by Bobby Holloway
Go back to Bible Interpretations
Have you ever heard that expression? Of course it means what it says, but what does it say? First, may I remind you of a grammar lesson that all of us learned, or should have learned, in school? There are at least two ways that comparisons are made in the New Testament. They are by the use of metaphors and similes. Remember those words? A metaphor is where a comparison is made of some quality of two different things, but the words “like” or “as” are not used. Jesus once referred to Herod by calling him a fox (Luke 13:32). “A mighty fortress is our God” is another example. The use of a simile is found in I Peter 5:8, “…the devil walks about like a roaring lion.” A simile uses the word “like” or “as.”
In the garden of Gethsemane the record tells us about Jesus in prayer. It says “Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.” Did He sweat blood or not? We sing at least two songs where the writers thought He did. “Night with Ebon Pinion” contained the words “in tears and sweat and blood.” The editor of our hymnal changed it to “sweat as blood.” However, in the hymn “’Tis Midnight and on Olive’s Brow” the words, “The man of sorrows weeps in blood” are still present. I have even heard preachers talk about the bloody sweat of Jesus as a sign that His physical heart was already breaking, but He did not actually sweat blood.
Another example is found in Acts 2:3. When the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus on the day of Pentecost, verse 3 says, “Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire…” That quote is from the New King James Version; the New International Version is not quite as sure. It says they saw what “seemed to be tongues of fire.” I wonder to whom it seemed to be tongues of fire. In the King James Version both the words like and as were used. “There appeared cloven tongues like as of fire.” The idea that actual fire was involved on Pentecost came from the statement that John the Baptist made that the One coming after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. It has been assumed by many that both of those baptisms would occur on the same occasion. However, the way John talked in the following verses, Matthew chapter 3, indicated that the fire was going to come on some people for punishment. When Cornelius and his household were baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts 10, Peter indicated that the baptism was like what they had received, but nothing is said about fire or “like fire” or anything resembling that.
Have you ever heard the song “On the Wings of a Snow White Dove”? Did you ever see an artist’s portrayal of the baptism of Jesus where a dove is shown descending to light upon Him? Both of those attempts to characterize the Spirit were based on the statement in all four gospels that the Spirit descended “like a dove.” One writer says He descended “in bodily form like a dove”, not “of a dove.” The point of the comparison is that the Spirit descended in the same manner as a dove would. Why would anyone think that the Holy Spirit assumed the form of an animal? Can you imagine Jesus or God doing that? Someone will say, “It says He did.” No, that’s my point; it does not say that.
All three of those were similes. What about the use of a metaphor? The Bible has many, many examples, but I will mention only a few. Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches” (John 15:5). John 6:25 says, “I am the bread of life…” At the supper where Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” He also said, “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Those statements are found in Matthew 26:26, 28. How do I know that those elements were not the literal body and blood of Jesus? In the first place, He was there with His body and blood, and those elements could only represent His body and blood or be like the body and blood in some way. Secondly, the only people who need for the bread and the fruit of the vine to be the literal body and blood of Jesus are those who believe that His sacrifice must be reenacted each time a priest presides at Mass. The Douay Rheims Version of the Bible has a footnote to Matthew 26:26-28 which says that the Lord did not say this is “like my body, but this is my body.” That brings us back to the need to understand what a metaphor is. Paul said in I Corinthians 11 that “we eat the bread and drink the cup.” Nothing is said about consuming the body and blood of Jesus.