Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a figure of speech where a speaker exaggerates a situation to make a point. Rollie, one of the 101 Dalmatian puppies, said, “Mother, I am so hungry I can eat a whole elephant.” Frustrated parents tell their children, “I have told you a million times . . .” (Really?) My favorite one: “My feet are killing me.” (Those murderous feet!). “The plane ride took forever.” (I doubt it.) “This is the best book ever written.” (Maybe you need to expand your library.)

Jesus often used hyperbole. Once he said,

“Why do you look at the splinter (karfos) in your brother’s eye and not think anything about the load-bearing beam (dokos) in your own eye? How can you say to your brother: ‘Brother, come here, I will take the splinter from your eye,’ when you cannot see because of the load-bearing beam in your eye? Hypocrite. Take the load-bearing beam from your eye first, and then you can see clearly to take the splinter in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:41–42)

This entire section is in second singular, “you-singular,” meaning the Lord was saying these statements to a single individual, perhaps a brother like Simon, who was trying to take the splinter from the eye of his brother, Andrew. Jesus used that situation to teach a spiritual lesson.

Karfos referred to barks, splinters, or specks – small particles from a tree. Dokos, on the other hand, was a giant log from a heavy and strong tree used as the load-bearing beam in a house (dokos comes from dechomai, “holding something heavy”).

We’ve all been in situations where splinters or hairs have fallen in our eyes, and we wanted something to remove them. But we never want a visually impaired person, especially someone with an obstruction in his/her eyes, to remove the splinter. They would do more harm than good.

Jesus wasn’t saying splinters shouldn’t be removed. Without removing them, one would hurt. But if someone wished to remove a splinter from someone’s eyes, they must have clear vision (and clean hands).

“You take the load-bearing beam from your eye first, and then you can see clearly to take the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

A load-bearing beam can obstruct one’s clear vision. Removing them allows that person to do the task at hand clearly and carefully.

I. Howard Marshall, a scholar in Luke’s writings, defined a “hypocrite” as one who knows what is right to do and not do it. This fits well with James’s definition of sin: “Knowing the good to do and don’t do it is a sin” (Jas 4:17). Jesus called the brother who was trying to take the splinter from his brother’s eye while he had a beam in his eye a hypocrite because he knew what was right to do – remove the load-bearing beam from his eye first – and yet did not do it.

We often find ourselves in similar situations. A modern version of this principle is, “Do as I say, not as I do.” People need to see that we have a clear vision before we try to take the splinters off theirs. We must have eyes without obstructions before we try to help others, like the announcement: “Put the oxygen mask on before you help someone else.”