Exegetical Parallelism= exegetical paralellism is essential to the understanding of what one means by what they say. Without this rule of literature, there would appear to be contradictions in many of the masterpieces of world literature and the contradictions would be outrageous. There are a number of things in the Bible spoken of in different contexts that appears to be contradictions. However, this rule of literary reading is something that is essential to showing that the Bible does not contradict itself.
Exegetical parallelism literally means that each passage must be viewed in light of its style and surrounding context. When two authors write using the same style and using the same terminology, then this rule applies and helps theologians and literary analysts to develop their own theories of what event the text is pointing to. However, in reading the Bible, you can not make presumptions by adding elements from passages of completely different syles. For instance, you could not take a passage that is written in a style of prose poetry and combine it with a passage in prophecy in order to develop a theological theory relying on those two pssages which are written in different styles alone. You also can not isolate a passage from its particular context to infer something. In order to test your theological/literary analytical idea about the text, you must take a look at the entire passage all the way from the beginning of that context that it is speaking in until the end. If one thing applies in that context as a twofold meaning that point to a specific group or idea, then everytime that idea is mentioned in that particular context, it must contain a consistent meaning. For example: In Matthew 24:24, you have the word elect which is found again in Matthew 24:31. This passage is written in the same context. Therefore, whomever Matthew 24:24 is referring to, Matthew 24:31 must also be referring to that same people. This rule applies only when the words used for that word in the original language is the same. Often times you have words translated into English that only have one English word for those two words, yet they have different meanings in the real language. The best way to test this theologically is by purchasing the most updated version of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.
Historical Narrative=a historical narrative recoutns the events of the past by giving the charcatars. The first seventeen books of the Bible are historical narratives. The Gospels and Acts are also historical narratives as well.
Prophecy= Prophecy is a type of futuristic historical narrative. The God of the unfolding drama of the Bible is a God who is at work in human history. Though prophecy is often not thought off in this category, all a prophet is doing when forthtelling the future is giving a narative of the history that has yet to take place. Therefore, Prophecy and History fall under the category of a a narrative. The last seventeen books of the Old Testament are Prophecy books and in the New Testament Revelation is a prophecy book.
Apocalyptic Prophecy= the forthtelling of events that happen in the last of the last days of God's unfolding plan of redemption. Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation, Zechariah, and Isaiah all contain portions of Apocalyptic prophecy.
Poetry= Poetry is a prose type of writing in the Bible written in stanzas that give praise to God, teach lessons of wisdom about life, or an eoic which poetically presents a specific struggle that a charactar goes through and narrates the struggle from beginning to end. Psalms is written in stanzas that exalt and bring praise to God. In many of these stanzas there are hidden symbolic prophecies about the Messiah which were not known to be prophecies until the Messiah came. Songof Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs are lessons of wisdom about life. Job is an epic.
Struggle= this is the reason humans are in the state they are in. Throughout the Bible, the theme is that we are in this state for two reasons,: first of all the rebelllion of Lucifer against God because he disagrees with his authority. Secondly the dualistic struggle between the desires of ourselves and the desires of God in which we think we should play the fiddle over our lives, when God is actually the one whose God our destiny and the world in his hands.
Symbolism= there are many types of symbolism that are contained in the Old Testament. One is the outward circumcision of man in which they have to cut off a piece of foreskin on their penis which affects their health and their productivity rate. This is symbolic of people having a piece of foreskin attached to their heart which affects their spiritual health and also their spiritual ability to be productive. Jeremiah uses this when he instructs the Israelities to circumcise their hearts. Paulalso refers to this when he says circumsion is of the inner nature and not the outward physical act of cutting off this piece of foreskin.
Foreshadowing= Foreshadowing is hinting a particular sequence of events through certain actions. For example, the famine in Genesis 12 led Abraham down to Egypt and this foreshadowed a later famine which would occur and would lead the Israelites back to Egypt at the end of Genesis.
Types= A Type is a foreshadow in which a charactar's actions are symbolic of a later charactar and the roles that charcatr would serve. King David is a type of Christ as he is a shepherd and he reigns as king over Israel which is what the text of the Bible says that the Christ would do. There are also types of us and types of Satan in the Biblical narrative. Moses would be atype of us because he was drawn from the water which is the place where Pharoah was drowning many of the baby boys in Egypt. Moses being drawn from the water was called to stand up to the tyrant king, the antagonist Pharoah and to lead the Israelities oout of slavery. We are saved from the water because Christ's blood on Calvary purchased us yet Moses is reminiscient of us, for even though he was a great spiritual leader f the people, he himself who was drawn from the water could not lead the Israelites into the pPromised Land, just like we can not take those we lead into the Promised Land either. But Joshua who came after Moses who bears the name of the Messsiah which is Yeshua, is a type of Christ for he led the people into the Promised Land. A Type of Satan commonly referred to is found in Ezekiel 28:12-14 which describes the King of Tyre and also Isaiah 14:12 which describes the morning star who has fallen from heaven in reference to the King of Babylon.
Messengers of God= in Greek tragedy a messenger of the gods was a common piece of writing. In the Biblical narrative, there are also messengers. The most common of which is the angel Gabriel.
Irony= Portraying the opposite of what is actually going to happen.
Climax= the turning point in the story. The climax of the Bible is Christ's resurrection from the dead.
Antagonist= in theater, a charactar who represents the personification of evil. the bad guy in the plot.
Protagonist= the personification of good. The good guy in the plot.
Trickster= a common elemment of African and Native American myths. A Trickster is one who deceives the people thus leading them into an unhealthy condition. In Genesis 3, the serpent is a trickster.
Metaphor= Symbolism which describes a charactar directly as a particular object or animal to portray the charcatar's actions. Jesus used a metaphor when he referred to Herod Antipas as the fox.
Simile= describing an object through the words like or as. This is commonly used in the Song of Solomon.
Myth= Many people are caught up in the misconception that a myth is a completely false story. However, a myth is actually any story that attempts to explain why things are as they are, how they got here, etc.
Theological expose= this is a breaking down each book of the Bible and its central themes. In fibs, you use the this method which teaches you the lesson to be gained from the fib. In my pages on the 66 books of the Bible, I use this format to make the lessons stand out.