The Bibles use of Hyperbole

The Bible is not an ordinary book. Other books may be telling a story of people, places, or events which have taken place in our world.  The Bible, on the other hand, is primarily written to tell a story of people, places, and events which have not taken place in the natural world. That teaching covers events which have taken place primarily in the spiritual world and  therefore it requires a little different way of telling its story.

The physical world is used to provide a mirror image of the spiritual world, a practice we see continuously throughout the Bible. Something visible is the reflection of something invisible. Even the actual condition of things in the spiritual world, the condition of our relationship with God, is made known by describing the condition of things in the visible world. When we see something being described in the world which is obviously in a state of confusion, it may very well be reflecting a relationship from the spiritual world which has also gone awry.

All too often we tend to overlook what is actually the thing being taught, the spiritual, and focus on the example taken from the visible world. We sometimes see only the history being told to us. Since we in the 21st century Western world  are not accustomed to this teaching devise we often miss the significance of what the Bible is really telling us, the spiritual.

The problem the biblical writers  faced is that there are no  examples in the natural world that provide a reasonable reflection of what is taking place in the spiritual world. Our salvation far exceeds in importance anything which could ever happen in the physical world. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can ever fully reflect the importance of salvation, or of our relationship with God.

In order to correct for this impossibility the Bible often describes the mirror reflection in language that far exceeds what has actually taken place.  It will upsize the worldly event to a scale that approximates the size (significance) of the lesson being taught. The use of gross exaggeration has a specific purpose. It is elevating the importance of the physical event to the level of the spiritual event, the primary subject of the story. It does it so that we can better understand the tremendous importance of the spiritual teaching being presented. This is called hyperbole.

Spotting the exaggeration is normally a wake up call; we can often use it to refocus on the spiritual leg of the story. However, that logic only works when we understand that exaggeration has been a teaching tool rather than an intentional misrepresentation of a literal outsized event.  It is never intended to deceive the reader; the opposite is actually the case. It is to help him more clearly understand the text. The Bible was written for the purpose of providing a good understanding of things in the spiritual world. Properly understood, hyperbole can actually help prevent us from getting stuck in the worldly event (the reflection).

While the flood is describing the conditions that exist in the physical world, its teaching flows over into the spiritual world. There is trouble on all sides. It is teaching us that  spiritual trouble  exists on all sides. The ark, on the other hand, represents the safety there is in the Lord, a place of refuge. God is our refuge and we will not be overcome by the trouble which surrounds us.

Christians sometimes understand the way their Bible uses hyperbole, other times perhaps not. While the flood  had been disastrous enough that it did not need to be enlarged, some aspects of it may seem to have been supersized. Perhaps it may have described some aspects of the flood from a local perspective, while  interpretations make them  seem as if they were global. To that extent it may seem to have been upscaled.

In addition, while the flood was not necessarily described using hyperbole, it may have used that device to describe the ark. The ark was one really big boat. It may have been supersized. A major problem requires a major solution.