Metaphor in the New Testament

Metaphors are a universal mainstay of human communication. It is therefore unsurprising to find them throughout the books of the New Testament in many and varied forms––from short, pithy statements to complex metaphors that appear in extended discourses. Ancient and modern scholars, rhetoricians, and philosophers have sought to explain the mechanics of metaphors in various ways. Aristotle states that “Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy” (Poetics 1457b 6–9). Drawing from recent work in philosophy of science and philosophy of language, theologian Janet Martin Soskice calls metaphor “that figure of speech whereby we speak about one thing in terms which are seen to be suggestive of another” (Soskice 1985, p. 15, cited under Metaphor and Hermeneutics). Offering another perspective, cognitive scientists like George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that human thought and speech is organized by root conceptual metaphors, and therefore literary utterances in texts and in speech are manifestations of these deep structures of human cognition (Lakoff and Johnson 2003, cited under Perspectives from Cognitive Linguistics). Older New Testament scholarship in this bibliography tends to draw on ancient definitions of metaphor and are primarily driven by historical questions, whereas newer studies have engaged with philosophical and cognitive approaches to metaphor in their exegesis of biblical texts. As is the case in metaphor studies more generally, cognitive approaches to metaphor increasingly dominate current New Testament scholarship. One goal of this bibliography is to orient those interested in New Testament metaphors to the relevant literature in metaphor studies that has shaped current scholarship on New Testament metaphors. This literature includes introductions to metaphor written by philosophers of language, by cognitive linguists, and by theologians and biblical scholars. A second goal is to highlight selected works of New Testament scholarship that draw upon these theoretical frameworks in the exegesis of New Testament texts where metaphors occur. Some selections of the bibliography are more concerned with methodology, and others are more driven by historical questions regarding the practices, relationships, and objects that lie behind the metaphors in the texts. Those working on New Testament metaphors will necessarily need to develop their own approach to exegesis that is conversant with the wide range of approaches within metaphor studies.