used to bolster up unscriptural ideas concerning the life after death. Had this figure been recognised, such ideas

would have been prevented.

In Psalm 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 Psalm 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).

The words `to be' are in italics, showing they are not in the original Greek. They are not needed. Paul was a `called

apostle', saved and called by the risen Christ. Again in Philippians 3:15 we read:

`Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded'.

But the apostle has stated that he himself was not at this stage perfect or mature, nor had reached the goal in the race

in which he found himself, pressing forward for the `prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus' (3:14). This

being so, it was very unlikely indeed that any believer in the Philippian church had outstripped him in experience.

The Greek reads literally: `as many as perfect therefore' showing that the figure ellipsis is here. We must therefore

supply the words `would be' or `wish to be'. Paul is setting the example for all who desire, not only to run the

heavenly race, but to reach the goal and attain the prize.

In 1 Corinthians 15:29 we have one of the problematic verses of the New Testament :

`Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized

for the dead?'