compares Arab. l> r>- 'decline, turn aside, avoid,' hence perhaps riddle as indirect, obscure] ; verb denoiii. n;n 'to proijose an enigma'; nyn un 'to put forth a riddle,' Ezk 17=: hXXaivi-) /i, Trpi,3\rifia i Vulg. enigma, prohlcma, propoHtio) is closely re- lated in the OT to the pkovekb (";; p), which for the most part is represented in the LXX by irapo- /3o\^ — PARABLE. It has been suggested, indeed (Oort in Cheyne's Job and Solomon, p. 127), that some of the proverbs were originally cuireiit among the people as riddles, such as ' Wliat is worse than meeting a bear ? Meeting a fool in his folly ' (Pr 17'=) ; ' What is sweet at hrst, and then like gravel in the mouth? Bread of falsehood' ( Pi 20"). Like the proverb or the parable or the allegory, the riddle served a more serious and didactic purpose than we usually associate with the word. The didactic usage is found throughout the whole of the OT. It is seen in Nu 12', wliere Jehovah chides Aaron and Miriam for their op- position to Moses, and says to the honour of the great Lawriver, ' Mouth to mouth speak I to him, plainly and not in riddles'' (m-nj). In Ps 49* the Psalmist says, ' I will incline mine ear to a parable ('?»'C^) : I wall propound my riddle ("ni'n) upon the harp,' and the subject of the psalm — the transi- toriness of godless |)rosperity and the blessedness of a hope in God — justities his ajiplication of the words. In Ps 78= the same didactic purpose is manifest. The Psalmist proposes to set forth the early his- tory of Israel in parable and riddle for the instruc- tion of his own age and time : ' I will open my mouth in a parable (V;'cs) : I will utter riddles (niTn) from the olden time.' This parabolic use of the history of Israel by tlie Psalmist is taken by the evangelist (Mt 13**- ^) as justifying the em- ployment of parables by Jesus to set fortli the kingdom of heaven : ' All these things spake Jesus in parables to the multitudes, that the word might be fullilled which was spoken by the prophet say- ing, " I wiU open my mouth in parables : I will declare things hidden from the foundation of the world,"' which last words are a variation from the LXX ' riddles from the beginning ' {Tpo^Xruxara aw' dpx'ls). This didactic {lurpose attributed to the riddle is well illustrated in Pr 1' by its associa- tion with words of like purport : ' To understand a parable (V?), and an obscure saying (njc'i'C), the saj'ings (o'-ini) of the wise and their riddles (m-n).' In the Wisdom books of the Apocrypha it is per- haps natural to lind examples of the didactic usage. In Wis 8' it is said in praise of Wisdom : ' She understandeth subtleties of speeches and interpretations of riddles' (<rTpo(pa! \lryuiv util \i/ireii alvifpLaTuiv) ; in Sir 39-- ' it is said of the man who meditates in the law of the Most High, ' He will keep the discourse of the men of renown, and will enter in amid the subtleties of parables (iv arpoipais irapa^oXui'). He will seek out the hidden meaning of proverbs (dir6/tpu0o Trapoiiuuif), and be conversant in the riddles of parables ' (^c aiflyixaai Trapa/SoXuii'), these last words being inverted in 47", where Solomon is apostrophized as filling the earth with ' parables of riddles ' (ii> rapa^oXais alviy/iiTuii). Tlie association of the riddle with the parable is found in Ezk 17', wliere the prophet is commanded ' to put forth a riddle (Ti-n -iin), anil utter a parable ' (Syp Stc, LXX Trapa^oXiic), — the saying being called a riddle because it requires interpretation, and a parable because of the comparison it contains of the kings of Babylon and Egypt to two great eagles, and of their treatment of Israel to the cropping of the cedar of Lebanon. There are still two occurrences of the word ' riddle ' in the Pro- phets, where it is not so easy to say whether the didactic or the more special usage is exemplified.
KIDDLE
RIDDLE
271
In Dn 8° the king of fierce countenance that is to arise, by whom Antiochus Epinhanes is meant, is creditea with the jrift of ' unaerstanding riddles' (nn'n pj'C) ; and in Hab 2* the propliet, speaking of the proud and ambitious man who seeks to make nations and peoples his o^^'n, asks, ' Shall not all these take up a parable (Sf?), and an obscure saving (•ij'^y). riddles (n'n'n), against him ?'
*rhe riddle in the more special sense of a puzzle to sharpen the wits, or a paradoxical question to stimulate interest, is found in the OT, and balks largely in the Talmud and later Jewish literature. With riddles the Jews have been wont from an early period in their history to display their intellectual ingenuity, or test the wisdom of tlie learned, or entertain festive occasions and hours of leisure. Deutsch [Literary Jicmains, p. 47), speakin" of the Haggailah of the Talmud, refers to the Filgrim's Progress, and says that Bunyan in his account of his o^vn book unknow- ingly describes the Uaggadab as accurately as can be —
• WniiM'st thou divert th\-«elf from melancholy? Would'st thou he plcii^ant, yet he far from folly t Would'st thou read riddUs and their explanatioQ? Or else be drowned in contemplation ?