Source: Ryken, Leland, James C. Wilhoit and Tremper Longman III, eds.

Dictionary of Biblical
Imagery. USA: InterVarsity Press, 1998. Print.
The page numbers are inserted in parentheses, typed in bold and underlined.
DOOR
Doors and doorways are places of transition. We move through them to the outside or into another
room to greet new people; we close doors and find quiet and solitude. The door is an important
symbol for the biblical writers. The doorway, gate, portal or entryway is often associated with
entrance into areas of great spiritual significance. The various courts in the temple area were marked
by walls and portals, and the Holy of Holies in the temple was sealed off for all but one day of the
year (see Sacred Space). Then the high priest, after appropriate ceremonies, would enter to (757)
represent the people before God.
The biblical writers use this almost primal association of doors and religious boundaries, but more
often the imagery of door is connected quite closely to its literal work of opening and closing (see
Shut, Close) and of hiding and revealing. The door is one of the most significant parts of a house,
and at times biblical writers use it as a synecdoche for an entire house. In the well-ordered, Godfearing Hebrew home, doors were to bear words testifying to Gods truth. This figurative language
speaks of a house oriented around Gods law.
The Closed Door Hides. The closed door literally keeps those outside from seeing and hearing what
is going on inside. The closed door hides the activities of the prostitute, but the open door where she
sits seeking to entice men is mysteriously inviting (Prov 9:14). Job implies that to violate a shut door
by eavesdropping or loitering would be an action worthy of divine punishment. In his own defence
he claims that he has not lurked at my neighbours door (Job 31:9. New International Version).
Jesus uses this image, with a hyperbolic edge, when he calls for people not to pray like the hypocrites
who make showy public prayers, But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to
your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The Closed Door Excludes. Just as the drawn curtain and closed door of the temple excluded
unauthorized persons from the sacred spaces, so doors in everyday life exclude one. After the brutal
rape of Tamar by Amnon, he ordered her put out and the door bolted behind her (758) The brutality
of the rape is reprehensible, but for Tamar this act of exclusion is utterly devastating.
The image of the closed door that will not yield to knocking is used by Jesus. A time will come when
those who have rejected him will be excluded from the festivities by a closed door that will not be
opened.
The Door as Spiritual Entryway. Jesus refers to himself as the door (Jn 10:9). In the context this
certainly refers to being a door for the sheep and hence the gate or entryway to salvation. When the
risen Christ stands at the door and knocks-Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20 New
International Version) - the door symbolizes the need for a decision and the potential exclusion of
Christ.
The door imagery is also used to give a word of comfort to beleaguered Christians when Christ
declares, I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I
know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name (Rev
3:8 New International Version). Paul used the metaphor of Gods opening the door of faith (Acts
14:27) as showing the exclusive way of faith as the portal through which people enter the kingdom of
God.
The Door as Opportunities for the Gospel. Paul uses door imagery three times to figuratively
describe opportunities provided for the spread of the gospel. This imagery contains the idea that the
open door makes possible that which a closed door would not. These references hearken back to
Hosea 2:15, which speaks in salvific terms of a door of hope that the Lord will provide. Paul writes
that a great door for effective work has opened to me (759) When he visited Troas, Paul found that
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the Lord had opened a door for me; later he prayed that God may open a door for our message
(Col 4:3). In all of these references door speaks figuratively about an opportunity to spread the
gospel.
Key Events at Doors. We can note, finally, some famous moments in the Bible in which the crucial
event happens at a door. The list includes the monster sin either couching or crouching or lurking at
the door of Cains heart (Gen 4:7), the closed door of the ark that signals safety for Noah and his
family (Gen 6:16; 7:16), the door of Lots house that foils the would-be rapists (Gen 19:10), the
blood-signed doorposts of the Israelites on the evening of the Passover (Ex 12:2223), the locked
doors of Eglons chamber that enable Ehud to make his get-away after the assassination (Judg 3:23
25), the ancient doors that are commanded to be lifted up so the King of glory may come in (Ps
24:7, 9) and the door of every individuals soul at which Jesus stands and knocks, ready to enter and
sup. (760)
GATE
Most of the nearly 350 references to gates in the Bible involve city gates. Passages describing the
layout of the tabernacle and temple (including Ezekiels vision of a restored temple) are likewise
replete with references to various gates, some of which bear specific names. In all instances the
image of the gate is that of an entryway into something. Because entryways are public places, there is
also an emphasis on communal activities that occur at gates.
Protective Gates.
For ancient Israelites the most important element of defence against external forces was the fortified
wall encircling a city. The city gate, however, constituted a breach in the wall, and hence was the
most vulnerable point of the defense. The elaborate gateways that have been revealed by excavation
were both massive and ingenious. The gate of a city was closed each night (Josh 2:5) to protect the
(1105) inhabitants. If the presence of a city gate represented safety and security, the ultimate horror
was to live in a city that has no gates or bars (Jer 49:31) or a city without walls, and having no
bars or gates (Ezek 38:11). (1106)
Since the primary function of a gate was to provide entry, gates can symbolize entrance into any
realm. Thus we read about the gate of heaven (Gen 28:17), gates of death (Job 38:17; Ps 9:13;
107:18), gates of righteousness (Ps 118:19), gates of Sheol (Is 38:10), the gateways of the morning
and evening (Ps 65:8). The gates of Hades, representing the power of evil forces, will attack the
church but cannot overcome it (Mt 16:18). Jesus used the imagery of a gate for entrance either into
life or into destruction (Mt 7:1314). In this picture the narrow gate and the hard road restricts
those who gain life to a minority. By contrast, the wide gate that leads to destruction is easily
entered.
