An Ox and Ass in the Cucumber Field: The Importance of Metaphor to the Exegesis of Meaning, A Frame Semantic Approach to Isaiah 1:2-9

Abstract

<p> The focus of this thesis is the importance of metaphor to an understanding of Isa 1:2-9. The argument depends on an understanding of metaphor as an imaginative structuring mechanism of cognitive linguistic behaviour, and a concrete mediator of meaning. The work proceeds from the observation that within contemporary scholarship readings of Isa 1 have failed to give sufficient attention to the occasion of its metaphors. The thesis argues that metaphor is essential to the text, and therefore a critical analysis of metaphor is central to its understanding. Using a Frame Semantic approach to contemporary Metaphor Theory, the interpretation of metaphors in Isa 1:2-9 is informed by insight offered from the historical and literary frames of the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible. Root metaphors of kinship, body, and land and their conceptual integration are discussed, and rich layers of meaning are revealed.</p>