ACCOMMODATION. The general idea ex pressed by this term is that some object is presented, not in its absolute reality, not as it is in itself, but under some modification, or under some relative aspect, so as the better to secure some end at which the writer or speaker aims. Of this general con cept there are several modifications, which are known among biblical scholars under the general heads of formal and material accommodation. We shall attempt a somewhat fuller analysis.
1. Real Accommodation. This takes place when a person is set forth as being, or as acting, under some modified character, accommodated to the capacity for conceiving him, or the inclination to receive him, of those to whom the representation is addressed. Thus, God is frequently in Scripture described anthropomorphically or anthropopathi cally ; i. e., not as He is in Himself, but relatively to human modes of thought and capacities of apprehending Him. [ANTIIROMORPHISM. j So also the Apostle describes himself as becoming all things to all men, that by all means he might save some ; z. e., he accommodated himself to men's habits, usages, and modes of thought, and even prejudices, in order that he might disarm their opposition, and secure a favourable reception for the gospel of salvation which he preached. This species of ac commodation is what the Christian Fathers usually have in view under the terms crulneardf3aozz, or condescensio, and Oltcovania, or dispensatio. They apply these terms also to the incarnation and state of humiliation of Christ, which they regarded as an accommodation to the necessities of man's case for his redemption. See Suicer, Thesaurus Eccl. on avyKarcipaatr and &myopia and Chapman's Miscel laneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Loud. 1742. To this head may be referred many of the symboli cal actions of the prophets.
2. Verbal Accommodation. This takes place when a passage or expression used by one writer is cited by another, and applied with some modifica tion of the meaning to something different from that to which it was originally applied. Such accommodations are common in all languages. Writers and speakers lay hold of the utterances of others for the sake of giving to their own ideas a more graceful and a more forcible clothing than they feel themselves able to give them, or for the purpose of procuring for them acceptance, by utter ing them in words which some great writer has already made familiar and precious to the general mind. Sometimes this is done almost uncon sciously. Wherever,' says Michaelis, `a book is
the object of our daily reading and study, it cannot be otherwise than that passages of it should fre quently flow into our pen in writing ; sometimes accompanied with a conscious recollection of the place where we have read them ; at other times without our possessing any such consciousness. Thus the lawyer speaks with the corpusjuris and the laws, the scholar with the Latin authors, and the preacher with the Bible' I. 223). Our own literature is full of exemplifications of this, as is too well known to need illustrative proof. In the writings of Paul we find him making use in this way of passages from the classics (Acts xvii. 19; Cor. xv. 34; Tit. i. 12), all of which are of course applied by him to Christian subjects only by accommodation. We need not be surprised, then, to find the later biblical writers quoting in this way from the earlier, especially the N. T. writers, from the great classic of their nation, the Icper of the former dispensation. As in stances may be adduced, Rom. x. 18 from Ps. xix. 4, and Rom. xii. 20 from Prov. XXV. 21, 22. See also Matt. ii. is, 18, with Calvin's notes thereon. ' They have done this,' says Michaelis, in many places where it is not perceived by the generality of readers of the N. T., because they are too little acquainted with the Septuagint.' 3. Rhetorical Accommodation. This takes place when truth is presented not in a direct and literal form, but through the medium of symbol, figure, or apologue. Thus, in the prophetical writings of Scripture, we have language used which cannot be interpreted literally, but which, taken symbolically, conveys a just statement of important truth; comp. e. gr. Is. iv. 5 ; xxvii. 1; xxxiv. 4; Joel ii. 28-31; Zech. iv. 2, io, etc. Many instances occur in Scripture where truth is presented in the form of parable, and where the truth taught is to be obtained only by extracting from the story the spiritual, or moral, or practical lesson it is designed to enforce. And in all the sacred books there are instances constantly occurring of words and state ments which are designed to convey, under the vehicle of figure, a truth analogous to, but not really what they literally express. (See Knobel, ProtIzetismus der Hebraer, ?. 3o-33 ; Smith, Sum mary View and Explanation of the of the Prophets, Prel. Obss. pp. 1-22 ; Glassius, Phil. Sac. Lib. v. p. 669 ff. ed. 1711; Lowth, De Sac. Poesi Heb., pl. locc.; Davidson, Sacred Hermeneutics, ch. ix.