It will be convenient to divide the metaphors under dis- cussion as follows : —
I. New Testament :
(1) Acts.
(2) Pauline Epistles.
(3) Epistle to Hebrews.
(4) Catholic Epistles.
(0) Revelation.
II. Early Christian literature to A.D. 100 :
(1) Agrapha.
(2) 1 Clement.
(3) Odes of Solomon.
(4) Didache.
1. In tee NT. — 1. Acts. — Not many metaphors are found in Acts ; such as there are have mostly a Jewish flavour and are not remarkable. 2" : ' they were pricked in their heart ' {KaTeviryriaav tt]v KapSiav ; cf. Gn 34' LXX KaT€vvx9-n(ra.v ol S.vSpes ; Plutarch, de Tranquill. Animi, xix. [without preHx]). 533 'jM. 'were cut to the heart' (the Gr. Siairpiuv means ' to saw through,' used literally in Aristo- phanes, metaphorically particularly in late and ecclesiastical Greek). 7" : ' Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears' (cf. Lv 26*', Jer giu 926) 121 : ■ Herod the king put forth his hands ' (this can fairly be called a metaphor; cf. Polyb. 111. ii. 8, ^TTijSdWeiy x^'P"' '■°'' '''"■' ^lyv^trov). 17" : ' if haply they might feel after him.' yp-riKaipav, ' to grope, is also found metaphorically in Polybius. This idea, like that in 17^, ' in him we live, and move, and have our being,' may have come from contemporary philosophy. St. Paul like Stoic teachers ' had a profound disbelief in the power of men to find God for themselves' (P. Gardner in Cambridge Biblical Essays, 1909, p. 400 f.). 191"' : ' So mightily grew the word of the Lord.' 20^": ' grievous wolves shall enter in ' (men represented as beasts — a striking metaphor). 26": 'kick against the goad.' Kivrpov is also used metaphori- cally in 1 Co 15^- '^ of the ' sti^g ' of death.
2. St. Paul's Et)istles. — It is obvious that in no writer of the NT is metaphor more important than in St. Paul. ' A Hebrew of the Hebrews ' who had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, a student who had absorbed much of the intellectual culture of the Greek world of his day, and a citizen of the Roman Empire, it is not surprising tliat all the sides of his personality have left their mark on his
language. Sometimes his metaphors are plain ami straightforward : sometimes lie i)asses imper- ceptibly from what is metaphor to what is not, weaving ideas into and out of one another in a way possible only for one who combined in such a rare degree spiritual freshness and intellectual subtlety. ' One of the most striking character- istics ot St. Paul is a sort of telescopic manner, in which one clause is as it were drawn out of another, each new idea a.s it arises leading on to some further new idea' (Sanday-IIeadlam, Romans, p. IxH. ). Hence his metaphors become changed almost in the same sentence, while the thought is being developed. Some of his simple metaphors, however, claim consideration first.
(1) The way.— I Th 1": 'What manner of entering in (bvolav elaoiov) we had unto you,' elaoSov being used of the act (as in I Th 2'), rather than of the means, of entering (He 10", 2 P 1"). 1 Th 2'^: 'that ye should walk worthily of God.' Christianity is called ^ 656s, ' the way ' (Ac 9'^, etc.), a metaphor which, as Milligan says (Epp. to Thess., ad loc.), though found in classical Greek, is Hebraistic and is characteristic of the LXX. The same idea appears again in xareu^ucat ttji^ oddv rifxCiv, ' direct our way ' (1 Th 3" ; cf. Lk 1™, 2 Th 3»).
(2) The athletic ground. — This is obviously a metaphor which would appeal to Greeks. Ph 1*" : ' having the same conflict which ye saw in me and now hear to be in me.' 1 Ti 6'* : ' Fight the good fight of faith ' (this would also come under ' War- fare ') (cf. 1 Th 22, He 10^-) : the words fiSXijcris, adXelv, ' contest,' ' to take part in a contest,' are obviously borrowed from the athletic ground ; likewise d.-iiiv, ' conflict,' has not our sense of ' agony ' at all but was simply used of the games, though the word appears metaphorically in Thuc. iii. 44. 1 Co 9-*-": 'Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? . . .' Gal 2^: 'lest by any means 1 should be running or had run in vain ' (the metaphor here might almost equally well be taken from the ' Way'). The same thought is in Ph 2'" : 'that I did not run in vain, neither labour in vain' (cf. Epictetus, Diss. iv. 4. 30 : e\6i tjSti iiri rbv dyCiva, Seiiof riiuv tI Ifiades, irtDs if6\T]<ras ; ' Come now to the conflict, show us what thou hast learned, how thou hast contested '). In 2 Th 3', ' that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified ' is a curious mixed metaphor in the typically Pauline style — one thought quickly passing into another.
(3) Warfare. — The athletic games lead on natur- ally to warfare. 2 Co 10^- ■* : ' For, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds).' In Eph 6"''* the metaphor is sus- tained, and in the beautiful phrases ' the helmet of salvation,' 'the sword of the spirit,' ' the shield of faith ' it is both elaborated and interpreted (cf. aLso 1 Co 6', 1 Th 5«). In Ro 13"" : ' let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light,' the metaphor of warfare is com- bined with that of light and darkness — equally beautiful and equally Pauline. This idea is found in Is IP 59", Wis 5''-=^°. For further metaphors drawn from warfare, see also 1 Ti 1'*, 2 Ti 2^