Multiple recurrent phrases have been identified in the so-called Deuteronomistic History describing Israel’s obedience/disobedience with respect to the Sinaitic covenant. One major set of phrases utilizes verbs of motion to construe Israel’s covenant relationship with Yhwh. The conceptual metaphor theory of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson provides the theoretical tools necessary to understand these deuteronomic phrases as instantiations of a single conceptual metaphor wherein Israel understood and experienced their relationship with Yhwh as a journey. This article examines and coordinates these recurrent phrases through the lens provided by Lakoff and Johnson’s theory, detailing how the spatial configurations of each verb and its construct are mapped onto a relational reality. This article closes with the brief suggestion that the resonance of this particular conceptual metaphor may have taken hold due to the significance of the exodus event in Israel’s historical consciousness.
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George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). For auxiliary treatments from the authors, see Lakoff and Johnson, “Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language,” in Mark Johnson (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981), pp. 286-325; Lakoff, “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor,” in Andrew Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn, 1993), pp. 202-251; Lakoff and Mark Turner, More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
See, for example, Martin Noth, The Deuteronomistic History (trans. Jane Doull; Sheffield: JSOT, 1981), pp. 80-81, 89-90; Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology (New York: Harper, 1962), vol. 1, pp. 334-47, esp. 338-39; Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 274-89, esp. 281 and 284; Meredith G. Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority (Eugene: Wipe & Stock, 1997), pp. 53-57.
Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 320-65.
Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors, p. 5. For the history of the development of the study of metaphor see Mark Johnson, “Introduction: Metaphor in the Philosophical Tradition,” in Johnson (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor, pp. 1-47; Andrew Ortony, “Metaphor, Language and Thought,” in Andrew Ortony (ed)., Metaphor and Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn, 1993), pp. 1-16.
Lakoff writes, “A sentence like ‘the balloon went up’ is not metaphorical, nor is the old philosopher’s favorite ‘the cat is on the mat.’ But as soon as one gets away from concrete physical experience and starts talking about abstractions or emotions, metaphorical understanding is the norm” (Lakoff, “Contemporary Theory,” p. 205). See also Van Hecke, “Walking,” p. 39 n. 3.
Yohanan Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979), p. 45.
See also G.R. Driver, “Reflections on Recent Articles” JBL 73 (1954), pp. 131-36. Here Driver attempts to distinguish between מוקש and פח. He writes of the latter that it is “an instrument for shutting in,” and of the former that it is “one for striking down the victim.” While the exact contours of the items seem unclear, the general function within the metaphor of hindering progression or harming stands.
See also Weinfeld, Deuteronomic School, pp. 332-41 for the various phrases used throughout the DH to express “observance of the Law and loyalty to the covenant” and “disloyalty.”
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Multiple recurrent phrases have been identified in the so-called Deuteronomistic History describing Israel’s obedience/disobedience with respect to the Sinaitic covenant. One major set of phrases utilizes verbs of motion to construe Israel’s covenant relationship with Yhwh. The conceptual metaphor theory of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson provides the theoretical tools necessary to understand these deuteronomic phrases as instantiations of a single conceptual metaphor wherein Israel understood and experienced their relationship with Yhwh as a journey. This article examines and coordinates these recurrent phrases through the lens provided by Lakoff and Johnson’s theory, detailing how the spatial configurations of each verb and its construct are mapped onto a relational reality. This article closes with the brief suggestion that the resonance of this particular conceptual metaphor may have taken hold due to the significance of the exodus event in Israel’s historical consciousness.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 305 | 47 | 6 |
Full Text Views | 138 | 15 | 6 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 213 | 16 | 10 |