Although folks of a fundamentalist and/or literalist view of Scripture tend to be uncomfortable with discussions which focus on the Bible as literature, even a cursory review of those sacred writings reveals a wide range of literary genres and an extensive use of figurative language. In short, God and the people he used to author Scripture made extensive use of various kinds of comparisons to educate their audience, and this is what makes those fundamentalist/literalist folks so uncomfortable. Obviously, the use of allegory, metaphor, simile, and hyperbole requires the reader to reach outside of the confines of Scripture and draw upon personal experience and evaluate/contemplate how the two things are alike and/or different. Hence, "the Bible always means what it says," and "the Bible interprets itself," don't quite work in many of these instances.
In their Glossary of Literary Terms, the L.T. website defines an allegory as "a story within a story. It has a 'surface story' and another story hidden underneath." Now, although scholars are divided about whether or not some passages of Scripture should be considered as allegorical in nature, there is wide agreement that Scripture is literally FULL of allegory. Christ's parables are probably the most straightforward examples of allegory in Scripture. Likewise, Paul's comparison of the old and new covenants to Sarah's and Hagar's children in the fourth chapter of Galatians is another fairly obvious example of the use of this device. The book of Revelation also makes use of allegory. Likewise, in the Old Testament, we have the story which Nathan told to David about a stolen lamb, and a number of allegories in the prophetic books. Some biblical scholars see many of the stories found in Genesis, Judges, Job, and Song of Solomon as being allegorical in nature.
The Glossary of Literary Terms (GOLT) also defines a metaphor as "a common figure of speech that makes a comparison by directly relating one thing to another unrelated thing. Unlike similes, metaphors do not use words such as 'like' or 'as' to make comparisons. The writer or speaker relates the two unrelated things that are not actually the same, and the audience understands that it’s a comparison, not a literal equation." Once again, there are many metaphors in the Bible. Think of Jesus as the bread of life, lamb of God, truth, gate, rock, branch, shepherd, light of the world, etc. In similar fashion, spirit is compared to breath in a number of passages throughout the Bible. Likewise, breath is equated with life throughout those same writings. The Church is compared to a human body and is frequently spoken of as a woman or a bride. In other words, the list of biblical metaphors is almost endless.
The GOLT also defines a simile as "a literary term where you use 'like' or 'as' to compare two different things and show a common quality between them. A simile is different from a simple comparison in that it usually compares two unrelated things." Like metaphors, a complete list of biblical similes would be very long. Think of comparisons like these: eyes like blazing fire, as grass or the flowers of the field, white like wool, wise as serpents and harmless as doves, like apples of gold in settings of silver, as a thief in the night, like sheep, faith as a mustard seed, like a gazelle, like a roaring lion, like a wave of the sea, like a tree planted by the water, a day as a thousand years, etc. As with allegory and metaphor, Scripture uses things that will be readily familiar to his/her audience - things which are commonly experienced features of life on this planet - to aid the reader in understanding God, Jesus, spiritual things, and moral principles.
Finally, the GOLT defines hyperbole as "a figure of speech in which an author or speaker purposely and obviously exaggerates to an extreme. It is used for emphasis or as a way of making a description more creative and humorous." In other words, these comparisons are meant to over emphasize something. In terms of the Bible, think: as numerous as the sand on the seashore or the stars in heaven, speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and beam in your own; if you're right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away, exalted to heaven, a camel going through the eye of a needle, straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, etc. In examining these various literary devices, it rapidly becomes apparent to us that some of these features can overlap or melt together to achieve a particular effect.
To be clear, this post was not intended to be a criticism of the use of these literary devices by the authors of Scripture. On the contrary, I simply wanted to demonstrate that these devices are common features of the Bible - that they are part of the reality of those writings. In other words, their presence in Scripture is an undeniable fact, and we can see just how valuable they are in helping us to understand what the author(s) is/are trying to convey to us (the readers). Without them, the Bible would not be as clear/understandable or interesting! Also, their presence in these writings underscores just how complex and layered the Bible really is. In other words, they make many of the notions of the fundamentalists and literalists seem naive and simplistic. What do you think?
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