# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 02 08_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

where he ought to write "signifies," unless someone did so either because he understood nothing at all of how one must speak and write, or out of frivolous jest, or with the intention of deceiving others. Wholly true is what Luther writes in his great Confession concerning the Lord's Supper: "To instruct you further, as our own, you should know that it is a sheer fabrication for anyone to say that this little word 'is' means as much as 'signifies.' No man can ever prove this from any single passage of Scripture. Indeed, I will say further: if the fanatics, in all the languages there are on earth, can bring forth a single saying in which 'is' means as much as 'signifies,' then they shall have won."

That it seems to some as though the word "is" were very often taken, in Holy Scripture and in other writings, to mean "signifies," comes from the fact that people do not understand the art of language, and especially the figure of speech called a trope.

In every language there are, namely, words that have a twofold meaning — a proper one and a figurative (tropical) one, or an original one and a derived one. Thus, for example, the word "light" has a twofold meaning: in its proper or original meaning it denotes the matter by which the physical objects around us become visible to our bodily eyes; in its figurative or derived meaning, on the other hand, the word "light" denotes something by which spiritual things become known to our understanding; hence one says not only of the sun, but also of a person who instructs others in important truths and gives them insight into them, that he spreads light. Hence in Holy Scripture the word "light" is used both of the sun and of Christ (Gen. 1:16; John 8:12). So too the words darkness (Exod. 10:21–22; Acts 26:18), way (Matt. [illegible]–7:14), water (John 4:13–14), lion (Judg. 14:18; Rev. 5:5), fox (Judg. 15:4; Luke 13:32), fall (Matt. 7:27; Luke 2:34), hungering and thirsting (Prov. 25:21; Matt. 5:6), and other words likewise have a twofold meaning; indeed, some words have even more meanings — thus the word "cross" has a threefold meaning: first, according to its proper and original meaning, it denotes the instrument of torture on which Christ died (John 19:17); then it means the whole work of reconciliation established through Christ (1 Cor. 1:18); and finally it denotes all sorts of suffering sent by God to His children (Luke 14:27).

That a word so often has a double, and even more, meanings has a twofold reason. The first reason is that no human language is so rich in words that it has a special word for every thing and every concept; because of this poverty of expression in language, a writer is often compelled to name a thing by a word whose proper meaning is something else. For instance, to express that a person can not only form a clear conception of a thing but can also understand how it is possible, there is no special word for this; hence, when one wishes to name this capacity of a person, one usually employs the word "begreifen" or "fassen" [to grasp or comprehend], which properly means to feel with the hands or to encompass, and only figuratively (that is, through an alteration of ordinary usage, or in a figurative, pictorial way) signifies a full insight into a matter. — Another reason why one often names a thing with a word that properly has a different meaning is that it either gives the reader pleasure when he is stimulated, by a figurative, non-literal expression, to reflect on what the writer actually means to express by it, or because a matter often becomes much clearer to the reader through a figurative expression and is set much more vividly before the soul than through a literal one; in short, a thought or idea is not infrequently clothed in images in order to beautify one's speech and make it more pleasing, and to strengthen its impression upon the reader. When, for example, Jacob speaks figuratively: "The days of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years" (Gen. 47:9), this figurative expression for "my life" is not only more pleasing, but it also presents to the reader far more vividly what life actually is. When, further, Christ says of Himself figuratively, "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:12), this trope contains not only more charm, but it also represents more clearly what Christ is and is meant to be to mankind than if He had said, without imagery: I own, provide for, lead, protect, etc., those who are mine. And when Christ says, "I am the way" (John 14:6), this figurative expression illustrates more vividly how necessary Christ is to us for salvation than if Christ, in plain speech, had merely said: I am he through whom one comes to heaven.

Because, then, it is also very frequently the case in Holy Scripture that certain things or persons are given names which they cannot bear in the proper sense, it certainly seems, to those unfamiliar with the rules of language, at first glance as though the little word "is" must very often be taken for "signifies." And regrettably, ever since Zwingli (who first asserted this), even many scholars well acquainted with the rules of language have nevertheless dishonestly exploited people's ignorance and have cited such passages as: "I am the vine, I am the door, the Rock was Christ, John is Elias," and so forth, as proof of this. They have said: Everyone knows, after all, that Christ was not actually a vine, not actually a door, not actually a rock, and that John the Baptist was not actually the ancient prophet Elias; these were only figurative; therefore in all these and similar passages "is" stands for "signifies." — But this conclusion is a fallacy. For the words vine, door, rock, Elias, and the like, have a twofold meaning, namely a proper one and a figurative (pictorial, tropical) one. On the one hand, "vine" means, first, a climbing plant on which branches grow, which it bears, gives life to, and fills with fruit, from which refreshing wine is pressed; but "vine" is also used, secondly, of all such things with which others stand in the most intimate connection, by which they are borne, given life, and filled with fruit. Now when Christ says, "I am the vine," Christ does not mean to say here, "I signify a vine" — it would be blasphemy to say that Christ is the mere image of an ordinary vine, thus less than an ordinary vine — no, Christ means rather to say: I am a true, the very vine, not one that stands in a garden, but one that has come down from heaven; for my believers are so intimately united with me that they are given life by me and filled with fruit through me. — As for the word "door," it likewise has a twofold meaning: first it denotes, as is well known, the opening through which one enters a house; but then it also means everything by which one enters into anything at all. Now when Christ says, "I am the door," He does not mean to say, "I signify a door," but rather: I am the one through whom alone one can enter into the kingdom of grace and glory; I am not the image of this door, but precisely the true, the real door of heaven. — As for the word "rock," this first denotes a great, solid mass of stone forming a single whole; then this word means everything that stands firm without wavering, and on which one can therefore build and rely with confidence. Hence when Paul writes, "The Rock that followed them was Christ," he does not mean to say that a rock followed which signified Christ, but that the fathers had a companion through the wilderness on whom they could rely as upon a truly firm rock, and from whom, as from a rock, they could drink the true, clear, bright, refreshing water — and that this was none other than Christ; hence Paul also calls Christ not merely a rock, but "the spiritual Rock"; and who would say that Christ is not a spiritual Rock, but only signifies a spiritual rock? — Finally, as for the word "Elias," it first denotes the well-known prophet of the time of King Ahab; but then it also denotes, in general, a man who, with great burning zeal and unusual fearlessness, rebukes all sin and all error. Now when it is said of John the Baptist, "He is Elias," this is not meant to say that he signifies Elias, but that he is a true Elias, that is, that he is a man who with