EQUIVOCAL. An Equivocal word is one which expresses two very different things; for example, in the Scripture the word Father, signifies in the natural acceptation of it, father, and grandfather, great-grandfather, the author of a race, a generation, a family: thus Adam is the Father of all mankind. By Father is likewise meant master, inventor: for example, Jubal is said, to be the father of all such as handle the harp Gen. iv. 21.and organ. The name of father may likewise denote one whom we respect; thus Hiram King of Tyre calls a certain ingenious artificer whom he sent to Solomon, Father, &c. 2 Chron. ii. 13.The terms brothers and sisters are in like manner equivocally used in the Sacred language; and signify not only brother and sister in the common and natural acceptation, but also cousins of both sexes, near and remote relations, those of the same nation, friends of either sex, the wife and husband. See Cant. viii. 1, 8, 10, &c. Our Saviour sometimes used words of an Equivocal meaning, but without any design of deceiving; for example, when he says, Lazarus our friend John xi. 11.sleepeth, which his Disciples understood of common sleep, but by him was meant the sleep of death. And in another place, Destroy John ii. 19.this Temple, and in three days I will rebuild it; whereby he meant his body, which was to rise again in three days: whereas the Jews understood by it the Temple of the Lord, which they believed Jesus Christ by these words promised to rebuild in three days.
The Patriarchs sometimes used Equivocations, in cases wherein they seemed desirous to deceive; for example, when Abraham said that Sarah was his sister, and Isaac the same of Rebekah; they whom they spoke to understood them without doubt in the natural sense, and as if they meant, that Sarah was not Abraham’s wife, nor Rebekah Isaac’s; and although the Scripture relates these instances, it does not always propose to justify them. Religion condemns all falsehood, but it does not censure every Equivocation. There are some which deceive no one, and are mentioned without an intention to deceive; others there are, which are reckoned pleasantries, and jests, which morality does not exclude from conversation, as offending neither against truth, charity, sincerity, nor justice.