THE THOUGHT. In employing it, the expositor must guard against
psychological connection here. The prophet warns the people of prophesying of wine and strong drink that seemed so desirable to many. And the thought of this apparent good gives him occasion to speak of the real blessings which the Lord would shower upon his people.
f. The interpreter should gladly accept the explanations which the authors themselves occasionally give of their own words or of the words of the speakers, whom they introduce, in the immediate context. It goes without saying that they are better qualified to speak with authority in this respect than anyone else. Examples of such interpretations are found in John 2:21; 7:29; 12:33; Rom. 7:18; Heb. 7:21.
3. PARALLELISM MAY ALSO AID IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THE THOUGHT. In employing it, the expositor must guard against two mistakes. On the one hand, against the assumption that each one of the parallel clauses has a meaning distinct from the other. This is the extreme to which some of the older interpreters went, since they regarded it as unbecoming to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit that the same thoughts or sentiments should be repeated. On the other hand, it is necessary to avoid the supposition that there is ever mere tautology, the parallel members containing exactly the same idea. It is a mistake to think that there is complete identity of meaning in the corresponding members of a synonymous parallelism, or an exact contrast in an antithetic parallelism. Regarding the former, Davidson correctly remarks: "Sometimes the one member expresses universally what the other announces particularly, or vice versa; in the one there may be the genus, in the other the species; the one expresses a thing affirmatively, the other negatively; the one figuratively, the other literally; the one has a comparison, the other its application; the one contains a fact, the other the manner in which it took place" (Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 234).
It is quite evident, therefore, that the exegetical function of parallelism consists "in its giving a general apprehension of the