Biblical Ambiguities: Metaphor, Semantics, and Divine ImageryAncient texts are ambiguous, and the Hebrew Bible is no exception. One might even frame the history of a religion as a history of a belief system's management of ambiguity. Applying a linguistic model, Aaron systematically examines and veritably celebrates this inherent ambiguity in order to understand God-related idioms in the Hebrew Bible, more specifically, whether a particular idiom is meant to be understood metaphorically. Aaron examines the original intent of the writers of biblical literature and suggests that one can conceptualize texts as metonyms for their authors and their historical contexts. Through an in-depth exploration of semantic theory, Aaron places metaphor on a non-binary "continuum of meaning" instead of using a limiting either/or conception of figurative speech. Aaron challenges current methodologies that dominate biblical scholarship regarding metaphor and offers original, viable alternatives to the standard approaches. This interdisciplinary project takes into consideration a broad range of issues, which point to further areas of study. Aaron's model for gradient judgements, that is, a method for judging statements and placing them on a "continuum of meaning," offers a new building block for biblical study and interpretation. Please note that "Biblical Ambiguities" was previously published by Brill in hardback (ISBN 90 04 12032 7), still available) |
Contents
Ambiguity and Figurative Speech | 1 |
Distinguishing Metaphors from NonMetaphor | 23 |
A NonBinary Conceptualization of Meaning | 43 |
Toward a Model for Gradient Judgments | 69 |
Typicality Conditions and Relevance | 85 |
Metaphor as a Gradient Judgment | 101 |
The Most Challenging Metaphor | 125 |
Aniconism as a Narrowing of the Conditionsof Relevance | 157 |
Conclusion | 193 |
Bibliography of Works Cited | 201 |
Index of Names and Subjects | 215 |
218 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ambiguity ancient Israel aniconism anthropomorphic approach argues aron authorial intent authors believe Bible biblical biblical literature binary Brettler Canaanite chapter concept conceptual ascription conditions of relevance consider context continuum cult cultic cultural Decalogue deity derived Deuteronomy discussion divine domain evidence Exod Exodus expressions fact Faur function God's gods gradient Hebrew Hebrew Bible human icons idioms idolatry idols imagery images implicature incongruity instance interpretation interpretive communities Israelite Israelite religion issue Jackendoff Jacobsen Jerusalem king Lakoff and Johnson language linguistic literary LJTT Mesopotamian metaphor metonym Mettinger monolatry monotheism Moses narrative nature notion objects passage phrase problem prophetic Psalm question Ray Jackendoff regarding relationship religious representation ritual scholars Scriptures semantic sense shared strategy speaker speech acts statement statue stelae stone symbolic tablets Tanakh theology theory thinking tion Torah Tsevat typicality conditions Ugaritic understanding University Press verses word worship writes Yahweh Yahwism YHWH יהוה