(17) Sacred Riddles: It may seem like Holy Scripture is so sacred to contain riddles, but it does. It is very important to be sure that there really is a riddle there, and it is intended in the text, otherwise you can find so called “Bible codes” everywhere. One obvious example of a true sacred riddle is in Revelation 13. The number of a man known as 666. It is intended by the author for this riddle to be solved.
(18) Fable: This is a fictional story teaching a moral lesson that does not conform strictly to reality. In secular literature, they usually involve talking animals. One example of this is Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. They both die and they go to a stylized picture of the afterlife with Abraham as the caretaker, a gulf between “heaven” and “hell,” and other elements that don’t conform to an otherwise biblical view of the intermediate state or heaven itself. However, this story gives the moral that you should serve the Lord in this life, and those who don’t serve God have the OT to teach them and not even resurrection from the dead would convince them.
(19) Paronomasia: This is a play on words, or what we might think of as a “pun.” Paul is a master of this, however it is usually lost on English speakers. One great example of this is that Paul calls the Philemon’s slave “useful to me” which is a play on the slave’s name. Here’s a reason why learning Greek is important 🙂
