Mouth Lips
Mouth Lips [1]
As in the Ot, the mouth (στόμα) and lips (χείλη) are sometimes named simply as a result of the particularization to which graphic description tends, especially in the Oriental world ( e.g. Acts 8:35; Acts 11:8, Hebrews 11:33, Revelation 3:16). We may usually, however, trace the influence of Hebrew psychology, which ascribed psychical or ethical quality even to peripheral organs, regarding them as constituent parts of the unity of personality (cf. H. W. Robinson, in Mansfield College Essays , 1909, p. 275). Isaiah’s lips were purged of their uncleanness by the coal from the altar ( Isaiah 6:6-7); with this we may compare the command of the high priest to smite St. Paul on the mouth ( Acts 23:2)-a command prompted by the apparent blasphemy of which that organ had been guilty. The same idea underlies the demand that the mouths of evil speakers be stopped ( Titus 1:11, ἐπιστομίζειν; cf. Romans 3:19 and the contrasted statement of 2 Corinthians 6:11). Even in such purely imaginative descriptions as those of Christ seen in vision, with the sword proceeding from His mouth ( Revelation 1:16, etc.; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:8), or of the frog-vomiting mouths of the three evil powers in the Apocalypse ( Revelation 16:13), the latent psychology helps to explain the harshness of the metaphor. ‘The mouth as the organ of speech, the chief source of human influence, is frequently in the Apocalypse the instrument of good or evil’ (H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John 3, 1907, p. 207).*[Note: In Revelation 10:9-10 the mouth is the organ of taste; according to the curious statement of Ep. Barn. x. 8, the weasel conceives through her mouth.] The detached ethical quality of the organ of speech gives added force to such apostolic words as ‘mortify your members … put away … shameful speaking out of your mouth’ ( Colossians 3:5-8); ‘in their mouth was found no lie’ ( Revelation 14:5); ‘out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing’ ( James 3:10); ‘the poison of asps is under their lips’ ( Romans 3:13 = Psalms 140:3).
In apostolic writings, the mouth has a three-fold function in regard to the proclamation of truth-viz. revelation, evangelization, and confession. It was the instrument of the original revelation of the Ot, given, e.g. , through the ‘mouth’ of David ( Acts 1:16; Acts 4:25) or of the prophets ( Acts 3:18; Acts 3:21). It is the instrument of gospel-preaching ( Acts 15:7, Ephesians 6:19; cf. Odes of Solomon , xlii. 6), and the Epistle of Barnabas claims that ‘every word, which shall come forth from you through your mouth in faith and love, shall be for the conversion and hope of many’ (xi. 8). It is the instrument of that confession which is necessary in order to unite the whole personality, body and soul, with its Redeemer: ‘the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth … with the mouth confession is made unto salvation’ ( Romans 10:8-10). This confession elsewhere appears as ‘a sacrifice of praise,’ ‘the fruit of lips which make confession to his name’ ( Hebrews 13:15; cf. Isaiah 57:19 and the Septuagintof Hosea 14:2). The unity of outer word and inner experience in the case of the true Christian is frequently emphasized in the Odes of Solomon, e.g. xxi. 7: ‘my heart ran over and was found in my mouth: and it arose upon my lips.’ On the other hand, the painful contrast possible between the spoken testimony and the real character of the life was not absent even from these early Christian communities; e.g. Hermas speaks of those ‘that have the Lord on their lips, while their heart is hardened’ ( Mand. Xii. iv. 4; cf. Sim. Ix. xxi. 1, 1 Clem. xv. 2, 2 Clem. iii. 4).
See also articleMan and Tongue.
H. Wheeler Robinson.
