The climber’s knot (aka as the “alpine knot” and “butterfly knot”) is used to create a fixed linking point to a standing line. This allows a standing line–an extended running length of line serving some purpose–to be connected at fixed, discrete points to specific connection points.
The climber’s knot and how to tie it are shown below (taken from www.wikipedia.com, without any copyright restriction).
The climber’s knot, for us here, represents a second kind of coherence metaphor. Each major Bible theme (some would use the word “story”) is like the very long standing line which is made into connecting points that can both anchor our understanding of such theme but also cohere ideas together in a way similar to the elsewhere discussed weaver’s knot metaphor.
Here’s one example. One important theme in Scripture is the restoration of all things. Because of the sin which entered into God’s creation in the Garden, man became separated from God (cast out of the Garden) and sentenced to both suffering (“by the sweat of your brow…”) and to death (“dying you will die”). However, such separation unto judgment is not the complete story. There is a redemption / restoration story that occupies the entire sweep of the Bible from Genesis Chapter 3 (the Fall) to the end of the last chapter in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. However, this story of redemption is revealed progressively by the evidence of many false ideas, and by God’s utter and everlasting faithfulness. So, for example, we might reasonably think that man’s (our) redemption can and will occur, and only so, by our overcoming some test, some coming of age, some demonstration that we really are “deserving” of being forgiven and restored, such as could occur by our fulfilling a “law” of God (such as the Ten Commandments, and the many other aspects of the Old Testament Law). But, the Old Testament narrative makes clear, if we have eyes to see it, that no man has ever kept such law, and that, more importantly, no man can keep such law.
We can see such standing line of redemption being anchored at many points in the Old and New Testaments by the concept of law, by man’s failure to keep it, by God’s gracious provisional restoration, followed by man’s further failure, and yet further restoration, and subsequent failure including exile and slavery with the loss of the promised ownership of the Promised Land, up until the coming of Jesus Christ who fulfills completely God’s Law on our behalf, to the subsequent proclamation of that fact–i.e., the gospel–leading to the great divide whereby some accept such grace and rejoice in their innermost beings for it, and others cling to some aspect of self-justification.