ON SIMILE AND METAPHOR IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 109 



and at set times rendered by some prelates of the Christian Church 

 was as futile as it was unintelHgent. The outward washing is a 

 symbol of that which they especially need, to be clean " every 

 whit " {KaOapo<i 0X09, ver. 10) ; and in the endeavour to secure 

 this, and in the application of the remedy for uncleanness they 

 are to be ministers and helpers one of another (ver. 15). 



Other metaphors of the Gospel are perhaps less easy to classify. 

 Of these one is more or less common to the thought of the whole 

 New Testament, and is familiar especially to St. Paul ; another 

 is found only in this Gospel, in the reports of our Lord's teaching, 

 and in the writer's own narrative. Without further comment 

 or explanation the phrase 01 veKpoi (the dead) is used of those 

 spiritually dead equally with those who have physically ceased 

 to live in the flesh. A play upon the contrasted thought or idea 

 has been found in the well-known utterance of Christ recorded 

 in the Synoptists, " Leave the dead to bury their own dead " 

 (Matt. viii. 22 ; Luke ix. 60), interpreted, and no doubt rightly, 

 to mean that earthly burial may well be cared for by those who 

 are of the earth and have no higher aspirations or pursuits. The 

 claims of the spiritual kingdom of God, its furtherance and 

 proclamation, must override all others. Twice at least in this 

 Gospel, but in the same discourse, Christ employs the word with 

 this higher or metaphorical meaning ; I am not sure that He does 

 not read into it both meanings at once, but the spiritual is upper- 

 most in His thought. The Father " giveth life " (fcDOTrotet, v. 21) 

 to those whom He raiseth from the dead, and so also the Son 

 qiiickeneth whom He Tvill. That is not physical resurrection or 

 life. The New Testament knows nothing of a re-creation of 

 physical existence. A few moments later in His discourse 

 Christ speaks of the coming hour when the dead will hear the voice 

 of the Son of God (ver. 25, cp. 28), and they who have heard 

 (aKovaavTe^i) will receive the gift of life. The latter verse perhaps 

 indicates that again the twofold meaning is present in His mind. 

 There will be no tenant left of an earthly tomb. At the summons 

 of His voice they will come forth, and then only will the distinction 

 be drawn between the well-doers and the wicked. The contrasted 

 word ^(orj, of so frequent recurrence in this Gospel (more than 

 twice as often in St. John than in the three Synoptists together) 

 seems always to connote to the writer the higher Hfe of the spirit. 



The Apostle records also with great frequency the use by the 

 Master of another term of wide import in a derived or meta- 

 phorical appHcation. He does not appear so to use it himself, 



