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" The 'Earth' and Consumption in the Hebrew Bible: Land that Swallows, Eats, and Vomits "
Bollinger, Phillip Marcus
Sperling, S. David
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1058777
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TL57894
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| Main Entry
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Bollinger, Phillip Marcus
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| Title & Author
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The 'Earth' and Consumption in the Hebrew Bible: Land that Swallows, Eats, and Vomits\ Bollinger, Phillip MarcusSperling, S. David
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| College
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Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (Ohio)
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| Date
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2021
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2021
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| Note
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266 p.
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| Abstract
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This dissertation is a study of “the earth” (ארץ) as a consumer of people in the Hebrew Bible. The aim of this study is to investigate the significance of biblical writers’ use of digestive actions to depict interactions between the earth and people by utilizing a robust method of metaphor analysis and close reading of these passages. This method involves determining whether the phrases under study are metaphors, exploring the potential associations with digestion language, and analyzing how the metaphors work as well as their impact on the passage. In this process, attention is given to the multifaceted nature of metaphor, including: linguistic structure, literary and cultural embeddedness, and the cognitive operations at work in a metaphor. Chapter 1 provides a summary of the history of scholarship pertaining to the study of the animate earth in the HB. In this chapter I also introduce my definition of metaphor and method for metaphor identification and analysis. I developed my understanding of metaphor and my method of study on the basis of the ideas of Roger White, Benjamin Harshav, and corpus and cognitive approaches to metaphor analysis. Chapters 2 through 4 encompass the examination of digestive earth metaphors in biblical passages in which the earth is said to swallow, eat, and vomit. The investigation of the earth swallowing (Num 16:32-34; Exod 15:12) in chapter 2 found that the biblical writers drew from a widespread tradition of the underworld as a great swallower to portray situations of cataclysmic death in terms of a swallowing predatory animal. This metaphor highlights both the greed and also the ultimate weakness of those in rebellion against YHWH. The study of the eating lands (Lev 26:38; Num 13:32) in chapter 3 found that the biblical writers appear to draw from the common use of describing military conflicts as predators eating prey to present a vision of community life in a specific land as prey being caught, torn apart, and killed in order to heighten fear and emphasize the utter foolishness of turning from YHWH’s laws (Lev 26) or a profound lack of faith in YHWH’s word (Num 13). The examination of a land that vomits (Lev 18:25, 28; 20:22) in chapter 4 drew out that the biblical writers uniquely convey situations of removal from the land of Canaan in terms of an intoxicated and/or sickened person vomiting. This metaphor functions to objectify the violators of the law, strengthen associations of disgust with them, and emphasize the land’s sensitivity to its inhabitants acts. Chapter 5 draws together the findings of the study and notes its contributions. In summary, the method highlighted that when biblical writers choose to use digestive earth metaphors, several factors appear to play a role: the themes and concerns of the passage, the visceral quality of the image, the aptness of the alignment between the situations, and the ability of the metaphor to shape the audience’s perspectives in accord with their purposes. I conclude that the biblical writers’ uses of digestive metaphors powerfully reframe one’s perspective on the situations, and thus, play a critical role in inculcating key values. These metaphors highlight the power of YHWH, engender submission to YHWH’s ways and appointed leaders, and present those in opposition to YHWH as weak, helpless, or abhorrent.
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Biblical studies
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Linguistics
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Rhetoric
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Sperling, S. David
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Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (Ohio)
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