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"The great teacher is the one who turns our ears into eyes so that we can see the truth."
That eastern proverb helps us better understand why the Bible is a "picture book" and the Holy Spirit chose to share the truth of God through metaphorical language. No matter where you turn in Scripture, you find historians, prophets, poets, apostles, and especially our Lord Jesus Christ teaching eternal truth by means of picture language. To ignore the imagery of Scripture is to misread God's Word and ultimately to misinterpret it.
It's been my privilege to teach a Doctor of Ministry course for several seminaries on "imagination and biblical preaching." Our basic text was my book Preaching and Teaching with Imagination (Baker Book House), but both the students and I often wished for an index of biblical images to help us locate verses using the same image. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, edited by Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III (InterVarsity, 1998), hadn't been published yet; in fact, it appeared too late for me to use it in preparing this book. It is a superb work and ought to be used by everyone who wants to teach or preach the Word of God accurately and effectively.
The purpose of this Index of Biblical Images is to assist the serious student of Scripture to locate and compare verses from the Bible that use the same or similar imagery in conveying God's truth. For example, you can look up "light" and find what the image means in different contexts. In so doing, you may discover meanings that you have missed in the past.
When a compilation of this nature and size is the work of one author, there are bound to be errors and omissions, and I would appreciate concerned readers telling me about them.
Appreciate the fact that I have frequently had to wrestle with contradictory interpretations and even the question of whether or not a statement is metaphorical, and I have simply had to make judgment calls to the best of my ability. Matters of eschatology have often entered in, and not every user will always agree with my conclusions. I hope, however, that these minor differences will not keep the student from benefiting from using this book.
As Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote in the preface to his Dictionary of the English Language, "In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed." If this book encourages others who are more capable to give us a better tool for identifying and classifying biblical images, then these years of labor have not been in vain.
I want to thank our son Bob Wiersbe for assisting me with the computer work. He is in no way responsible for the book's defects but deserves a large share of the credit for its existence! Also a special thank you to my wife, Betty, who assisted in checking the proofs. She turned a toilsome task into an adventure. -Warren W. Wiersbe
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