The Complete Emmet Fox Biblical Symbolism Reference

...The Bible revealed (part 8/8)

The Bible is a powerful book rich in symbolism and metaphor for those willing to examine it. Emmet Fox was an early 20th Century New Thought Christian minister who taught of the symbolism contained within the Bible. Understanding the Bible and its symbolism is crucial to getting the most from the Bible's spiritual teachings.

This series of posts is the result of time spent over a lengthy period of time carefully taking notes on the Bible symbols that Emmet Fox mentions in his many writings. It is my sincere hope that the reader grasps the value of his message and these compilations.


Symbolic phrase	Meaning	Book	Page
The fish	The fish stands as a symbol of wisdom, and wisdom is then understood as the technical term for the knowledge of the Allness of God and of the power of prayer.	Alter your life	108
The head The head is the bodily expression for man's power of knowing Divine Truth. "...Have your head lifted above your enemies."	Power Through Constructive Thinking	83
The heathen	The heathen means your own wrong thoughts, those fears, doubts, self-reproaches, and shortcomings of every kind that come between you and your realization of God. The heathen forces that attack the holy city of your soul, sometimes lay siege to it for days and weeks, and sometimes even capture and occupy it for a time.	Power Through Constructive Thinking	73
The Holy place	Your consciousness	Find and use...	37
The land	"The land" in the Bible means manifestation. To have your days long in the land means that you will have power over your surroundings.	Ten Commandments	141
The Lord of hosts	"Lord of Hosts" is the title for God that stresses his great power and might. It is the omnipotence aspect of God.	Power Through Constructive Thinking	73
The peacock	Stands for vanity. May be in form of intellectual pride, snobbish attitude, desire to stand in with the fashionable and powerful, can also include spiritual pride.	Around the year...	98
The plains	The plain always means fear, doubt, and any kind of negative thinking in contradiction to the hill or mountain which stands for prayer or spiritual thought. A low level of thinking.	Alter your life	82
The skull	The skull symbolizes the intellect.	Diagrams For Living	29
The Sphinx	The true Sphinx consists of a body of an animal (Earth - Taurus), human face (Air - Aquarius), Wings of an eagle ( Water - Scorpio), and on the forehead carried the Ankh, which represents spirit, the eternal life (Fire - Leo).	Alter your life	28
The stable (where Jesus was born)	The stable is symbolic of our present state of consciousness with its feelings of unworthiness. It symbolizes the Christ that is born into any one of us the moment that we give our whole hearts to God.	Diagrams For Living	117
The straight gate	The straight gate is The Way of Life or the changing of one's consciousness as advocated by the Jesus Christ message.	Sermon on the Mount	129
Those who are in Judea	Those who believe that prayer does change things	Find and use...	37
Treasures in heaven	Meaning understanding of Spiritual Law.	Sparks of Truth	66
Tree of life	The tree of life is the understanding that we are one with God and that our true selves are spiritual and eternal.	Alter your life	72
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil	Mixture of good and evil thoughts. If we entertain both good and evil thoughts, trouble will come to us. Evil thoughts could be concealed as criticizing others, thoughts of resentment and condemnation, thoughts of sickness, lack, and so forth.	Alter your life	65
Twelve	12 means all-round completeness.	Diagrams For Living	84
Twelve tribes	Correspond to the Zodiac, each tribe symbolized by one of the signs. Judah: represents the spiritual element (Leo - Fire). Reuben: represents the physical body or the pale horse and material and worldly conditions as well. (Taurus - Earth). Ephraim: who represents the intellect (Aquarius - Air). Dan: standing for the emotional nature or red horse (Scorpio - Water)		27
Valley	Valley in the Bible always means trouble and difficulty.	Diagrams For Living	166
Vengeance	The spiritual meaning of the word vengeance, in the Bible, is Vindication. It stands for the vindication of Truth against the challenge or accusation of fear and misunderstanding.	Make Your Life Worthwhile	71
Virgin soul	The virgin soul means the soul that looks to God alone.	Power Through Constructive Thinking	4
