ON SIMILE AND METAPHOR IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 107 



Book of the Revelation (xiv. 15 f.). In the brief use which 

 Christ makes of the figure in the fourth Gospel, the literal and 

 the figurative meanings of the word are so closely intertwined 

 that the distinction between them is not perhaps readily or 

 obviously made ; and by some commentators curious inferences 

 have even been drawn as to the time of year at which Jesus 

 was speaking. It is in the highest degree improbable that 

 any such thought was present to the mind of the speaker or 

 writer. But though the earthly harvest must await its appro- 

 priate season, the sight of the approaching Samaritans, many 

 of whom were ready to beheve on Him, suggests that there is no 

 delay to the harvest of the spirit. The fields are already white 

 to harvest. And He commissions His disciples to go forth and 

 reap. 



Some of the most striking metaphors or analogies are conveyed 

 in brief allusion or phrase, and they have often become 

 so f amiharised by use that their origin in comparison or metaphor 

 has been overlooked, and their force thereby in not a few instances 

 enfeebled. It would not be feasible to enumerate them all. Nor 

 does it lie within the scope of this paper to comment on the 

 relation which these bear to the text or doctrine of other parts 

 of the New Testament. It may be pertinent, however, to indi- 

 cate the suggestive use which the author of the Book of the 

 Revelation has made of the metaphorical teaching of the Gospel. 

 His thought is saturated with the emblems and figures of the 

 Evangehst, and he works these up into the richly-coloured 

 paintings of the Seer. There is here, I beheve, a fruitful and 

 almost unworked field of research into the relation of the two 

 books, which has no Httle value for the exposition and significance 

 of each. 



In some instances emphasis is given to the speaker's words 

 by reminiscence of Old Testament history and teaching, or by the 

 circumstances in which they were uttered. A well-known 

 example of the latter is ch. viii. 12, "I am the light of the 

 world," spoken or supposed to be spoken at the hour when the 

 Temple and its courts were ablaze with lights, and the contrast 

 therefore is made more striking between the earthly illumination 

 which would so soon burn dim and disappear and the abiding 

 fight of His presence. The bread of God (6 a^oro? rov (deov, vi. 33), 

 and the food that endureth unto eternal life {rj ^pcoaL<; rj /juevovaa 

 els ^corjv alcoviov, vi. 27) carry with them a figure that would appeal 

 all the more forcibly to the Jews, as they thought of their fathers* 



