Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


Home
Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation

A to Z

Related Information

AXE

A symbol of Divine Truth uttered on the higher mental plane. Or the critical faculty.

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." - MATTHEW iii. 10.

“Trees” here signify mental qualities. The "axe " is the Word of God which is to try men's "hearts" and to search to the roots and foundation of their being. If the qualities are unprogressed and rotten to the core then they will be cast forth as rubbish; that is they will be dissolved and so be resolved into their primary constituents.

"MATTHEW iii. 10. - This is as much as to say to them: Since you have come to baptism without having done fruits meet for repentance, you are a tree that does not bring forth good fruit, and which has to be cut down by the most sharp and piercing axe of the Word which is living and powerful and sharper than every two-edged sword." - ORIGEN, Comm. on John, Bk. VI. § 13.

"There is much in the Bible which is neither true nor edifying." - CANON H. HENSON, Christ and the Nation, p. 266.

"We must always remember that a thing may be literally false and ideally true. A legend may be doubtful; the faith and devotion which it excites in religious but uncritical minds are very real." - W. S. LILLY, Ancient Religion, p. 285.

"What now is the condition of men's minds in respect to the historical element of the existing religion? None but those who through lack of education stand necessarily upon the old ways, have any reliance upon it. Critical analysis-that function of the which, in its nature destructive, is nevertheless, really harmful only to that which, in being untrue, has not in itself the element of perpetuity-has laid an unsparing axe to the forest of ancient tradition. The science of Biblical exegesis has made it obvious to every percipient mind that sacred books, so far from being infallible records of actual events, abound with inaccuracies, contradictions, and interpolations; sacred persons, if they existed at all, had histories differing widely from those narrated of them; that sacred events I could not have occurred in the manner stated; and that sacred doctrines are, for the most part, either intrinsically absurd, or common to systems yet more ancient, whose claims to sanctity are denied." - The Perfect Way, p. 26.

"For this sharp-edged axe hath led thee forward unto great bliss."-Sata. Bráh., III. 6, 4, 14.

 

See Also

INSPIRATION, DIVINE
REVELATION
SCRIPTURES, SACRED
TREE