EAT, To
EAT, To
To Eat symbolically signifies to meditate and digest, to receive a thing with satisfaction, and to turn it to one’s profit and advantage.
The mouth is not only the instrument by which we eat, but also that by which some beasts chew the cud, and men do meditate. For to meditate,f1 if we consider it as a Latin term, signifies properly to hum a song in one’s mouth, and by a parity of reason to think on and repeat something worthy of study. Thus Jos 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night;” where to meditate, is to consider seriously, and exercise one’s self in the law of God, and implies to study, obey, and practise it. Hence come those frequent expressions of the Psalmist about the meditation of God’s law, Psa 119:99, “Thy testimonies are my meditation:” and Psa 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste: yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Hence the Allegorists explain the Commandment about eating animals that chew the cudf2 of consorting with such men as meditate on the law of God; and Philo calls eating the symbol of spiritual nourishment;f3 the soul being nourished by the reception of truth, and the practice of virtue.
To eat a prophecy signifies to receive and digest it for the purpose of communication. Jer 15:16; Ezek. 8-10; Eze 3:1-3.
In Latin authors there are several examples, wherein eating signifies receiving any thing of news with satisfaction; as in Plautus,f4 “I eat your discourse with a vast deal of pleasure;” and elsewhere,f5 “that is meat to me which you tell me.” And so to taste signifies to make trial of any thing; as in the same writerf6″ I had a mind to taste his discourse.” To these the like might be added out of the Greek authors; as schylus, Aristophanes, and Plutarch.
So to feed, when it signifies our own eating, is the same as to receive full content; as to devour letters or books, is to read them with the greatest satisfaction.f7 And in the Oneirocritics,f8 to eat signifies constantly to turn something to one’s profit.
Lastly, eating, when it comes under the notion of devouring, signifies destruction any way, or taking from others, according as the decorum of the adjunct symbols requires; as in Deu 32:42; 2Sa 2:26; Jer 51:44; and the metaphor frequently occurs in the Greek and Latin authors.
F1 Vid. G. J. Vost. Etymol. in Voc.
F2 Barn. Eli. c. 10.
F3 Phil. Allegor. L. i. p. 39.
F4 Aulular. Act. iii. Sc. vi.
F5 Plant. Cistellar. Act. iv. Sc. ii.
F6 Mostellar. Act. v. Sc. i.
F7 M. T. C. ad Attic. L. iv. Ep. 9. & L. vii. Ep. 3.
F8 Oneir. c. 39, 4. Artem. L. iii. c. 23. & L. v. C. 38, 39.