Image and image pair polarity in the Bible: a detailed guide

The Bible contains numerous symbols, such as "oil", "bread", "wine", "milk", "salt", and so forth; like pieces on a chessboard, these images follow certain consistent and perceptible rules which occur in meaningful, dependable patterns. In general albeit with certain exceptions, a given image from the Bible will have a positive and a negative pole, a heads and a tails. One will demonstrate this pattern using the image "leaven":

Matthew 13:33 - King James Version <33> Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Matthew 16:6 - King James Version <6> Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

In the first verse, we see positive or heads "leaven"; whereas in the second verse we see negative or tails "leaven".

A second, dependable relationship in the Bible involves married pairs of images, including but not limited to "bread and wine", "honour and glory", "length and breadth", and "bride and bridegroom". As with the individual images, married pairs of images also have a positive or head and a negative or tails. Let us see the most famous married pair of them all, bread and wine, both in positive and in negative form:

Genesis 14:18 - King James Version <18> And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Proverbs 4:17 - King James Version <17> For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

One would encourage you to look for bread and wine etc and their reversals everywhere in the Bible, just as one would encourage the use of latitude and longitude on a map, or of X and Y on a plane. Here, for instance, we have the suggestion of bread and wine with the implements used to consume them only:

Matthew 23:25 - King James Version <25> Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

And here we have the same relationship between bread and wine in the form of eating and drinking: Matthew 11:19

Matthew 11:19 - King James Version <19> The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

But let us look at this exact same relationship in a more abstract form, now that you can see this pattern everywhere and satisfy yourself as to its ubiquity and dependability: Psalms 111:10

Psalm 111:10 - King James Version <10> The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Here the relationship takes the form "doing his commandments" paired with "a good understanding".

Here it is again, in the New Testament:

James 1:22 - King James Version <22> But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Here the bread and wine relationship is expressed as both "doing" and "hearing" the Word.

And now let us look at this abstract relationship, in this case reversed, in more narrative and less proverbial form:

Daniel 5:20-21 - King James Version <20> But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: <21> And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

Right here is the positive pole of this same relationship, also in narrative form:

Numbers 12:3 - King James Version <3> (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. )

Acts 7:22 - King James Version <22> And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

Let one just note that this last instance of the relationship between humility and good understanding vs pride and bad understanding also encodes the essential bread and wine, warp and woof, X and Y of the Bible in the form of "words" and "deeds", which demonstrates just how thickly strewn the Bible is with meaningful polarity.

You can confirm all of the above with your reason in full liberty. You do not have to take any of it on blind faith, and are encouraged to look for whether a given Biblical image or pair of images is positive or negative, heads or tails, because this will infallibly assist sincere people in their Bible study, whatever their denomination and whoever they are.

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