01.01.01.19. CHAPTER XIX. OF AN HYPERBOLE
CHAPTER XIX. OF AN HYPERBOLE
HYPERBOLE is that affection of a trope, by which, with greater access and enlargement for to amplify or extenuate things, a word is carried, or used, very far from its proper and native signification. Here we are not to take away an hyperbole from the Holy Scripture by that pretext, that is, a kind of lie, extolling or depressing a thing more than is true: for we are to observe, that this kind of speech, (as tropes are) is accommodated more to make expressions efficacious and powerful, than with any purpose to deceive, for that is inconsistent with the goodness and truth of its most true and blessed Author, the Lord God; and that there is no disagreement between the mind, and the words spoken, which is the thing that constitutes a lie.
There is a twofold species of an hyperbole.
(1.) Amplification, which the Greeks call acuhsiv, Auxesis, and extenuation, which they call meiwsiv, Meiosis.
Examples of this auxesis or amplification are partly, rhetorical, partly logical. Such as relate to rhetoric are either in single words, or in a conjunct phrase. To single words these belong.
War is put for any private strife, James 4:1, which answers the Hebrew word XXXX which is taken in this sense, Jeremiah 1:19; Jeremiah 15:20. Heaven is put for very great height, as on the contrary, an abyss or hell, for great depth, or dejection, Genesis 11:4, "Let us build us a city and a tower whose top, (or head) may reach heaven," that is, higher than any thing on earth. See Deuteronomy 1:28; Deuteronomy 11:1; Psalms 107:26, "They mount up to heaven, they go down to the depths," which denotes the vehement and dreadful tossing of waves in a storm. Isaiah 57:9, "Thou didst debase thyself to hell," that is, to be most abject of all: he speaks of the kingdom of Juda, who submitted themselves very basely by their king Ahaz to the Assyrians, because thy would be assisted by them, 2 Kings 16:7, (&c.) See more examples, Matthew 11:23; Lamentations 2:1; Luke 10:21; 1 Samuel 5:12; 2 Chronicles 28:9; Revelation 18:5; Isaiah 14:13; Jeremiah 51:9, Jeremiah 51:53. To vomit up is put for recompence or payment of what a man has eaten, Proverbs 23:8.
Matthew 19:12, "To make one’s self a eunuch," is put for, to suppress irregular lusts, yea, there are some, who by the gift of God, have gift of continency; this is a metaphorical hyperbole used by Christ, kat antanaklasin, by way of atanaclasis. James 3:6, "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity," that is, a thing full of wickedness, as the world is full of many things; see Jeremiah 4:29; Rth 4:6. To rob esulhsa, is put for to receive, 2 Corinthians 11:8. This is a great auxesis, for he names the acceptation of due and moderate salary, depredation or robbery.
Rivers of oil are put for abundance of all good things, Job 29:6; Micah 6:7, where there is a more illustrious exaggeration, "ten thousands of rivers of oil."
Thunder is put for the strong neighing of a horse. Job 39:19. A tower is put for a very high place, Nehemiah 8:4, (&c.) In a conjunct phrase, we have these hyperboles, Genesis 41:47, "And in the seven plentiful years, the earth brought forth thy handfuls;" as if he had said, that from one grain they had gathered a handful. This hyperbolical speech denotes great increase, see Genesis 41:49..
More examples you may read, Genesis 42:8; Exodus 8:17; Judges 5:4-5, (with Numbers 20:18-21,) Numbers 20:16; 1 Samuel 7:6; Psalms 6:6; Psalms 119:136; Jeremiah 9:1; Lamentations 3:48-49, (&c.) 1 Samuel 25:37; 1 Kings 1:40; 1 Kings 10:5; Isaiah 5:25, with Deuteronomy 32:22; Lamentations 2:11; Ezekiel 27:28; 2 Samuel 17:13; 2 Kings 19:24; Job 29:6; Job 40:18; Isaiah 13:13; Isaiah 14:14; Isaiah 34:3-4, Isaiah 34:7; Ezekiel 26:4; Ezekiel 32:5-8; Ezekiel 39:9-10; Amos 9:13; Nahum 2:3-4; Galatians 4:15. A logical hyperbole, which is used in proper words, shall he considered, (1.) With respect,
1. To hyperbolical comparisons, when one thing is compared with another, which can bear no tolerable proportion with it, as Genesis 13:16, "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." The sense is, that the seed of Abraham should be a very great multitude, because innumerable, or not to be numbered. But inasmuch as it is compared to the dust of the earth, it is hyperbolical, because as Augustine
2. In certain hypothesis, where, for emphasis sake, the things are amplified more than really they are or can be, Psalms 139:8-10, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea: even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Now no man living can ascend unto heaven, nor descend into hell, nor take wings, and fly as fast as the morning. But these things are mentioned by way of hyperbolical fiction, to illustrate the infiniteness and omnipresence of God, which no man can avoid or fly from. There is an hyperbolical expression or hypothesis, Proverbs 27:22, which denotes that no endeavours will reclaim or bring men obdurate in folly to the right way. That hyperbole, Obadiah 1:4, denotes the certainty of divine judgment against the Edomites. See Jeremiah 49:16.
