SOUNDING
OUT:
Additional Figures of Comparison
Last month we looked at three simple figures
of comparison: simile, metaphor, and hypocatastasis. This month
we’ll look at three more figures of comparison: syncrisis,
parable and allegory. As one learns to recognize the former, the
latter will become more clear for they relate themselves to each
other.
Simple |
Repeated |
Extended |
Simile |
Syncrisis |
Parable |
Metaphor |
-- |
Allegory |
Hypocatastasis |
-- |
Allegory |
A simile is a comparison by resemblance. When the resemblance
is repeated the figure is called syncrisis. The repetition establishes
the resemblance and makes it more difficult to overlook. We find
two examples in Isaiah.
Isaiah
1:18:
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
In
this example the contrasting resemblances are repeated. This emphasizes
and establishes the change Lord will make on sin. Isn’t
that a vivid picture of forgiveness?
Isaiah
32:2:
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the
wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers
of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.
In
the example we find three separate comparisons used to make the
same point. These three resemblances make beautiful word pictures
of relief or refreshing. Using three instead of just one drives
the point home emphatically.
When a resemblance is extended or continued instead of
repeated it is the figure parable. Instead of making the resemblance
with just a word or phrase, a parable extends or continues the
resemblance into a story. Like a simile, the parable intends only
one point of comparison. It is a story that illustrates a point
or lesson without pressing in every detail the idea of the comparison.
There are exceptions to this in the word (like the parable of
the sower), but when they occur, the context points out the several
details that are intended.
In a parable we find one set of circumstances resembling
or being liken to another, and the likeness generally deals with
one point and cannot be extended to all particulars. The likeness
is attained from the context, and pertains to one great truth
or important lesson, which is not found in all the detail in the
account.
In a similar fashion when a representation or implication
is extended we no longer have a metaphor or hypocatastasis, but
rather an allegory. Below are eight of several analogies pertaining
to our lifestyle as a believer.
I.
Analogies Emphasizing Legal Rights
A.
Sons of God: (Family Analogy)
1.
By birth
2.
By adoption (Roman culture)
B. Citizens
of heaven including Ambassadorship
II. Analogies
Emphasizing Commitment
A.
Athletes of the Spirit (commitment to excel)
B.
Bond slaves, doulos (commitment to serve)
C.
Prisoners of the Lord (captivation to the beauty or excellence of
the Word)
III. Analogies Emphasizing
Reward
A.
Farmer, husbandman, sower, etc.
B. Builder, workman, architect, etc
C.
Vessel of honor
Following is an example of the farmer analogy, which
emphasizes the reward gained from the effort invested.
I
Corinthians 3:6-8:
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth
any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according
to his own labour.
Later
on in the chapter Paul uses an architectural or builder analogy
to reemphasize the nature of the reward.
I
Corinthians 3:12-15:
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made
manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he
hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as
by fire.
The
comparisons in these two examples are extended from a basic metaphor
or hypocatastasis and have become analogical. These analogies are
used to compare the reward from work which is done in physical realm,
of which we are all aware, with the reward we will receive from
the work which we put into the work of the ministry. Therefore let
me encourage you, my beloved brethren, as Paul does later on in
I Corinthians 15:58 to “be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your
labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
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