The concept of symbolic metaphor introduced by Tudor Vianu (1965) is applied to the domain of Biblical language. It is claimed that the Bible uses metaphorical analogy with cognitive value for the knowledge of God. As symbol and metaphor both transpose physical reality, there is no need to separate them; metaphor is seen not as a linguistic deviation but as a mechanism for the enrichment of language with additional abstract meanings. A symbol is always an extraction from reality and may therefore provide a shortcut to metaphor by synthesizing an idea. (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (LLBA 1996, vol. 30, n. 1)