JESUS" USE OF HYPERBOLE;.
WHAT WERE HIS INTENTIONS?.
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Exaggeration has been used in literature for over two thousand years as a powerful way to drive home a message. Although the contemporary term for deliberate use of exaggeration in drama/literature is called hyperbole, it is important to recognize that the original users of this style of writing/storytelling had no use for such literary terms. What they were interested in was conveying a message that they felt so passionately about sharing that they were willing to risk a certain amount of misinterpretation. .
Exaggeration by hyperbole is considered an acceptable literary strategy and can be found in all languages. It serves the author as an effective tool for creating a vivid picture for the reader. Unfortunately, when it comes to Bible text, use of exaggeration is often times yet another cause for disagreement and controversy. There will always be those who tend to interpret the Bible more literally than others. Many believe that the entire Bible is God's word and God "spoke" only truth , therefore the Bible must be "inerrant" or void of any kind of error. Personally, this view seems a bit radical given that hundreds of writers using a dozen different languages over a period of two thousand years are actually responsible for everything written in the Bible. Every author's intentions were different. Their messages were different as well as the literary methods they chose to make a point. One thing is certain though, many of the biblical authors, although separated by time, seemed to share a love for certain styles of figurative and pectoral language. Much of the Old and New Testaments are filled with used of metaphor, simile, personification, allegory, and pun and of course, hyperbole.
