Erotesis or rhetorical question is “the asking of questions without waiting for the answer” (Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, E.W. Bullinger, p. 943). Bullinger categorizes questions into 19 different categories. I believe that these are interesting in order to note the variety of the types of questions, but as far as the emphasis in a particular verse is concerned, there should be two categories of erotesis.
First Emphasis-Category: Questions that can be answered
The first category is the questions that can be answered with an affirmative yes or no. One could say: “Absolutely yes!” or “Absolutely no!”
Here, in only six verses, we see 11 rhetorical questions:
Romans 8:31–36 (ESV):
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
These could be partially translated:
1. What shall we then say to these things…?
2. If God be for us, who can be against us…?
3. He that spared not His own son …?
4. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect…?
5. God that justifies?
6. Who is he that condemns?
7. Christ that died…?
8. Who [or what] shall separate us…?
9. [Shall] tribulation, or distress…?
10. For Thy sake are we killed…?
11. Are we accounted as sheep…?
This is perhaps the most intense concentration of this figure in the Bible. Here are 11 consecutive questions that involve the reader and are answered with a resounding, “No!” It heightens the coming conclusion in verse 37: “No, (absolutely not!!) in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Second Emphasis-Category: Searching Questions
The second category is what I call “searching questions” or “questions to ponder.” They can be introduced with “why” or “where.” These questions do not have direct answers but are intended to prompt the reader to think carefully about the subject and realize that God has the answer. The most vivid example is in Job 38–41. There are 128 verses full of questions (Bullinger counted 40 questions in chapter 38 alone). Some are from the first category, but the majority are searching questions.
God’s first question to Job is: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” Oh dear! We must think about this. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? … Who marked off its dimensions? … Who stretched a measuring line across it?” The obvious answer is that God created the heavens and earth, and Job was nowhere to be found in that process. But the reason for using the questions is that they lead to the conclusion that, as God is an absolutely unparalleled master when it comes to creating the heavens and earth, so he also is unparalleled in terms of our lives and even has the answers to the “why” of suffering and what to do about it. The questioning leads Job to “repent in dust and ashes” in chapter 40, verse 6. And his conclusion is: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.