One of the best books I ever read in Bible College was Plowshares and Pruning Hooks by D. Brent Sandy. He challenges Bible readers, like myself, to rethink their approach to Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic literature by increasing our recognition and understanding of metaphors and other rhetorical devices. Here is my book review:
In Chapter one Sandy explains that God’s desire to communicate with human beings restricts him to human forms of communication, i.e. particularly language. Biblical authors are called upon to describe things that readers may have no frame of reference for as physical human beings limited to the earthly realm. For example, presumably most of us have not seen heaven, (or do not remember it), so it can only be described in terms of the things that we have seen and experienced. Heaven is often depicted in rainbow colours with golden streets and mansions in the Bible (see Revelation 4:2-4 & 21:21) The pearly gates and streets of gold represent the limitlessness of beauty in heaven and are not literal descriptions of heaven.
Chapter two talks about the nature of prophetic language being filled with poetry. Poetry is quite emotive and figurative rather than literal. For example, “circumcise your hearts” in Jeremiah 4:4 is clearly not to be interpreted literally, but carries the important meaning of consecrating ourselves to God (page 38). Of particular interest to me, was Sandy’s point about the word “forever,” (page 42) Even in English, it is not uncommon to use emotionally exaggerative phrases like “this is taking forever.” The word “forever” was, at times, used similarly in Biblical literature, and does not–nor can it–always mean endless in duration. Jonah was not literally in the belly of the whale “forever,” (Jonah 2:6) In fact, Jonah 1:17 tells us he was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights. I further learned that descriptions of judgment can be conditional. In the same book of Jonah, God relented from judging the people of Ninevah because they repented, yet they were never told that the judgement was conditional or that God might act according to their behaviour.
Chapter three hones in on Biblical metaphors in greater detail. We do not always recognise Biblical metaphors because they were employed by an ancient culture thousands of years ago and some of them no longer apply in our cultural contexts today. With a touch of levity, Sandy provided an appendix of French metaphors and their equivalents in English. Here are a couple:
I can’t smell him = he gets on my nerves
She gave him a rabbit = she stood him up
He has a cockroach = he is depressed
He gave her some soap = he told her off
These serve to prove his point that metaphors evoke feelings, memories and responses in people. Metaphors often have a greater impact than more literal language would have achieved, and are therefore “indispensable” to the prophets.
Chapter four delved into the language of destruction and blessing. Sandy explained illocution which is when individual words do not always comply with their dictionary definition. He gave the interesting example that it is not a lie when someone says, “I’m fine,” in the context of customer service, even if they are not, by definition, “fine.” It is simply a known and accepted form of greeting and therefore an example of illocution. This further illustrates that, “the function of statements in the Bible can be as important for understanding their meaning as the content of the statements,” (page 82). The function of God’s judgement and wrath are that it can be painfully devastating in grandiose and drastic ways. The function of the language of blessing in the Bible is to reveal that God’s blessings are tremendous, wonderful and all-encompassing.
Chapters five and six are predominantly about the fulfilment of prophecy. Apocalyptic literature is just one form of prophecy which is filled with symbolic language that should not be taken literally. Details are often added for effect rather than containing specific meaning. Sandy went through multiple Biblical prophecies in chapter six and compared them to the Biblical descriptions of their actual fulfilment. More often than not, specific details were overlooked or altered. The overall point of the prophecy generally remains true; that the person will be punished and die, or be spared and live. But how it plays out historically may not be exactly the same as how it was described by the prophet. Therefore there is a measure of uncertainty in prophecy and room for adaptation. Prophecies can be somewhat incomplete and may also contain typical judgement language with repeated themes. For example being “eaten by dogs” is often used in biblical prophecy. Today we would more likely use the phrase “attacked by wolves” than “eaten by dogs.” A hearer might take the former phrase to mean that they could come under attack spiritually, physically, financially or emotionally. The concept of being eaten by dogs in the Bible, implied that God’s judgement was coming and they were likely to die. Only on the rare occasion was the person actually eaten by dogs (pages 135-136).
Chapter seven explores the future fulfilment of prophecy. There are seven key features in future-speak: poetry, metaphor, hyperbole, orality, urgency, immediacy and intentionality. Sandy further addressed future fulfilment of prophecy with special reference to Jesus’ second coming and the apocalyptic book of Revelation. “It is probably vain to attempt a preconstruction of the precise details that will accompany the second coming. The point of the imagery is that the Lord’s return will be the most dramatic divine visitation of earth ever to occur. Something that has never happened to this extent–a meeting of heaven and earth–is beyond human ability to conceptualize,” (page 171). He gave a broad overview of the end times as having certain themes like turmoil; horrors in the sky, on the earth and involving animals; rewards, judgement and the backlash of evil.
In my opinion, this broad approach is excellent and should deter readers from more literal interpretations. It certainly offers a healthy new approach for the postmodern church that has often preached, “the end is nigh!” Sandy’s point about references to nearness of time not being literal but rather highlighting the blessings and curses to come, is a caution many churches today need to hear. However, Sandy’s concept of God’s judgement became quite literal when he wrote “God’s punishment of the unrighteous will be merciless and eternal,” (page 175). Has he forgotten his own discussion of the exaggerative and emotive language used in prophecy? Has he forgotten that “forever,” is not always literally endless time?
This raises a most critical point. Sandy brought up the metaphoric definition of “forever” in the Old Testament but did not follow this through and talk about the definition of “forever” in the context of New Testament prophecy. The book of Revelation uses phrases like: “the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever,” (Rev 14:11). But what does “forever” mean in this context? Sandy made a clear point that God’s judgements are fearsome, but he did not address the possibility that God’s end-time judgements may not mean “endless time” in reference to the punishment of the wicked. More than once he emphasised, “God’s wrath against the godless will be merciless,” (page 188) and yet he is drawing this conclusion from metaphoric, emotive and symbolic language that is coupled with the language of blessing and salvation in nearby passages. What if we are not meant to remove judgement prophecies from the broader context of salvation? What if forever is not forever and judgement comes to a conclusion in universal restoration? For instance, how does Sandy interpret universalistic verses from the Apocalyptic book of Revelation i.e. Rev 5:13, 15:4, 21:5, 21:25-26 & 22:17?
Sandy’s book also raises questions for the post-modern church like: what is the role of prophecy and prophets within churches today? Are we placing too much emphasis on future prediction? Not knowing when the end will come is yet another challenge the church must face! Have we lost the forest for the trees, becoming so focussed on the end that we forget to live in the here and now and forget to make this world a better place?
In conclusion, Plowshares and Pruning Hooks holds great value for the global church in illuminating metaphoric language, encouraging a less literal interpretation of Prophetic and Apocalyptic literature, and giving an overview of how prophecy can, does and will apply. It presents a challenge to the church’s over-emphasis on the end times, raises questions about the role of prophecy today and is a wake-up call to Christians who want to take every last sentence of our English Bibles literally. Because so much of the language is not literal, I have been encouraged to hold more lightly to my interpretation and to be more open to other interpretations. I think the church would benefit from doing likewise.
Bibliography:
Sandy, D. Brent, Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic, IVP Academic, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2002
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