by By Phares Barine
One early afternoon 25 years ago, I sat on a hospital bed, holding the limb hand of a young beautiful woman, watching her agonized face as she struggled to keep breathing, each succeeding breath a strangled rasping whimper of a broken harmonica. A horrendous sense of despair assailed me. My mind groped desperately for something, anything to offer the lamb that lay panting before me, literally wrestling with death. Then I found myself murmuring, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”
The strength and confidence in my voice surprised even myself. The angel lying on that bed of agony must have sensed the utter candour in my voice, for with great effort she paused her breathing and turned her glazed eyes towards me. And she gave my hand a little squeeze! Then she resumed her breathing marathon…
Psalm 23 is perhaps the most memorable piece of scripture to be found in the Christian Bible. It usually has the most profound effect on me whenever I recite it. The psalm illustrates the massive power of metaphorical discourse.
Psalm 23 calms the troubled mind. It soothes; it inspires. It is a spiritual tranquilizer in times of extreme mortal anguish. It injects hope in the soul and shifts one’s focus from pain to the painkiller, the Lord, the Shepherd.
But what is a metaphor? A metaphor is any manner of speech that compares one thing with another, by directly calling one thing the other. In Psalm 23 David calls the Lord “My Shepherd.” To David’s pastoralist community, this familiar image of a shepherd must have connected instantly and struck right into the listener’s emotional psyche. David too was a shepherd in his youthful years, remember?
The metaphor is not only memorable, it also speaks directly to our hearts. It draws an image that concretizes the abstract by comparing a vague or unknown idea with a familiar one. This figure of speech greatly enhances comprehension. Through metaphor, the speaker/writer places his thoughts directly into the listener’s/reader’s mind, processed and ready for use. Furthermore, the message in a metaphor is often packaged in a particular manner, the way the speaker desires the listener to receive the message. Invariably, the use of a metaphor will influence the receiver’s response to it. Akin to mind control, huh?
According to American theologian Sallie Macfague, “Metaphorical thinking constitutes the basis of human thought and language… From the time we are infants we construct our world through metaphor.” True, and parents would often take advantage of this fact. Remember how a mother weaned off that child who was reluctant to leave the teat? She would tell the kid, “Yoo, you’re eating pupu!”
Macfague goes on to say, “Religious language is deeply metaphorical… and is, therefore, no surprise that Jesus’ most characteristic form of teaching, the parables, should be extended metaphors.”
Analogy and the allegory too, are extended metaphors. Consider the allegory of Prophet Hosea and his adulterous wife: The writer aptly captures the corrupt spiritual life of the Israelites and their unfaithful ways.
See how Jesus tears to shreds the false prophets in the mixed metaphor in Mathew 7:15-19. He first highlights them by using a most vivid metaphor: Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are vicious wolves (vs 15). He then lampoons them in the analogy of the tree and its fruit: “…can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. (Vs 16-18.) He goes on to deliver judgement on such prophets (vs 19): “So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.”
Almost every thought that is expressed in the Bible is metaphorical. It teems with metaphors of heaven and earth, the sky and the sea; of spirits, humans and animals. There are metaphors of bread, wolves, sheep, goats and horns; of plants, rocks, fire, water and light, of food and drink and salt, and of seductive snakes… Maybe the Bible is one big metaphor on human life!
Metaphors are often couched in language that sharply incites our sensual perceptions in a manner that tremendously reinforces the messages they carry. They range from the most mundane: “Yet, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter…” (Isaiah 64:8); to the riddle-like: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”(John 1:1); to the cryptic: “Of the angels he says: “Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire” (Hebrews1:7); to the ominous: “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” (Acts 20:29); to the grotesque: “Behold, I am against you (Nineveh) and will lift up your skirts over your face, and will let nations look on your nakedness (Nahum 3:5); and the damning: “Upon her children also I will have no pity, because they are children of harlotry.”(Hosea 2:4-5).
The language of the metaphor can also be reassuring, comforting. David proclaims: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want…” (Psalm 23:1).
Again, the psalmist assures the believer, who must trudge through a world filled with the darkness of evil: “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119: 105).
John the Baptist calms the souls of those he is baptizing and firms their faith when he introduces Jesus to them thus: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus himself confirms: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11).
Who would not feel restful when the Master himself gives us the blessed assurance: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35) and “…whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14).
Metaphors are excellent communication tools and, therefore, good for teaching. No wonder the most memorable metaphors are used by the Master Teacher himself, Jesus. Note how he uses a series of powerful parables to make the idea of the kingdom of heaven clearer to his disciples: The parable of the Weeds (Mathew 13: 24- 30); the Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mathew 13; 31-32); the Parable of Yeast (Mathew 13: 33); the Parable of Hidden Treasure (Mathew 13:44) and the Parable of the Pearl (Mathew 13:45-46).
In the parable of the weeds Jesus teaches his disciples that even as they win believers for the kingdom of God, it is inevitable that the enemy (Satan) will come in stealth (night) and sow unbelief among their followers and spoil the disciples’ good work. Though they might want to uproot those unbelievers from among the believers, it could harm the believers. He advises them to leave the “weeds” to live side-by-side with the good crop until harvest time when the good crop will be separated from the weeds, and the weeds will face their judgement — eternal fire.
The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast are to exhort the disciples to have faith in the humble beginnings of the work they are doing, of preaching the message of the Kingdom. Indeed, Jesus metaphorically calls them “little flock” and tells them not to be afraid (Luke 12:32). Jesus assures them that their following may look insignificant to them then, but eventually it was going to grow exponentially and have tremendous effect on the lives of God’s children.
The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl no doubt teach those who follow Christ the great value of being in the kingdom of God.
Biblical metaphor is not only quite effective in communicating the scriptural message, it also forms the larger portion of the language of the Bible. This reality is of great significance to the Bible translator. Metaphors tend to be culture specific and borrow heavily from the environment of the writer. Therefore the translator must bridge the gap between the source and the receptor audience when translating metaphors, without creating a cultural conflict. To retain the effectiveness of the metaphor in translation, the translator has to dig deep into the receptor language to get metaphorical expressions and equivalents that are adequate enough to transmit the message that was originally intended by the Hebrew and the Geek writers. The translator is obligated to retain the richness of metaphorical language as used in the Bible, for losing it would be depriving the Bible of this special language attribute — Biblical metaphor.
Phares Barine is involved in translating the Bible into the Muthambi/Mwimbi dialect of the Ameru in Kenya.
