Imagery
Holman Bible Dictionary [1]
The challenge of theology (“talk about God”) is to express truths about God in human language. Scripture itself witnesses the difficulty of this task, “To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me that we may be like” ( Isaiah 46:5 ). The living God is not to be equated with any one manageable image. Idolatry is essentially the attempt to reduce God to an image or label. The multiplicity of Old Testament literary images for God serves as a corrective of human attempts to box God in. Some images for God are inanimate: stone ( Genesis 49:24 ); fortress ( 2 Samuel 22:2 ); fountain of living waters ( Jeremiah 2:13 ). There is little danger of confusing God with such images. Other images of God are personal: father ( Malachi 1:6 ); husband ( Hosea 2:16 ); shepherd ( Psalm 23:1 ); judge, lawgiver, and king ( Isaiah 33:22 ); teacher ( Isaiah 28:26 ); healer ( Jeremiah 30:17 ); warrior ( Exodus 15:1 ,Exodus 15:1, 15:3 ); farmer ( Isaiah 5:2-7 ). With such personal images, the danger of confusing “God is like” with “God is” is real. A challenging corrective is offered by the less familiar feminine images for God, for example, that of a mother bird sheltering her young ( Ruth 2:12; Psalm 17:8 ). Also suggestive of a mother's tenderness are the images of carrying a child from birth ( Isaiah 46:3 ), teaching a child to walk ( Hosea 11:3 ), child feeding ( Hosea 11:4 ), and child rearing ( Isaiah 1:2 ).
In His parables, Jesus continued the Old Testament practice of using vivid images for God: a shepherd seeking one lost sheep ( Luke 15:4-7 ); a woman seeking one lost coin ( Luke 15:8-10 ); a father waiting patiently for the return of one son and taking the initiative to reconcile the other ( Luke 15:11-32 ). Images are also used to teach who Jesus the Christ is: word ( John 1:1 ); light ( John 8:12 ); bread and wine ( Matthew 26:26-29 ); vine ( John 15:1 ); the way ( John 14:6 ).
Imagery is also used to depict the people of God and their experience of salvation. The Old Testament pictures God's people as: a faithless wife ( Jeremiah 3:20 ); a wild vine ( Jeremiah 2:21 ); a wild donkey in heat ( Jeremiah 2:24 ); God's beloved ( Jeremiah 11:15 ); God's bride ( Jeremiah 2:2 ); God's servant ( Jeremiah 30:10 ); and God's son ( Hosea 11:1 ). New Testament images include: light ( Matthew 5:14 ); salt ( Matthew 5:13 ); vine branches ( John 15:5 ); a new creation ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 ); God's temple ( 1 Corinthians 3:16 ); and a royal priesthood ( 1 Peter 2:9; compare Exodus 19:6 ). Images for salvation are drawn from all walks of life: the law courts ( Romans 7:3; Hebrews 9:16-17 ); slave market ( Titus 2:14 ); marketplace ( 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23 ); and the family ( Romans 8:17 ,Romans 8:17, 8:23 ). The multiplicity of images again witnesses the rich experience of God's people. See Anthropomorphism; Parables .
Chris Church
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( n.) Fig.: Unreal show; imitation; appearance.
(2): ( n.) The work of the imagination or fancy; false ideas; imaginary phantasms.
(3): ( n.) Rhetorical decoration in writing or speaking; vivid descriptions presenting or suggesting images of sensible objects; figures in discourse.
(4): ( n.) The work of one who makes images or visible representation of objects; imitation work; images in general, or in mass.
King James Dictionary [3]
IM'AGERY, n. im'ajry. Sensible representations, pictures, statues.
Rich carvings, portraitures and imagery.
1. Show appearance.
What can thy imagery and sorrow mean?
2. Forms of the fancy false ideas imaginary phantasms.
The imagery of a melancholic fancy.
3. Representations in writing or speaking lively descriptions which impress the images of things on the mind figures in discourse.
I wish there may be in this poem any instance of good imagery.
4. Form make.
Easton's Bible Dictionary [4]
Ezekiel 8:12Chamber
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [5]
im´ā̇j - ri ( משׂכּית , maskı̄th , "carved figure"): Only in Ezekiel 8:12 , "every man in his chambers of imagery," i.e. dark chambers on whose walls were pictures in relief representing all kinds of reptiles and vermin, worshipped by elders of Israel. Some maintain that the cult was of foreign origin, either Egyptian (Bertholet, Commentary on Ezekiel ), or Babylonian (Redpath, Westminster Commentary on Ezekiel ); others that it was the revival of ancient superstitions of a totemistic kind which had survived in obscure circles in Israel (W.R. Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites , revised edition, 357). The word here rendered "imagery" is elsewhere in the King James Version translated "image" (of stone) ( Leviticus 26:1 , the Revised Version (British and American) "figured stone"), "pictures" ( Numbers 33:52 , the Revised Version (British and American) "figured stones"; Proverbs 25:11 , the Revised Version (British and American) "network"); twice it means imagination, conceit, i.e. a mental picture ( Psalm 73:20; Proverbs 18:11 ). "Imagery" occurs once in Apocrypha (Sirach 38:27 the King James Version, εἰς ὁμοιῶσαι ζωγραφίαν , eis homoiō̇sai zōgraphı́an , the Revised Version (British and American) "to preserve likeness in his portraiture").
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [6]
Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Imagery'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/i/imagery.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
