1-6 The Principle of Personification
It is a
recognised feature of the Bible that inanimate or non-living things
such as wisdom, riches, sin, the church are personified, but only in
the case of the devil is some fantastic theory woven around it. The
following examples will illustrate the point.
WISDOM IS PERSONIFIED
“Happy
is the man who finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding. For
the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the
profit thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things you could desire are not to be compared unto her” (Prov. 3:13-15).
“Wisdom has builded her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars” (Prov. 9:1).
These
verses, and indeed the rest of the chapters in which they appear, show
that wisdom is personified as a woman, but because of this, no-one has
the idea that wisdom is a literal beautiful woman who roams around the
earth; all recognise that it is a very desirable characteristic which
all people should try to acquire.
RICHES ARE PERSONIFIED
“No man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or else he will
hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon
[riches]” (Mt. 6:24).
Here, riches are likened to a master.
Many people strive very hard to gain riches and in this way they become
their master. Jesus is here telling us that we cannot do that and serve
God acceptably at the same time. The teaching is simple and effective,
but no-one assumes from this that riches is a man named Mammon.
SIN IS PERSONIFIED
“...Whoever committs sin is the servant of sin” (Jn. 8:34). “Sin has reigned unto death” (Rom. 5:21). “Don’t you know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Rom. 6:16).
As
in the case of riches, sin is likened here to a master and those who
commit sin are its servants. No reasonable reading of the passage
justifies assuming that Paul is teaching that sin is a person.
THE SPIRIT IS PERSONIFIED
“When he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself...” (Jn. 16:13).
Jesus
is here telling His disciples that they would receive the power of the
Holy Spirit, and this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, as
recorded in Acts 2:3-4, where it is stated that “there appeared unto
them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”, which gave them remarkable
power to do wonderful things to prove that their authority was from
God. The Holy Spirit was not a person, it was a power, but when Jesus
was speaking of it He used the personal pronoun “he”.
DEATH IS PERSONIFIED
“Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death” (Rev. 6:8).
THE NATION OF ISRAEL IS PERSONIFIED
“Again I will build you, and you shalt be built, O virgin of Israel; you shall again be adorned...” (Jer. 31:4). “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself
thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock
unaccustomed to the yoke: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are
the Lord my God” (Jer. 31:18).
Adapted from “Christendom Astray” by Robert Roberts.
