Here’s a 50-cent word to add to your vocabulary: merismus.
A frequently used figure of speech in the Bible, merismus is a literary device that uses polar opposites to communicate entailing everything in between.
For instance, in order to communicate that His kingship is universal, Christ says, “All authority was given to me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). Christ is not limiting His power to those two specific places, but, rather, He is clarifying that there is no location outside the sphere of His dominion.
When Christ identifies Himself as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Rev. 22:13), He is not saying that He is merely the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The phrase expresses infinity, the boundless life of God, which, as John MacArthur notes, “Embraces everything, includes everything, and transcends everything.”
What relevance does this have to your everyday life? The Holy Spirit in Scripture uses this literary device to communicate that this Jesus, the object of our worship, possesses a kingdom without border and an infinite existence.
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11)
