and he said to them, 'To you it hath been given to know the secret of the reign of God, but to those who are without, in similes are all the things done;

and Philip having run near, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, 'Dost thou then know what thou dost read?'

The words

Words of the wise are as goads, and as fences planted by the masters of collections, they have been given by one shepherd.

Dark

I incline to a simile mine ear, I open with a harp my riddle:

I open with a simile my mouth, I bring forth hidden things of old,

All these things spake Jesus in similes to the multitudes, and without a simile he was not speaking to them,

and of perfect men is the strong food, who because of the use are having the senses exercised, unto the discernment both of good and of evil.

as also in all the epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, among which things are certain hard to be understood, which the untaught and unstable do wrest, as also the other Writings, unto their own destruction.

General references

Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path.