Opening:
The action of opening something, or something being opened, is ubiquitous in the Bible. To open is
an archetypal act mentioned well over two hundred times. While the most evocative instances are
metaphoric and spiritual, we should not overlook the prominence of literal, physical acts of people
opening something or having something opened before them. Ears, eyes and mouths are repeatedly
opened in the Bible. So are doors, gates and windows. Many times wombs are said to open upon the
birth of a child. Sometimes armsand even the heartare said to open. The heavens open up at
different points throughout the Bible, offering periodic glimpses into the kingdom of God.
The heavens opened for Ezekiel to show him visions of Gods sovereign plan for his people (Ezek
1:1). Jesus saw the heavens torn open at his baptism to reveal the Father and the Spirit at one with the
Son. Sometimes these rendings of the heavens come in visions, as with Ezekiel, Jacob (Gen 28:12
13) and Peter (Acts 10:11). Sometimes they seem quite literal, as with Jesus and Stephen (Acts 7:56).
In either case, they are visible only to the one granted eyes to see.
Jesus told Nathanael that he would see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man (Jn 1:51 NIV New International Version), suggesting that he himself
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is the ladder (as in Jacobs vision) that would finally open up heaven to earth and earth to heaven.
Indeed, when the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God, as John prophesies in his
vision, Jesus the Lamb of God will dwell there, himself the light for all to see, in this final and
complete opening of heaven to earth (Rev 21:13).
Often the heavens open not to be seen but to let something in or out. God sends chariots of fire from
heaven for Elijah. Sometimes heaven appears as a great (2045) storehouse that opens and sends
down suppliesof manna or rain, for example (Deut 28:12). At the right times Gods storehouse
opens to send down judgments of earthquake, storm or hail (Job 38:2223; Josh 10:11). God even
opens an arsenal against the Babylonians (Jer 50:25). Floodgates in the heavens open up to let forth
not only floods (Gen 7:11; 8:2) but blessing (Mal 3:10) and judgment (Is 24:18). Sometimes we see
heavens opening as a door (Ps 78:23). In Revelation the door of heaven opens for John to go up in
the Spirit and receive his vision of the end times (Rev 4:2 New International Version).
God is the opener of all kinds of doors in Scripture. Prison doors open at his command (Acts 5:19;
16:2627). God says he will open doors and gates before Cyrus, using this metaphor to say he will
allow him opportunity to be victorious in battle (Is 45:1). New Testament preachers speak of doors
being opened by God for work to proceed and their message to enter in. When Jesus teaches his
followers Knock and the door will be opened to you (Mt 7:7; Lk 11:9), he means that God will
open the door, opening himself and all of his kingdom to those who humbly ask. Open for me the
gates of righteousness, the psalmist prays; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord (Ps 118:19
New International Version). In Revelation 3:20 the picture turns around: it is Jesus who stands
knocking, and the person who hears his voice opens the door. The Bible calls the earth and its
creatures to open themselves to God, who opens his heavens to them. They must receive his
salvation, just as the earth opens itself to the rain from heaven (Is 45:8). Fundamentally, however,
God is always the final opener. When Lydia believed in Christ, the Lord opened her heart to
respond (Acts 16:14 New International Version). In fact, death and (2046) destruction and all
human hearts and minds lie open to the sovereign God.
This opening and closing between heaven and earth is often communicated in terms of parts of the
human anatomy that open and close: eyes, ears, mouths and hands. Gods eyes are open to all the
ways of people (Jer 32:19). Food and blessings we receive come from Gods open hand (Ps 104:28;
145:16). And it is God who both calls people to open their eyes and ears and who, paradoxically,
himself does the opening (2047).
Close
In the Bible, to shut or close is primarily to exercise power. Although God has the ultimate authority
to shut and close things, human beings in their exercise of free will are also said to shut out the word
of God from their own understanding. Thus shutting or closing is chiefly the site of a battle between
divine and human wills. At a literal level the imagery of shutting chiefly pictures the act of protecting
something inside an enclosure from an outside threat. Thus God shuts the door of the ark (Gen 6:16),
Lot shuts the door of his house when the men of Sodom threaten to seize his angelic visitors (Gen
19:10), and people threatened by invasion shut themselves in their houses for protection (Is 24:10;
26:20). In addition to domestic scenes of shutting the doors of houses, the imagery appears in
military situations, where people in besieged towns shut the door or gate of a tower or city wall.
Even if there is no physical door or gate to shut, exclusion from a community is pictured by the
imagery of being shut out, as Miriam is shut out of the camp during her period of leprosy (Num
12:1415).
The imagery of shutting is ambivalent in these contexts. While shutting brings safety to those behind
the closed door or gate, the outside threat also makes the people inside prisoners to their own house
or refuge. Accordingly, for a gate to be no longer shut assumes overtones of a glorious liberation. In
the millennial kingdom, Isaiah predicts, your gates shall always be open; day and night they shall
not be shut, so that nations shall bring you their wealth (Is 60:11 New Revised Standard Version).
(2649)
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