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Abstract
English speakers habitually imagine and describe words as conduits through which ideas are communicated—a cognitive framework known as the “Conduit Metaphor.” Expressions of this metaphor represent words as “full” or “empty” of information or emotions. In Biblical Hebrew, however, when utterances are described as “empty” they are inefficacious, and when they are “filled” they are enacted: a metaphorical model this article describes as the “Fulfillment Metaphor.” This juxtaposition between cognitive metaphorical models reveals a more fundamental difference in how ancient Israelite and Judean authors imagined the phenomenon of speech. This difference was recognized by earlier scholarship, though these analyses were subsequently challenged on methodological grounds. In addition to introducing and describing the function of the “fulfillment metaphor” in Biblical Hebrew, this article argues that Conceptual Metaphor Theory can be used not only to describe metaphorical models within the Hebrew Bible, but also as a critical and comparative philological tool.
Abstract
In his commentary on Psalm 118(LXX):73a, “Your hands made me and fashioned me” (Tract.118Ps. 10.1–8), Hilary of Poitiers provides a unique perspective on the creation of humanity and on its exceptional dignity. I will examine key aspects of Hilary’s exegesis of this verse, namely, the identification of the hands of God, the interpretation of the two verbs “made” and “fashioned”, and the connections with Genesis 1:26 and 2:7. I will also compare Hilary’s interpretation of Ps 118:73a to the views expressed by other authors such as Theophilus, Irenaeus, Origen, Tertullian, Ambrose, and Didymus, with the purpose of contextualising Hilary’s novel understanding of human dignity within the larger framework of Early Christian interpretations of Genesis.
Abstract
In this paper, a detail from the Coptic Vita Pachomii is examined. The focus is on the motif of the herd without a shepherd. The text passage Zechariah 13,7 is used for comparison.