1 Kings 11:30 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

1 Kings 11:30. Ahijah caught the new garment,—and rent it— Language, it appears from the nature of the thing, from the records of history, and from the remains of the most ancient languages still subsisting, was at first extremely rude, narrow, and equivocal; so that men would be perpetually at a loss, on any new conception or uncommon incident, to explain themselves intelligibly to one another. This would necessarily set them upon supplying the deficiencies of speech, by apt and significant signs. Accordingly, in the first ages of the world, mutual converse was upheld by a mixed discourse of words and actions (hence came the eastern phrase, Exodus 4:8 of the voice of the sign); and use and custom, as in most other affairs of life, improving what had arisen out of necessity into ornament, this practice subsisted long after the necessity was over; especially among the eastern people, whose natural temperament inclined them to a mode of conversation which so well exercised their vivacity by motion, and so much gratified it by a perpetual representation of material images. Of this we have innumerable instances in Scripture, as well as in this passage. By these actions the prophets instructed the people in the will of God, and conversed with them in signs: and, as it likewise appears that the information by action was at this time and place a very familiar mode of conversation, this will lead us to a reasonable and true defence of the prophetic writings, and enable us to clear them from the charge of absurdity and fanaticism. The absurdity of an action consists in its being extravagant, and insignificative; but use and a fixed application made these in question both sober and pertinent. The fanaticism of an action consists in a fondness for unusual actions and foreign modes of speech; but these in question were idiomatic and familiar. Divine Legation, vol. 3: p. 99.