 |  |
a ship", meaning people. This verse in Revelation has sometimes been used to bolster up
unscriptural ideas concerning the life after death. Had this figure been recognized, such
ideas would have been prevented. In Psa. 16: 6 the Psalmist says:
"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."
Here the measuring line is put for the land marked out, as the second statement makes
clear. This inheritance was allocated by lot. Jeremiah's enemies said concerning him,
"Come, and let us smite him with the tongue"; obviously impossible literally, but the
tongue is put for bitter and unjust words (Jer. 18: 18).
We give one more example which is important doctrinally:
"We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle"
(Heb. 13: 10).
Again, it is clear that the first statement cannot be taken literally, for altars cannot be
eaten. But the word "altar" is put by Metonymy for the sacrifice offered on it. In this
case we have a double figure, for the writer is not referring to literal sacrifices, but to the
great Antitype, the Lord Himself, upon Whom we feast by faith, and to Whom we are
urged to go forth without the camp, bearing His reproach (Heb. 13: 13).
We have already considered the anthropomorphic element in the Bible where the
figure Anthropopatheia or Condescension is used. The references to the hands, eyes,
ears, nostrils, and arms of God, His remembering or forgetting, or His repentance are all
illustrations of this and are a wonderful example of the God of all grace stooping to our
level to make Himself and His ways known to us.
In concluding this section we will consider the figure Ellipsis where words are left out
of the original Hebrew and Greek and must be supplied in English to make sense. In
Psa. 84: 3 we have:
"Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she
may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God."
The word "even" in the A.V. is in italics, the translation supplying the ellipsis to make
sense. But it is wrongly supplied, leading one to think that swallows made nests in the
altars. The words "so have I found" should be supplied instead of the word " even" and
then we have good sense.
When the Lord declares that the mustard seed is the least of all seeds (Matt. 13: 32), it
should be obvious that He is not saying that the mustard seed is the smallest in existence,
but the smallest of seeds sown in a field as the context shows, and the ellipsis could have
been supplied in verse 32.
Sometimes we have false ellipsis, that is, words are supplied which are unnecessary.
"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle . . . . ." (Rom. 1: 1).