Hyperbole
Hyperbole
Any one who carefully examines the Bible must be surprised at the very few hyperbolic expressions, which it contains, considering that it is an Oriental book. In Eastern Asia the tone of composition is pitched so high as to be scarcely intelligible to the sober intellect of Europe, while in Western Asia a medium seems, to have been struck between the ultra extravagance of the far East and the frigid exactness of the far West. But, even regarded as a book of Western Asia, the Bible is, as compared with almost any other Western Asiatic book, so singularly free from hyperbolic expressions as might well excite our surprise, did not our knowledge of its divine origin permit us to suppose that even the style and mode of expression of the writers were so far controlled as to exclude from their writings what, in other ages and countries, might excite pain and offence, and prove an obstacle to the reception of divine truth. SEE INSPIRATION. Nor is it to be said that the usage of hyperbole is of modern growth. We find it in the oldest Eastern writings which now exist; and the earlier Rabbinical writings attest that in times approaching near to those in which the writers of the New Testament flourished, the Jewish imagination had run riot in this direction, and has left hyperboles as frequent and outrageous as any which Persia or India can produce. SEE TALMUD.
The strongest hyperbole in all Scripture is that with which the Gospel of John concludes: There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that the world itself could not contain all the books that should be written. This has so much pained many commentators that they have been disposed to regard it as an unauthorized addition to the sacred text, and to reject it accordingly a process always dangerous, and not to be adopted but on such overwhelming authority of collated manuscripts as does not exist in the present case. Nor is it necessary, for as a hyperbole it may be illustrated by many examples in sacred and profane authors. In Num 13:33, the spies who had returned from searching the land of Canaan say that they saw giants there of such a prodigious size that they were in their own a sight but as grasshoppers. In Deu 1:28, cities with high walls about them are said to be walled up to heaven. In Dan 4:7, mention is made of a tree whereof the height reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof unto the end of all the earth and the author of Ecclesiasticus (47:15), speaking of Solomon’s wisdom, says, Thy soul covered the whole earth, and thou filledst it with parables. In Josephus (Ant. 14:22) God is mentioned as promising to Jacob that he would give the land of Canaan to him and his seed; and then it is added, they shall fill the whole sea and land which the sun shines upon. Wetstein, in his note on the text in John, and Basnage, in his Histoire des Juifs (3, 1-9; 5, 7), have cited from the ancient Rabbinical writers such passages as the following: If all the seas were ink, and every reed was a pen, and the whole heaven and earth were parchment, and all the sons of men were writers, they would not be sufficient to write all the lessons which Jochanan composed’ and concerning one Eliezer, it is said that if the heavens were parchment, and all the sons of men writers, and all the trees of the forest pens, they would not be sufficient for writing all the wisdom which he was possessed of. Homer, who, if not born in Asia Minor, had undoubtedly lived there, has sometimes followed the hyperbolic manner of speaking which prevailed so much in the East: thus, in the Iliad (20, 246,247), he makes AEneas say to Achilles, Let us have done with reproaching one another, for we may throw out so many reproachful words on one another that a ship of a hundred oars would not be able to carry the load. Few instances of this are to be found in Occidental writers; yet it is observed that Cicero (Philippians 2:44) has Praesertim quum illi eam gloriam consecuti sint, quae vix caelo capi posse videatur, and that Livy (7, 25) says, Hae vires populi Romani, quas vix terrarum capit orbis. See bishop Pearce’s Commentary on the four Evangelists, 1777, etc. Modern examples of equal hyperbole may be found cited in almost any work on rhetoric.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
HYPERBOLE
HYPERBOLE is, when the Writer is found to have said more, with a view to enlarging or diminishing a thing, than he intends to be understood.-Joh 12:19, . An indignant Hyperbole. Gnom. In the statements put forth by Jesus and His apostles there often seems to be an HYPERBOLE, where there is none: e.g.-Mar 16:15, , .-Luk 6:23; 1Co 15:52. See Gnom. I should be sorry, however, to eliminate (banish) all HYPERBOLES out of the New Testament. For they are proved to have place [as ERNESTI In. Rh. 335, p. 165, rightly observes, and as we shall make evident by examples]-1) If they possess, as it were, the force of proverbs; and when this is so, nothing save what is excellent [or else unusual] is understood in any kind; as,. Mat 21:13, () .-Joh 3:26; Joh 3:32, .- . 2) When the thing itself has exceeded its natural limit, so that the Hyperbole may seem to have arisen out of the facts; as in Luk 18:5, . An Hyperbole appropriate to the character of a judge who was unjust and impatient.-See Gnom. 3) When a more vehement feeling has generated them, than which nothing is more effective towards softening every kind of harshness in tropes, and also in figures; as, Heb 7:27, . See Gnom.-Ch. 10:1, – -. To this also may be referred those phrases, Joh 3:26; Joh 3:32.-Comp. KINDERLINGS Grundstze der Beredsamkeit, 138, p. 110.
Fuente: Gnomon Technical Terms
Hyperbole
(Gr. hyperbole, over-shooting, excess) In rhetoric, that figure of speech according to which expressions gain their effect through exaggeration. The representation of things as greater or less than they really are, not intended to be accepted literally. Aristotle relates, for example, that when the winner of a mule-race paid enough money to a poet who was not anxious to praise half-asses, the poet wrote. “Hail, daughters of storm-footed steeds” (Rhetoric, III. ii. 14). — J.K.F.
Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy
Hyperbole
This figure, in its representation of things or objects, either magnifies or diminishes them beyond or below their proper limits: it is common in all languages, and is of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures. Thus, things which are lofty are said to reach up to heaven, Deu 1:28; Deu 9:1; Psa 107:26. So things which are beyond the reach or capacity of man are said to be in heaven, in the deep, or beyond the sea, Deu 30:12; Rom 10:6-7. So a great quantity or number is commonly expressed by the sand of the sea, the dust of the earth, and the stars of heaven, Gen 13:16; Gen 41:49; Jdg 7:12; 1Sa 13:5; 1Ki 4:29; 2Ch 1:9; Jer 15:8; Heb 11:12. In like manner we meet with smaller than grasshoppers, Num 13:33, to denote extreme diminutiveness; swifter than eagles, 2Sa 1:23, to intimate extreme celerity; the earth trembled, the mountains melted, Jdg 5:4-5; the earth rent, 1Ki 1:40. I make my bed to swim; rivers of tears run down mine eyes. So we read of angels’ food, Psa 6:6; Psa 119:136; Psa 78:25; the face of an angel, Act 6:15; and the tongue of an angel, 1Co 13:1. See also Gal 1:8; Gal 4:14. We read sigh with the breaking of thy loins, Eze 21:6, that is, most deeply. So we read that the stones would cry out, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, Luk 19:40; Luk 19:44; that is, there shall be a total desolation.