No one has a right to assert a passage is figurative unless he can point to the figure and give reasons for its usage.

Figurative language is not a convenience that can be turned to an argument in order to escape the literal implication

of a passage. Let us take three well-known figures which are linked together:

(1) Simile or Resemblance.

(2) Metaphor or Representation.

(3) Hypocatastasis or Implication.

Simile is comparison stated; one thing is said to be like or as something else, e.g.

`All we like sheep have gone astray' (Isa. 53:6).

`One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day' (2 Pet. 3:8).

`All flesh is as grass' (1 Pet. 1:24).

There are hundreds of examples of this figure in the Bible.

Metaphor or Representation. This is comparison substituted. The figure lies in the verb `to be', while the nouns

on either side are literal. `All flesh is grass' (Isa. 40:6). Metaphor is from the Greek metaphero `to carry across'.

The likeness is carried across, the verb `to be' then having the meaning of `represent'. We may point to a

photograph and say: `This is my father'. What we really mean is the photograph is a representation of our father.

Or, pointing to a map, we can say: `This is Great Britain', meaning this map represents Great Britain, or is a likeness

of Great Britain. The figure Metaphor resides entirely in the verb `to be': `Ye are the salt of the earth' (Matt. 5:13);

`the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches' (Rev. 1:20); `He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man;

The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked

one' (Matt. 13:37,38). In each case the verb `to be' could be rendered `represents', and so we have likeness by

Metaphor is a distinct figure of speech and not a covering term for all figures. Sometimes great issues hang

upon the recognition of a figure and false doctrines can be built upon the failure to distinguish them. `This (broken

bread) is My Body' (Matt. 26:26). The Roman Catholic insists that the consecrated bread is literally Christ's body.

But in the Greek the grammar is deliberately broken to arrest attention and to show that the figure Metaphor is being

used. `This' is made to agree with the word `body' instead of its antecedent, the word `bread', and so through

failure to recognise the figure, the deception of the Roman Mass has been perpetuated through the centuries,

misleading millions and holding them in bondage.

The third figure of speech in the group we are considering is Hypocatastasis or Implication. Hypocatastasis

is a Greek word which literally means that something is `put down under' or wrapped up. The likeness in this case

is only implied.

`... dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me' (Psa. 22:16).

If the Psalmist had said that the assembly of the wicked were like dogs this would have used Simile. Had he said

the wicked are dogs, he would have used Metaphor. But in this verse he wraps up, as it were, his illustration of the

wicked by simply using the word `dogs'.

In the New Testament we have another example:

`Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees' (Matt.

Here the disciples completely misunderstood the Lord, as the context shows. `And they reasoned among

themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread' (verse 7). They took His statement literally, not realising

He was using the figure Hypocatastasis. He did not say the wrong doctrine of the Pharisees was either like leaven,

or was leaven, but strongly implied it by using the word leaven by itself, which both in the Old Testament and New

Testament is symbolic of evil. In verses eleven and twelve the disciples are made to understand that the Lord was

not referring to literal leaven, but to the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. There is another occasion where

the Lord Jesus used the same figure of Implication and was similarly misunderstood.