Matthew 16:26, "But what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and shall lose his own soul?" by the word world, all the power, riches, pleasure, and precious things there, are to be understood in one word. And by this hypothetical hyperbole, the most grievous state of the wicked, that (by those toys which are but transient) forfeit eternal life, is denoted. See Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25; 1 Corinthians 4:15; 1 Corinthians 13:1-2; Galatians 1:8, (&c.)
3. In some others, 1 Kings 20:10, as that thrasonical or boasting speech of Benhadad king of Syria to the king of Israel is recorded, that "the dust of Samaria should not suffice for handfuls, for all the people that follow me," This is a high piece of hyperbolical boasting, as if he had said, all your land can be brought by handfulls, by my army, yea, shall not be enough for the numbers of bearers, (so great is my host); how easily therefore shall I overcome you? Hosea 2:17, there is an hyperbole which denotes the contempt of idolatory, that will be, and that their names shall not be used with any reverence, which must be the meaning, for Paul names Baal, Romans 11:4. See Acts 7:43, (&c.)
Matthew 5:29, "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee;" Matthew 5:30, "If thy right hand offend thee cut it off, and cast it from thee," &c. Christ would not have a man maim his body, but by this hyperbolical precept intimates, the great heinousness and extreme danger of scandal or offence, and that we are by any means to avoid it, and part from all occasions of giving it That hyperbolical expression, Matthew 24:2, denotes extreme destruction and razing of the foundation. See Haggai 2:16; Matthew 1:6, and Luke 10:4. Of which before, in the metonymy of a sign.
John 21:25, "And there are also many other things, which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the whole world itself could not contain the the books that should be written." Some expound this of the capacity of the understanding, (hence Theophilact expounds Xwrhsai by uonsai to understand, as the same word rendered here contained, is taken, Matthew 19:11-12,) that the sense may be, that there would never be such an one in the world, that could comprehend all in his mind because of the variety and multitude of the things done, and spoken by Christ, the world being metonymically put for the men, and books for their contents.
Others understand it of local capacity, properly so called, that the whole world was not big enough to contain all the books, if in every circumstance all the sayings and actions of Christ were written, which explication is savoured by the pronoun (autov itself} added to the world: take it which way you will, it is an hyperbolical expression, especially in the latter sense. Some compare Amos 7:10, with it, "the land is not able to bear all his words," &c. By that hyperbolical wish of the apostle, Romans 9:3, his great and exceeding love to the Israelites is noted. See Galatians 3:13-14; Jude 1:23, (&c.) Examples of a Meiosis, or Extenuation.
1. To a rhetorical meiosis belong such things as are by any trope extenuated, or lessened, as Genesis 18:27, "Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes," that is, a most low and abject creature. It is a metaphor or a metonymy, and alludes to the first creation of man, out of the earth. So to be exalted out of the dust, denotes to raise one of the meanest sort of men to honour, 1 Kings 16:2; Psalms 113:7-8; 1 Samuel 24:14, "Whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea," as if he had said, that it was beneath (or unworthy) so great a king to pursue me, that am but weak and mean, with so great a troop.
Psalms 22:6, "But I am a worm and no man," that is, a most afflicted man, trampled on by the enemy, like a worm, &c. so Job 25:6; Isaiah 41:14.
2. A local meiosis is when for extenuation sake, a comparison is made with a very little thing, as Numbers 13:33, "We saw men, and we were as grasshoppers before them:" that is, of small stature in comparison of those giants. See Isaiah 40:15, Isaiah 40:17; Psalms 144:3-4.
3. Examples of grammatical meiosis, are 2 Kings 18:4, "and called it, (XXXX Nehushtan) little brass," by a diminutive word, by way of contempt of the brazen serpent that was made an idol, of these diminutives these are many in the Hebrew text, but we leave them for critics.
Some is put for a great many, Romans 3:3; 1 Timothy 4:1.
Somebody, is put fur an eminent man, Acts 5:36, "Boasting himself somebody," as Acts 8:9. So Pindarus says, ti de tiv; ti de oudeiv; skiav onar anqrwpov, that is, what is somebody? "What is nobody? Man is the dream of a shadow.
Sick is put for one dead in sin, or desperately bad in his spiritual state, for these that are said to be ungodly, Isaiah 1:5, sinners, and enemies, Isaiah 1:10. These few instances of many we note for the illustration of this trope.