^ 6^-'^. Mt W", Mk S-', Lk 1'2M, the decider meaning of our Lords words was under- stooil before the Gospels came into existence. In other cases it is plain that even the Gospel writer did not catch the meaning of the words which he rejwrts.
In all parts of the NT, social, civil, and regal terms are applied, often with a new depth of mean- ing, to our Lord and His Kingdom. Not only such terms as 'king,' 'Lord." 'blaster,' etc., biit lioj deov and ffurnp are titles given to the Roman
A simple metaphor expre.sses the resemblance * Such misunderstanding does not seem so strange after one (or identity) between two dis.<imilar objects or ideas examines the contemporaneous literature. In the Talmud ^ J ' ■> (Peiachun) an entire section is pven to the discussion whether
* Die religiiisen Beiregungen innerhalb des Judentums im a man may eat the leaven of a Gentile, and with what kind of ZeUaiter Jesu, pp. ■237-'264. ' water dough must be kneaded.
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METAPHORS
METAPHORS
emperors of the 1st and 2nd cents., Avliile adeXtpos ■was the common term used for members of various heathen esoteric associations of that period, and ' birth ' the technical term for the rite of initiation. So the papyri have shown tliat ' presbj'ter,' ' scribe,' 'prophet,' etc., were technical terms used for officials in the heathen temples. Tliis means only that the members of the early Christian community were accustomed to use the ordinary language of tlieir times. It is difficult to tell what new ecclesiastical colouring was originally given to the titles of the early Christian officials, or what new ideas were from the very beginning expressed by the old terms ' faith,' ' salvation,' etc. Tliat the latter terms, though identical in form, exjiressed ideas radically difierent from what they did when used in the LXX, is acknowledged by all critics — how much more, then, did these ideas differ from those conveyed by the same terms when used in the heathen Mj'steries ? *
The command to baptize or believe on, in, or into the name of Jesus, — found in all jmrts of NT, — receives a new force from the papyri, wliere, in heathen temples, the property bought ' into the name of God' emphasizes the Divine ownership.!
The different NT writers are marked by certain striking peculiarities in their use of meta])hors. St. Mark, in his peasant's Gospel, rustic but pic- turesque, uses many metaphors which all writers following him could but repeat. So his simple metaphors grow into extended metaphors or illus- trations in the later Gospels. Yet certain strong expressions, evidently metaphorical, are, either be- cause of their uncouthness or implications, ignored by tiie later and more reflective writers. That the disciples are to be ' salted with fire ' (9^^), and that even in this life they are to be rewarded with a hundred ' mothers,' etc. (1(P") are peculiar to Mark.iJ: But when the force of these metaphors is caught, each statement strengthens our Lord's argument.
So the statement that Jesus spat on the blind man's eyes and on the dumb man's tongue (8^3 733)^ though omitted for obvious reasons from the other Gospels, becomes peculiarly impressive when we remember that spittle, according to all ancient thought, represented the essence of a man's inner spirit, the quintessence of himself, and therefore played, from the earliest ages, a lead- ing part in magic and witclicraft. By this acted metaphor Jesus proclaimed symbolically that it vvas His very essence that healed. Cf. also Jn 96, where the action of Jesus possibly receives a new meaning when we rememember that in the Talmud the dust of certain districts in Jerusalem was clean and of other districts unclean — not because of the district being in- sanitary, as is suggested in the Talmudic text. If, instead of spitting on the tongue, He 'spat out,' this would receive ex- planation from the custom of the Jews to spit in contempt when idols were mentioned ; as also in the earl^ Church, where con- verts coming to baptism spat out as a sign that they renounced the kingdom of Satan. Cf. JE, art. ' Alenu.'
In Mk., l)elievers who have 'salt' within them (^) have brotherly love ; in Mt. , those who love their enemies are salt (5i"-i^).§ In Mk., the word is a lamp (Xi^x^os) which must not be hid (4^1, cf. Lk 818- 1«); in Mt., it is the believer (5>3), or his ' eye ' (spiritual vision or intent), if clear and healthy (aTrXoDs, 6-"^), which is the lamp shining forth from the inward centre of life {(pQs, o^'^) — which Jn. sees to be the eternal Word, Christ Jesus (1^). In Mk., disciples are compared to sheep (6=*^ 14-7) . ^^ ^k- ^1,3^ ^^.^ ^^leep (10« lo^^ 263', cf. W-), while in Jn. (lO'---'^) a long, elaborate dis- course is based ujjon this well understood metaphor.||