Like apples of Gold

"Like apples of gold set in a silver filigree is a word spoken during the season." That is what the wise King Solomon said, and few would deny the correctness of this statement with him.

The right word spoken at the right time is a work of art as a beautiful silver and gold ornament. But few people realize how important it is to get a good expression and how to choose the words that will have the biggest impact on your audience.

First, we can vary the structure in which we enter our information. We could write a documentary based on simple facts to speak for ourselves. Or we can present our ideas in the form of a dialogue, as Plato or Aristophanes did, where each person has different views. Or we can write a comedy or a story and in fact the different characters show what we think about certain situations. Sometimes a choir on stage can comment on the whole plot to clarify the point, as in the case of Greek drama. Sometimes it is even more effective to let the action speak for itself. Some excellent works were done almost entirely in verse, such as the book of Job.

Second, the words we choose affect our audience. All critics agree that we should be simple and short, but varied. Aristotle judged purity and clarity to be very high, and Horace asked the writer to start tossing the jars of paint and words one foot long. By that I mean we should not be too floral or use long, erudite words that no one understands.

Even if we want to decorate what we say, there is absolutely nothing that can beat the simple and direct style. Too many words, too many words, can even confuse our audience and prevent them from reading. Take the example of John's biography of Christ. He is a model of simplicity, with John's style and vocabulary characterizing him as ordinary and illiterate, but his gospel is considered the most gripping of the four.

One of the first things that helps keep it simple is brevity, but being short is much harder than you might think. Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher, wrote to a friend: “I wrote this letter more than usual because I do not have time to shorten it. And poor Horace said with a little sadness that it was incomprehensible when he tried to be brief!

However, he was full of brilliant ideas on how to achieve it. First we need to eliminate unnecessary words and repetitive phrases - get rid of the fluff, so to speak. The information must be complete, but also compact. Clarity comes from cutting the idea to the bone and marking it in the same way that a person on stage is more likely to get attention from a group.

This simplicity and brevity that great writers defend does not mean that we cannot be varied. There are no interesting words or expressions. For example, we have many fascinating examples of different styles in the Bible and we would do well to imitate some of them.

There is the poetic diction of the Psalm; Habacuc dramatic style; the living images of Nahum talking about the flame of the sword and the glow of the spear; the epigrammatic style of the words; concrete and practical language in Jonah (certainly not to embellish this story!); or the daily discussion of the parables of Christ. To expose the lie, we could use an ironic style, as the apostle Paul did in his letter to the Corinthians, and subtly show his ingratitude and list his "super-fine apostles."

Our motivation is obviously important. We may wonder if our words will affect our readers, their outlook on life, their work, or their relationship with others. Do we hope to evoke good or bad thoughts from what we write? Should we describe an immoral person as our hero and try to apologize for wrongdoing, or perhaps we support a theory that contradicts the Bible?

No matter how good a book is, if it tries to promote an unethical idea, the true Christian will not like it. In fact, this book can be dangerous because if written well it can give people bad thoughts, just as good writing can inspire good ones.

After Terentianus Maurus once says he has said it all, the rest is "up to the reader." As a final illustration, take the case of the famous king who appreciated the value of the correct word pronounced on the station. He wrote one of the most beautiful love poems of all time and asked a young peasant girl to be his. He told this Shulamite that it was like dawn, beautiful like the moon, shining like the sun. But where did all your beautiful words come from? Nowhere!

The girl was in love with her pastor and nothing Solomon could say could change him. The Sulemites, on the other hand, lost their language and their time. So this is the right word, not just at the right time, but also for the right person!