Analogia

Proverb

A proverb is a brief, pithy saying that carries a general truth in condensed form. Terry notes that many a proverb is a condensed parable (Ch. VII), and in Ch. VI he treats sayings such as “For whoever has, it will be given to him” as proverbs expressing, in enigmatic brevity, a weighty law of experience. Our Lord himself quoted the familiar proverb “Physician, heal yourself” (Luke 4:23).

Terry’s test: Is it one short maxim, complete in itself — no narrative, no appointed foreshadowing, no constituted sign? Then it is a Proverb.

Simile

A simile is a formal comparison in brief, expressed form: one thing is placed beside another with “like” or “as,” and the two are kept distinct — “And he is like a tree planted by streams of water” (Ps. 1:3); “We all like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. 53:6). Terry groups simile, parable, and type together only in that a formal comparison is made or assumed (Ch. IX); the simile is the shortest of them.

Terry’s test: Is the comparison made in a single “like” or “as” clause, with no story and no sustained figure? Then it is a Simile.

Parable

A parable is that same formal comparison expanded into a narrative true to real life (Ch. VI) — from paraballein, to throw or place one thing beside another. The story (the sower, the tares, the wicked husbandmen) is laid beside its subject, and the meaning is supplied in a separate explanation; the interpreter brings the meaning to the story. A parable is a simile grown into a story.

Terry’s test: Is a real-life story placed beside its subject so the comparison teaches — with no divine appointment to prefigure a future reality? Then it is a Parable.

Allegory

An allegory is an extended metaphor (Ch. VII): one thing is said and another is intended, and the interpretation is contained within the figure itself — the vine of Psalm 80, “I am the true vine” (John 15), and Paul’s allegory of the covenants (Gal. 4). It differs from a parable as metaphor differs from simile: no “like,” and no separate story — the one leading figure is sustained through its details.

Terry’s test: Is one leading figure sustained through many details, saying one thing and meaning another throughout? Then it is an Allegory.

Type

A type is a real person, institution, office, event, or action by which some truth of the Gospel was divinely foreshadowed under the Old Testament; what it prefigures is the antitype, always higher and nobler than the type (Ch. IX).

Terry’s three essentials of a type

1. Notable resemblance — a real point of analogy (with real unlikeness too, else it would be identity).
2. Divine appointment — designed by God to represent the thing typified, not discovered by the expositor’s imagination.
3. Foreshadowing of the future — a shadow of things to come (Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1).

Terry’s five classes

Typical persons (Adam, Melchizedek) · institutions (sacrifices, Sabbath, cities of refuge) · offices (prophet, priest, king) · events (the flood, the exodus, the brazen serpent) · actions — which Terry calls symbolico-typical, because they blend type and symbol.

Terry’s test: Real? Appointed by God? Pointing forward to a greater antitype? All three — then it is a Type.

Symbol

Types and symbols agree as emblems, but differ in method and design (Ch. IX). A symbol is a suggestive sign rather than an image: its interpretation points out the qualities, marks, or features by which one object indicates and illustrates another — as the rainbow signifies covenant mercy, and the seven golden lampstands signify the seven churches (Rev. 1). Unlike a type, a symbol may represent a thing past, present, or future; it has in itself no essential reference to time.

Reading a symbol (Ch. X)

1. Regard the historical standpoint of the writer or prophet.
2. Regard the scope and context.
3. Regard the analogy of similar symbols elsewhere in Scripture — and press no resemblance beyond what is warranted.

Terry’s test: Is it a constituted, suggestive sign of a quality, office, or reality — rather than an appointed foreshadowing? Then it is a Symbol.

When two boxes are right

Terry is explicit that some actions blend both: “certain essential elements of both type and symbol become blended in one and the same example” (Ch. IX). Ahijah rending his new garment (1 Kings 11) and our Lord cursing the fruitless fig tree (Mark 11) are symbolico-typical actions — signs in the present, and prophetic of things to come. In Analogia those questions ask you to pick both Type and Symbol.

The quick decision path

1. One brief maxim? → Proverb.
2. A comparison in a single “like” or “as” clause? → Simile.
3. That comparison expanded into a real-life story? → Parable.
4. One figure sustained as a metaphor through many details? → Allegory.
5. Real, God-appointed, and prefiguring what is to come? → Type.
6. A sign standing for a quality or reality, timeless in itself? → Symbol.
7. A prophetic sign-action doing the work of both of the last two? → Type + Symbol.