A DICTIONARY OF BIBLE SYMBOLS

Prepared by W. Stuart Owen

Revised and enlarged by P. A. Grist and R. Dowling

In every language words are sometimes used in a way that requires us to understand them as pictures of something else. To call a person 'a dog' does not mean that he literally has four legs; the word is used as a picture of the character of that person.

There is a lot of picture language, or figurative use of language, in the Bible. To understand these 'pictures' adds much to the correct understanding of the Bible message. This Dictionary suggests the meaning of some 400 such words, together with an Introduction explaining the different kinds of figurative language unused in the Bible, and how we may recognize them.

This dictionary is offered as an aid to Bible study, as was the earliest book of this sort in England, written by the Venerable Bede (673-735), 'On Tropes and Figures found in Holy Scripture', and to whose prayer we add our Amen.

'I pray you, noble Jesu, that as you have graciously granted me joyfully to imbibe the worlds of your knowledge, so you will also of your bounty grant me to come at length to yourself, the fount of all wisdom, and to dwell in your presence for ever'.

Ecclesiastical History of the English People,

Bede, Penguin Books, 1990.