Water	Water in the Bible stands for the human mind - the intellect and the feelings.	Alter your life	36
Water	...for it is founded upon the waters - and water is always the human soul as we know it.	Power Through Constructive Thinking	92
Water	Water in the Bible stands for the human mind, the human personality, and especially the emotional nature.	Ten Commandments	14
Water	Another important symbol for the human soul is Water, and Water and Woman are closely connected. Water in the Bible, from beginning to end, means the human soul - another facet of the human - representing mental movement. For instance He Israelites had to cross water - first the Red Sea and later the Jordan - to get to the Promised Land. In other words, there had to be a mental movement, a change in consciousness, before they could make their demonstration.	Diagrams For Living	25
Water	Water means the human soul. Noah's flood of waters is representative of our daily life with our fears, our problems, our difficulties.	Diagrams For Living	48
Waters and seas	Stand for all truth or all spiritual ideas that the individual has not yet demonstrated. These words include the ideas he knows of, and also the infinite ideas concerning which he knows nothing yet save that myriads of still unknown glories do exist. More particularly, the word "seas" applies to the spiritual truths that he does know of.	Alter your life	41
Wells	Wells and springs symbolize contact with God, and represent the ever new thoughts and ideas bubbling up into consciousness.	Diagrams For Living	21
White horse (the 4 horses)	The white horse is the spiritual nature. It is the realization of the presence of God. He who rides the white horse gets freedom, and joy, and ultimate happiness and harmony. The rider of the white horse has a bow and arrow and wears a crown - he speaks the word, wins the struggle and gets the crown. If you want peace of mind, healing, happiness, prosperity, and freedom, and above all, if you want an understanding of God, you must ride the White Horse.	Alter your life	17
Wicked	In the Bible the word "wicked" really means "bewitched" or "under a spell." We can suffer pains of hell because "fear hath torment" - but when we turn to God, the spell is broken and harmony restored.	Make Your Life Worthwhile	64
Within	In the Bible the word "within" signifies thought, as distinct from the outer world of things. Ex. Jesus: "seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things will be added unto you." And "The kingdom of God is Within you."	Alter your life	73
Within vs. Without	In the Bible the word "within" always means thought and the word "without" means manifestation or experience.	Mental Equivalent	25
Within vs. without (2)	In the Bible, the word "within" means thought, and "without" or "outside" means the material world.	Make Your Life Worthwhile	172
Woman	In the Bible, Woman means the soul.	Alter your life	63
Woman	Woman stands for the human soul - your soul - or as psychology expresses it, the psyche or mind. The soul is not the divine part of you, the divine part is the "I AM", "pneuma." Your soul expresses itself as your personality, and that includes everything in the conscious and subconscious mind. So it is the changing personality, the psyche, which is represented by Woman in the Bible.	Diagrams For Living	24
Woman	The woman in the Bible always represents the human soul, the human personality, and especially the feeling nature.	Diagrams For Living	129
Woman Clothed with the sun	Means that you are clothed with the presence of God.	Diagrams For Living	84
World	In the Bible, the "world" can mean money, position, material honors, worldly pursuits.	Around the Year	239
Wrath (of God)	Wrath in the Bible really means "great activity" - the activity that accompanies or precedes the healing of any negative condition. It is the "stirring up" before a healing for example. A period of stress often comes before a demonstration.	Make Your Life Worthwhile	59
Wroth of God	The "wroth" of God in the Bible always means the Activity of God. It does not mean anger.	Alter your life	88
Youth	Spiritually, youth represents a readiness to receive understanding. Young people are ready to hear and do something new.	Diagrams For Living	131
Zion	Zion is the direct realization of God. Jerusalem is the highest thing in the human consciousness less than the Divine contact, but Zion is the realization of God Himself.	Power Through Constructive Thinking	129