Questions From Without: Hyperbole

hyperbole |hīˈpərbəlē|
noun
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

This is from my computer's dictionary. Hyperbole is a rhetorical device intended to get a person's attention. Our politicians use it all the time. Authors use it regularly. Preachers, we use it more than anyone. One of the reasons for using hyperbole is for emphasis. Another reason would be to create a "momentary crisis" so the audience would wake up out its stupor. It is sometimes used to separate one person's argument from another's. It is a communicator's device. I think the thing that is most significant in the definition of hyperbole is that it is a statement that is "not to be taken literally."

There are so many different kinds of literature in the Bible. The Gospels themselves become a literary genre all to themselves among some scholars. We have poetry, history, epic, parables, and much more. Not everything is to be read literally. Could it be that the language of hell and heaven too, is hyperbolic at times? Of course. The simplistic reading of the Bible takes everything literally and nothing is nuanced or seen as the genre of literature it is.

There is a genre of literature that existed during the first century called apocalyptic. It was language coded with messages of the time. It was fiery and evocative. A lot of it was aimed at the political rulers of the day. It used language that insiders understood as being representative of people like the emperor and such. It described places like Rome, with older titles like "Babylon". It was anything but literal, because it would have been meaningless gibberish for the people of its time. Remember one of the first rules of reading scripture for me is, "What does it mean to the people it was written to." Without that, we cannot appropriately understand the scriptural implications some 2000 years later. Let's not be simplistic with our reading of God's Word, let us be informed, intelligent, knowledgeable, and as precise as we can be.

Jesus is countering the notions of his day and age, often by using a rhetorical device known as "hyperbole". It isn't to be taken literally, which means we need to see what he intends not merely what he says.