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Introduction: "The Bible is really a Book of Pictures."The Bible is really a book of pictures. The word
image is an important word in the Biblical context. God had interacted
with humans as it were and revealed himself in images. It is otherwise
impossible for humans to touch even the fringe of divinity or the
periphery of the ultimate reality. God the ultimate reality or Sat as the
Hindus call it is beyond ordinary comprehension. Or a personal God whom
the Bible reveals and whom we call God the father is an immeasurable
reality which can not be talked about unless in images and pictures. Even
the word father is only an approximation but it is a useful image because
we can think of several attributes of the God Sat with the help of this
image of the father. The Image-content of the Bible -- some ExamplesThe
earliest books of the Bible start with word pictures. For example the book
of Genesis starts in its opening pages with the image of a tree. Whenever
as an artist I try to make the picture of a tree the whole range of trees
in the Bible appear to my mid with all their symbolism ad meaning right
through from tree of knowledge to the tree of life in the Book f
Revelation. This later tree yields twelve crops a year and its leaves are
for the healing of nations. Trees which were asked to be kings of the
forest, the mustard tree sprouting from a small seed to grow big enough to
give shelter to birds, the barren tree on road to Jerusalem, the tree that
the master waits to see its fruit the next year, and so on and so on about
the trees. And the vine is a very- familiar image to the Bible readers.
The prophets used images to covey their messages. Because of their very
nature only pictures, parables could convey the prophetic messages,
approximations are near guesses. The lion has roared, says Amos, and who
will not hear? This is a strong prophetic imagery. Lord, your message like
fire is burning deep within me (my bones), says Jeremiah (21,9) |
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