The peculiarities of the Oriental idiom are another prolific source of discrepancies. The people of the East are fervid and impassioned in their modes of thought and expression. They think and speak in poetry.* Bold metaphors and startling hyperboles abound in their writings and conversation. “The shepherd,” says Eichhorn, “only speaks in the soul of the shepherd, and the primitive Oriental only speaks in the soul of another Oriental. [See De Wette, Introd. to Old Test., ii. 31–32] Without an intimate acquaintance with the customs of pastoral life, without an accurate knowledge of the East and its manners, without a close intimacy with the manner of thinking and speaking in the uncivilized world, ..... you easily become a traitor to the book, when you would be its deliverer and interpreter.”
Professor Stuart:” “I do not, and would not, summon them [the books of scripture] before the tribunal of Occidental criticism. Asia is one world; Europe and America, another. Let an Asiatic be tried before his own tribunal. To pass just sentence upon him, we must enter into his feelings, views, methods of reasoning and thinking, and place ourselves in the midst of the circumstances which surrounded him.” History of Old Test. Canon, p. 187. Revised ed. p. 174.
Lowth, on Metaphors: “The Orientals are attached to this style of composition; and many flights which our ears — too fastidious, perhaps, in these respects — will scarcely bear, must be allowed to the general freedom and boldness of these writers.” [Lectures on Hebrew Poetry, pp. 51, 47 (Stowe's edition).]
Again, he speaks of the difficulties which arise in reading authors “where everything is depicted and illustrated with the greatest variety and abundance of imagery; they must be still more numerous in such of the poets as are foreign and ancient —in the Orientals above all foreigners; they being the farthest removed from our customs and manners, and, of all the Orientals, more especially in the Hebrews.”
Dr. Samuel Davidson:” “He who does not remember the wide difference between the Oriental and Occidental mind, must necessarily fall into error. The luxuriant imagination and glowing ardor of the former express themselves in hyperbolical and extravagant diction; whereas the subdued character and coolness of the latter are averse to sensuous luxuriance.” [Introduction to Old Test., ii. 409, 310.]
Again: “The figures are bold and daring. Passion and feeling predominate. In the Psalms pre-eminently, we see the theology of the feelings, rather than of the intellect. Logic is out of place there. Dogmas cannot be established on such a basis, nor was it ever meant to be so.”
Professor Park: “More or less clandestinely, we are wont to interpret an ancient and an Oriental poet, as we would interpret a modern and Occidental essayist. The eastern minstrel employs intense words for saying what the western logician would say in same language. The fervid Oriental would turn from our modifying phrases in sickness of heart. We shudder at the lofty flights which captivate him. But he and we mean to express the same idea. The Occidental philosopher has a definite thought when he affirms that God exercises benevolence toward good men. Isaiah has essentially the same thought when he cries out: “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.’” [Bib. Sacra, xix. 170, 171.]
Such being the genius and idiom of the Orientals, it cannot be deemed strange that their metaphors and hyperboles overlap and collide with one another; that we find David, [Ps 42:9; 91:4] for example, at one time calling God a rock, and elsewhere speaking of his wings and feathers. Such bold and free imagery, when properly interpreted, develops a felicitous meaning; but when expounded according to literalistic, matter-offact methods, it yields discrepancies in abundance. To the interpreter of scripture, no two qualifications are more indispensable than common sense and honesty.
*A learned writer observes of Arabian literature: “A poetic spirit pervades all their works. Even treatises in the abstract sciences, geographical and medical works, have a poetic cast. All their literary productions, from the most impassioned ode to the firman of the Grand Seigneur, belong to the province of poetry.” Michaelis quotes an Arabic poet who expresses the fact, that swords were drawn with which to cut the throats of enemies, thus: “The daughters of the sheath leaped forth from their chambers, thirsting to drink in the jugular vein of their enemies.” — See Bib. Repository, Oct. 1836, pp. 489, 442.
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