The Bible: It's Names and Symbolism

What Is The BIBLE?

Psalms 19:7-14 (NKJV)

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; {8} The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; {9} The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. {10} More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. {11} Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. {12} Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. {13} Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. {14} Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

The word Bible, the name by which the sacred volume is best known, is not in the text itself, but is from the greek word biblos, meaning a book. And since the Bible is a revelation from Jehovah to man, it may well be called "THE BOOK". However, when we come to examine the text of the Bible, we find a number of descriptive terms which give a clear idea of the nature and contents of the sacred volume. Those that we shall consider in this study fall into two groups Literal and Symbolic terms.

1. Literal terms.

The word of God

Ephesians 6:17 (NKJV)

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Hebrews 1:1-2 (NKJV)

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, {2} has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

Hebrews 2:1-4 (NKJV)

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. {2} For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, {3} how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, {4} God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NKJV)

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

2. The Book

Hebrews 10:7 (NKJV)

Then I said, 'Behold, I have come; In the volume of the book it is written of Me; To do Your will, O God.' "

3. The scriptures and individual parts called scripture

John 5:39 (NKJV)

"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, {17} that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Daniel 10:21 (NKJV)

"But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth. (No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince.

Mark 12:10 (NKJV)

"Have you not even read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.

Mark 15:28 (NKJV)

So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."

John 2:22 (NKJV)

Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

John 19:36 (NKJV)

For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken."

John 19:37 (NKJV)

And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced."

Acts 8:32 (NKJV)

The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

Acts 8:35 (NKJV)

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.

Romans 4:3 (NKJV)

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

Romans 10:11 (NKJV)

For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

2 Peter 1:20 (NKJV)

knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

Matthew 26:56 (NKJV)

"But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

Luke 24:27 (NKJV)

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Luke 24:45 (NKJV)

And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Acts 17:2 (NKJV)

Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

Acts 17:11 (NKJV)

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Acts 18:28 (NKJV)

for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

Romans 15:4 (NKJV)

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

2 Timothy 3:15 (NKJV)

and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Peter 3:16 (NKJV)

as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

4. Oracles

Romans 3:2 (NKJV)

Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.

Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

1 Peter 4:11 (NKJV)

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

5. Living oracles.

Acts 7:38 (NKJV)

"This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,

Symbolic terms using the characteristies of other objects to explain the qualities of this book.

1. Lamp and the result---Light.

Psalms 119:105 (NKJV)

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Proverbs 6:23 (NKJV)

For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

Ignorance and sin are compared to darkness, and the sinner is represented as being under the power of darkness.

Colossians 1:13 (NKJV)

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

2 Peter 1:19 (NKJV)

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

2. A Mirror

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The bible is a mirror in that it reveals man to himself. If anyone will read it thoughtfully and prayerfully, he will be able to see himself just as he is with all his moral and spiritual blemishes, just as he can see his natural face in a mirror.

James 1:23-25 (NKJV)

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; {24} for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. {25} But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

3. A Fire

Jeremiah 23:29 (NKJV)

"Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Among the things which characterize fire, we note the following.

It is one of the greatest purifying agencies known to man.

1 Peter 1:22 (NKJV)

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

Ephesians 1:13 (NKJV)

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

It also is a source of energy.

Psalms 39:3 (NKJV)

My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:

Jeremiah 20:9 (NKJV)

Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.

Acts 8:4 (NKJV)

Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

4. A Hammer

The heart is sometimes represented at hard and stony, and since God's word subdues the hard and rebellious heart, it is spoken of as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.

Jeremiah 23:29 (NKJV)

"Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

5. A Sword

Ephesians 6:17 (NKJV)

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)

The sword is a symbol of war, and inasmuch as the Christian is a soldier of the cross, the Holy Spirit has provided him with this instrument of warefare.

6. A Seed.

Luke 8:11 (NKJV)

"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

The heart is the soil into which the word of God, as the seed of the kingdom, is sown. As there can be no life in the natural soil until seed is planted, just so there can be no spiritual life in the heart until the word of God, thessd of the kingdom, is sown.

There are probably other comparisons that could be made. The point is that the Bible has the qualities of many different objects. The Bible is not just another book, but it is a very special book. We must give heed to what is in this book. Because it is perfect and because it gives the instructions for gaining eternal life.

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