Jesus's Interesting Style of Speaking: Using Contrast

Jesus defines his ideas by contrasting them.

Jesus uses contrast in many different ways. In a sense he is usually contrasting opposites, but their opposing characteristics can be in several different dimensions. There are at least two hundred verses where Jesus uses some type of contrast, enough s that I comment on it in my translation notes. Actually, there may be twice that number or more.

I once started cataloguing all the contrasting opposites that Jesus used, but I gave up as I kept finding more and more dimensions of contrast among nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. The more I found, the more unruly they became, with Jesus casting several different words as the opposite of the same term (see below). Some of these contrasts, such as the one between “light” and “darkness” deserve their own articles. Certainly the contrast between “valuable” and “worthless,” Greek terms translated as “good” and “evil” do. However, here we will just identify certain general categories of opposites that Jesus uses, mostly the nouns because it is easier.

Complementary Opposites

For example, in Matthew 6:12, Jesus contrasts the idea of “debt” and “debtors.”

καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰὀ φειλήματα ἡμῶν,  ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς
Also, let go for us those debts of ours. as even we ourselves let go of those
ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν:
debtors of ours. 

The contrast here is "debt" and "debtors," both from the same root word. This contrast is maintained in most English translations, except, of the New Living Translation, which translates “debt” as “sin.” Debt and debtors are what I call “complementary opposites,” existing in a creation cycle: debt creates debtors, and debtors create debt. Unless both are eliminated, you automatically get the other. Complementary opposites are actually two sides or two stages of the same thing rather than two separate things.

A similar set of contrasts is found in Matthew 7:24, the wise man building on rock, and Matthew 7:26 the foolish man building on sand. Skipping over the contrast of “wise” and “foolish,” let us focus on the contrast of “rock” and “sand.” We would not normally think of "sand" and "rock" as opposites, being similar substances. Here, however, they are clearly opposites in how solid they are. They are also complementary opposites: rock creates sand, and sand can become rock, when it is compressed into sandstone. They are two different forms or stages of the same thing.

“Light” and “dark” and perhaps even “valuable” and “worthless” can also be seen as complementary opposites. Each defines the other. Light creates darkness by its existence. We could not perceive darkness if light did not exist and vice versa. They are part of a cycle where one leads to the other. The same is true of “valuable” and “worthless.” Worthless things become valuable as the situation changes. For example, air is free on earth, but it becomes very valuable if you are traveling in space. Worthless things, like sand, are transformed into valuable things, like silicon chips. Similarly, valuable things become worthless over time as they wear out and are used up.

Negative and Positive Contrasts

Jesus often contrasts the positive, what works, with the negative, what doesn’t work, like building a house on rock or sand. Another example is the valuable tree (Matthew 7:17) and diseased tree (Matthew 7:19), also contrasting the “fine” fruit and “worthless” fruit. And again in Matthew 10:13 contrasting the house that is “worthy” where your peace falls on it with a house that is “not worthy” where your peace returns to yourself.  These contrasts tend to make even simple ideas more memorable and dramatic.

For a translator, Jesus's use of contrasting opposites makes it easy to better understand his meaning. For example, the contrast of "body" and "soul" in Matthew 10:28 (“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” NIV). So we learn that the “soul,” psyche (ψυχῇ), meaning “breath,” “life,” and “self,” is different in a specific way from the “body,” soma (σῶμά), meaning “body,” either living or dead, of a human or animal, the later more easily destroyed than the former. Because one can be destroyed and the other survive, they are not two sides of the same coin.

Jesus also contrasts true opposites, the negative and positive word forms of the same root. For example, “faith” from pistos (πιστός) and “faithless” from apistos (ἄπιστος), where the “a” before the word negates it in Greek. Both of these words are contrasted, for example, in John 20:27 (“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” NIV).

Unit Pairs

In contrast to the “body and soul” above, some objects are a unit that are destroyed together. The most interesting of these is translated in the Bible as “heaven and earth.” For example, Matthew 24:35 (“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” KJV) Of course, “heaven” is really “the skies” as it usually is in Jesus’s words (see this article). Jesus mentions “skies” and “earth” ending together in several other verses as well (Matthew 5:18, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33,  Luke 16:17). In Matthew 18:19 (“ Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” NIV), Jesus suggested a deeper connection between the two realms.

There are several other such unit pairs in Jesus’s lexicon. One pair, male, arsen, (ἄρσεν) and female, thelys (θῆλυ), is only used twice, but always together. “Sun” is sometimes mentioned alone, but the word “moon” always appears with “sun.” The same is often true of “mother,” which is almost always used with “father.”

Triad Contrasts

Jesus also contrasts two different words with the same opposite. For example, Jesus uses two different Greek words, based on two different ideas, that are translated as "love." One of these means "care for," agapao (αγαπήσεις), and the other "prefer," phileo (φιλοῦσιν), but both words are used by Jesus as the opposite of the Greek word for "hate," miseo, (μισήσει), the former in Matthew 6:24, the later in Matthew 5:43.

Similarly, the concept of “spirit,” contrasted with “body” in Matthew 10:28 (see above) is contrasted with “flesh, sarx (σὰρξ) in Mark 14:38.

Fun Contrasts

Other times, Jesus uses word play to make these contrasts in a fun way. For example, in Matthew 16:18 "That thou art Peter," Jesus uses two similar words. The first is petros, which is a masculine noun meaning “rock” as a building material, and which Jesus uses as the name, "Rock," like our Rock Hudson. The second is petra, the female form which means "rock" as a building material but also has the sense of “rocky cliffs" or "ledges" over the sea and a "rocky peak" or "ridge."  Jesus called his student the masculine “Rock,” but then likens him to the feminine one.

Conclusion

There are dozens of other types of contrasts. As I began by saying, more types tham I can count, even after attempting it. “New wine verse old wine” (Matthew 9:17), “ “hearing you is hearing me” (Luke 10:16), “east and west” (Matthew 8:11), “of the world” and “not of the world” (John 15:19). The list goes on and on.

Jesus used these contrasts to make his sayings more vivid and memorable. He also uses them to add layers of subtle meaning that are mostly maintained in translation. Except for the cases of :“heaven,” “good,” and “evil,” almost all of these words are translated correctly because the contrast makes his meaning more difficult to avoid.