[TruthTalk] Hyperbole

[ShieldsFamily]

I think one of the many things we miss, as Believers, by not having an understanding of the Jewish culture of which Jesus was a part is that we don’t understand scriptural wording as well as we could.  Hyperbole was an important teaching method for any Rabbi, and Jesus used it frequently. Just as someone from two hundred years ago would have a very difficult time understanding our wording today, we speak a very different way than they did two thousand years ago.  Today’s Jews still use many of those same expressions and teaching tools that Jesus did then.  I’d appreciate some teaching on this subject from Slade if he has the time.  Izzy   BT: Yes, Judy. I am aware of this translation. I think it is connotatively on the mark (Terry said something quite similar in his response a couple days ago). I do not think, however, that this calls for a redefinition of hate. The point is, this is hyperbole. Jesus is not attempting to add new meaning to hate; he is setting up a contrast by way of exaggeration.   jt: My dictionary defines hyperbole in rhetoric as 'a figure of speech which expresses much more or less than the truth, or which represents things much greater or less, better or worse than they really are; an object uncommon in size either great or small strikes us with surprise, and this emotion produces a momentary conviction that the object is greater or less than it is in reality. this same effect attends figurative grandeur or littleness and hence the use of hyperbole which expresses this momentary conviction' .... Jesus also said it is impossible to serve two masters because we will hate the one and cleave to the other; I don't believe He was into hype. This is just "how it is" and that's the way He said it.