Speaking in Pictures and Figures of Speech

Use of figurative language and exaggerated expressions. Often the oriental manner of speech is to picture what is meant, or perhaps to demonstrate it. A good example of this is given us by Luke in his account of Paul's experiences: "There came down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle" (Acts 21:10-11). If John the Baptist had spoken like some speakers in the West, he would have said, "Your pretensions to virtue and good birth far exceed your actual practice of virtue."19 Being a real Oriental he actually said: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance, And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matthew 3:7-9). The large use of figures of speech in its teaching and conversation make the Book a typical Oriental book.20 The Oriental frequently makes statements that to the Westerner sound like uncalled-for exaggeration. One man will say to another, "What I say to you is truth, and if it is not, I will cut off my right arm." Or he will. say, "I promise you this, and if I fail in fulfilling my promise, I will pluck out my right eye." In those lands nobody would ever dream that such a resolution would be carried out. The statement simply means that the speaker is in earnest. An Oriental can fully appreciate what JESUS meant when he said, "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee... If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee" (Matthew 5:29, 30). Many expressions of JESUS need to be understood in the light of daily conversation of His day. Here are examples of a few. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of GOD" (Matthew 19:24). "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24). "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" (Matthew 7:3). When reading such passages of Scripture, men from the Occident must remember the fondness of the Oriental for the hyperbole. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]