The Sword · The Symbolism of Scripture
The Sword
Follow this symbol from Eden to the last chapters and one thing keeps happening: the weapon moves out of the hand and into the mouth. It ends as a sword nobody is holding, in a battle where the army that rides out never draws one.
What It Stands For
— the thing that separatesA sword does one thing: it divides. That is the whole content of the symbol, and everything Scripture does with it follows from that single property — a blade separates limb from body, guilty from innocent, family member from family member, thought from intention. It is not a picture of strength. Strength is the ox and the horn. The sword is a picture of decision.
- Genesis 3:24A flaming sword turning every way, guarding the way to the tree of life.
- 1 Samuel 17:51David kills Goliath with Goliath's own sword, having refused armour.
- Isaiah 2:4Swords beaten into ploughshares — the object itself put out of use.
- Luke 2:35A sword shall pierce through your own soul also. Said to a mother, about grief.
- Matthew 26:52Put up thy sword. The one time a disciple draws one for Him, and it is refused.
- Ephesians 6:17The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God — the only weapon in the kit.
- Hebrews 4:12Sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing soul and spirit.
- Revelation 19:15Out of His mouth. Not in His hand — the text is specific about where it is.
Its Presentation Through Scripture
— thirteen stops, in canon order — and Scripture's own links markedSo He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
The first sword in Scripture is not carried by a man and is not used on one. It is set at a gate to keep a road closed.
when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me.
In the Song of Moses God speaks of His own glittering sword — judgment described as an act rather than a mood.
David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword and pulled it from its sheath and killed him; and he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
The most famous sword in the Old Testament is used by the man who did not bring one. He takes it out of the giant's own sheath.
May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands,
A two-handed picture the New Testament will pick up: praise in the mouth, and a two-edged sword in the hand.
Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war.
And the promise that the metal is temporary: swords into ploughshares, and nations that stop learning war.
so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed— and a sword will pierce your soul as well.”
Simeon says a sword will pierce His mother's own soul. The first sword in the Gospels is grief, and it is aimed at a bystander.
Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
The hardest sentence: not peace but a sword — and the verses immediately after define it as division inside a family, not war between nations.
“Now, however,” He told them, “the one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.
He tells them to buy one. Two verses later they produce two, and He says 'it is enough' — which is not the answer of a man arming a militia.
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
And within hours the same swords are ordered back into their sheaths. Whatever verse 36 meant, this is what it did not mean.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Paul hands the Christian exactly one offensive weapon and names it in the same breath: the word of God. The kit is worked through piece by piece on its own study.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The image turned inward. This sword is not for use on an enemy — it divides the reader, and the verse says it discerns thoughts.
He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
In the opening vision the sword is already in the wrong place: out of His mouth, while His hands hold stars.
And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
And at the end the armies of heaven follow Him in white linen, and the only weapon in the scene comes out of His mouth. Nobody else strikes a blow.
Mystically; A sword is the sharpest of all weapons, and thence it is the emblem of the right of authority, the impartiality of justice, the correction of offenders. The word of God, we may remember, is likened to a sword; (Eph. 6:17. Heb. 4:12.) so here the sword that is sent upon the earth is His preaching poured into the heart of man.
Hilary of Poitiers· Catena Aurea (Aquinas), 367Latin father
Matthew 10:34
Just as then, he says, it was not war, not the sword that destroyed them, but the word of God—for they fell of their own accord—so it will be with us as well.
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on Hebrews, 1107Eastern Orthodox
Hebrews 4:12
The Two Hard Sayings
— Matthew 10:34 and Luke 22:36, given wholeDo not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.Verses 35-36 define the division immediately: a man against his father, a daughter against her mother.
“Now, however,” He told them, “the one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.Two verses later the disciples produce two swords for eleven men, and He ends the conversation.
Neither sentence is softened here and neither is turned into a warrant. What Matthew 10 actually describes, in its own next two verses, is a household divided over Him — the cost of confessing Christ where the family will not. And whatever Luke 22:36 meant, we have the same evening’s answer to what it did not mean:
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.Spoken to a disciple who had just used one, in defence of Jesus Himself — the best case anyone will ever have.
