Assessing the conventionality of biblical metaphor
At the 2022 SBL Annual Meeting in Denver, CO, I presented my paper, “Consuming the Enemy: A Conventional Metaphor for Conflict in the Hebrew Bible,” in the Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible section. Included in my presentation was the following proposed set of criteria for establishing the conventionality of a biblical metaphor:
- Many biblical examples of expressions based on the metaphor
- Expressions appear in multiple genres and in both poetry and prose
- Metaphor is relatively common compared to other ways of speaking about the target
- Expressions include mappings of several elements from source to target
- Mappings have a consistent structure across all expressions
- Some expressions assume prior knowledge of the conceptual relationship between source and target
The criteria are adapted from the definition of a “basic metaphor” offered by George Lakoff and Mark Turner in More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor ([Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989], 51).
I have decided to edit the paper and submit it for publication to a journal. I will update this post when I have information about where the piece will be published. I also discuss most of the criteria (except the final item on the list above) in my book, Imagined Nations: Plant Metaphors for Israel and Judah in the Prophets, SBL AIL (Atlanta: SBL, forthcoming in 2023).