100 THE REV. PROFESSOR A. S. GEDEN, M.A., D.D., 



In taking up so wide and comprehensive a subject as that of 

 metaphor in the fourth Gospel, it is not easy to determine the 

 best point at which to begin. Nearly all language is more or 

 less consciously metaphorical, and the thought and speech of the 

 East is steeped in metaphor. The mind of the Oriental, more 

 than in the West, approaches a subject not directly but by the 

 way of comparison and illustration. It would not be too much 

 to say that the most fruitful source of misunderstanding of the 

 Scriptures both of the Old and New Testaments has been the 

 literal interpretation of figurative expression. Our Lord employs 

 the picturesque and figurative speech of His country and time. 

 In the early days of my apprenticeship to Biblical lore it used 

 to be solemnly debated in commentary and sermon whether, 

 when He spoke of the camel passing through the needle's eye in 

 order to describe something absolutely impossible to human skill, 

 He was not really thinking of the side passage in a city gateway 

 through which it was just conceivable that a young or very lean 

 camel might manage to creep ! Most if not all of our everyday 

 phrases and expressions are metaphorical in their origin. Out- 

 side of the rigorous statements and demonstrations of mathe- 

 matics no language dispenses with metaphor ; and mathematics 

 is the only science which by the very conditions of its existence 

 eschews its use and aid. It cannot indeed be otherwise, since 

 we are surrounded by that which, to use the language of the 

 mystics, " veils its reality." Especially, of course, is it true that 

 only by the way of metaphor can Divine truths be conveyed to 

 the human mind or set forth in human speech. The tongue of 

 man is incompetent to describe or his mind to conceive the reality 

 of God. Strip away the metaphor, and you deprive the words 

 not only of their glow and beauty, but of their very meaning 

 and relevance. The Gospel of St. John is perhaps more full of 

 metaphor, in the stricter sense, than any other part of the 

 New Testament, with the possible exception of the book of 

 Revelation. 



It is perhaps right that I should endeavour at the outset to 

 explain the general meaning which I attach to the word 

 " metaphor." I have used it thoughout in a somewhat wide 

 and comprehensive sense. The Oxford English Dictionary 

 defines as follows : a metaphor is " a figure of speech in which 

 a name or descriptive term is transferred to some object different 

 from, but analogous to, that to which it is properly applicable ; 

 an instance of this, a metaphorical expression." In other words, 



