Understand the Bible’s Word Pictures

The Bible contains hundreds of word pictures. Yet, many Bible readers struggle to understand them. (Matt. 13:13) What can help you to grasp the right meaning of word pictures used in the Bible? Try these steps:

• Identify the topic and the image. Word pictures compare a topic to an image. For example, Revelation 3:3 compares Jesus’ coming (the topic) to the coming of a thief (the image).

• Determine how the topic and the image are alike. Find the features and the qualities that make the topic similar to the image.

• Draw the correct conclusion. Some similarities between the topic and the image may lead to wrong conclusions. In the example above, Jesus is not coming to steal anything. Rather, the context shows that his coming would be like that of a thief in the sense that it will be unexpected and unannounced.