But who shall produce these results with the sword, and not their opposites rather-deceit, and harshness, and injury-which, it must be confessed, are the proper business of battles? Let us see, therefore, whether that is not some other sword, which has so different an action. Now the Apostle John, in the Apocalypse, describes a sword which proceeded from the mouth of God as "a doubly sharp, two-edged one." This may be understood to be the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel-sharpened with wisdom, hostile to the devil, arming us against the spiritual enemies of all wickedness and concupiscence, and cutting us off from the dearest objects for the sake of God's holy name.
Tertullian· Against Marcion, Book III, 220Latin, second century
Matthew 10:34
Tertullian is arguing against Marcion, not writing a commentary, and his rhetorical question is doing work in that argument. But the observation stands on its own: a literal sword produces deceit, harshness and injury, which are not what Matthew 10 says the sword accomplishes.
The sword aimed at a motherAmbrose and Theophylact on Luke 2:35
Theophylact reads it as the plainest thing: He calls the "weapon" perhaps the grief that occurred during the Passion, or perhaps the scandal that assailed Her upon seeing the Lord crucified.
Ambrose takes it differently, and connects it to Hebrews 4:12: Or it shows the wisdom of Mary, that she was not ignorant of the heavenly Majesty. For the word of God is living and strong, and sharper than the sharpest sword. (Heb. 4:12.)
Two ancient readings, in different directions — grief at the cross, or the word of God doing its dividing work in her. Luke gives no explanation, and this page names both rather than choosing.
Where It Points
— a weapon that is not heldAnd from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.Read where the sword is. His hands are not mentioned in the clause at all.
This is the detail the symbol has been building toward since Genesis. The rider has armies behind Him, and they are dressed in fine linen, white and clean — not armour — and no member of that army is described doing anything at all. The one weapon in the scene proceeds from His mouth.
And out of his mouth, namely of the commander-in-chief, a sword proceeds. Therefore the divine prophet gives the sword to the Lord's thigh for use placed a little before (Ps. 44:4); but the vision, writing more precisely, presents it at the mouth.
Oecumenius· Commentary on Revelation, 550Greek commentator
Revelation 19:15
The Father commits the judgment to the Son. he shall rule--The HE is emphatic, He and none other, in contrast to the usurpers who have misruled on earth. "Rule," literally, "tend as a shepherd"; but here in a punitive sense.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Revelation 19:15
Oecumenius notices that the Psalms put the sword on the thigh and the vision moves it, and calls the vision more precise. JFB notice the other strange word in the verse: the verb translated “rule” is the shepherd’s verb. The two most violent images in the book are carried by a mouth and a shepherd’s staff.
with which he smites the nations, either the threatenings of the written word, which now he is going to execute, or rather his word of command calling on his followers to take a just revenge on his and their enemies
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Revelation 19:15
What Scripture says outright
- Ephesians 6:17
Paul identifies the sword in the same clause he names it: which is the word of God. No inference required.
- Hebrews 4:12
The word of God compared to a two-edged sword, and the comparison is the writer’s own.
- Matthew 10:35-36
Jesus defines His own sword saying in the next two verses, and the definition is a divided household.
What readers have heard in it
Readings named as readings.
- Genesis 3:24
That the flaming sword at Eden pictures the law barring the way back, later removed by Christ. An old and satisfying reading; Genesis says only that the sword and the cherubim were placed to keep the way of the tree of life.
- Luke 22:36
That “buy a sword” establishes a Christian right of self-defence, or alternatively that it is pure metaphor. Both are held by serious readers. The one thing the text itself supplies is His answer to two swords — it is enough — and the order to sheathe them hours later.
The Voices
— named, with the work to go and readThe commentary here is old and unusually consistent. Hilary of Poitiers in the fourth century and Tertullian in the second both reach for the same conclusion from different directions — that the sword Christ sends is His preaching — and neither is being sentimental about it; Hilary keeps the words justice and correction in the sentence. Oecumenius and JFB, thirteen centuries apart, both stop at the same odd detail in Revelation 19 and refuse to smooth it. Ambrose and Theophylact disagree honestly about Luke 2:35, and the page prints both.
Where Marcus Lands
A blade at a gate nobody could pass; a sword drawn once for Him and refused; one weapon issued to the church, and it is a book — and an army in white linen with nothing in its hands.
Where to Go Next
— grouped, because a pile of titles is not a hand-offThe sword, and the studies around it
Where the sword is the whole scene
Where the word does the cutting
Where the picture goes on
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: