Washing Away Sin
An Analysis of the Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and its Influence
By (author) L.R. DiFransico
Hardback (Published)
(October 2016)
ISBN: 9789042933422
Price: $98.00
Out of stock
Washing away sin, though a common religious practice today, is a novel concept in the Hebrew Bible. This study utilizes the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson to analyze the striking and unusual metaphorical concept of washing away sin in the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah1; 4; Jeremiah 2; 4; and Psalm 51). In these passages sin is conceptualized as a kind of stain (a bloodstain in Isa 1:15; 4:4; filth in Jer 4:14) or a kind of impurity (Psalm 51) and solving sin is conceptualized through the metaphor of washing. The correlation between the problem and its solution is logical: if sin is understood as a stain then washing is the remedy. The metaphor of washing away sin demonstrates some diversity within the Hebrew Bible and this work traces the various stages of the metaphor’s development.
Washing away sin, though a common religious practice today, is a novel concept in the Hebrew Bible. This study utilizes the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson to analyze the striking and unusual metaphorical concept of washing away sin in the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah1; 4; Jeremiah 2; 4; and Psalm 51). In these passages sin is conceptualized as a kind of stain (a bloodstain in Isa 1:15; 4:4; filth in Jer 4:14) or a kind of impurity (Psalm 51) and solving sin is conceptualized through the metaphor of washing. The correlation between the problem and its solution is logical: if sin is understood as a stain then washing is the remedy. The metaphor of washing away sin demonstrates some diversity within the Hebrew Bible and this work traces the various stages of the metaphor’s development. Though it occurs as a metaphor, nowhere within the Hebrew Bible is washing, although attested as a purification ritual, applied as an actual practice for responding to the problem of sin. Several centuries later, however, washing away sin is attested as an actual practice by the Qumran sectarians and the New Testament authors. Thus, this study goes beyond an analysis of the biblical metaphor to evaluate how it may have influenced the religious practices of select early Jewish and Christian communities. How did this radical shift from the absence of washing as a viable solution to sin in the Hebrew Bible to its importance in the sectarian community of Qumran and the New Testament communities come about? Here CMT is useful: what is attested as a metaphor in the Hebrew Bible, for example God washes away sin (Isa 4:4) and people wash with soap to remove the ‘stain’ of sin (Jer 2:22), influenced how communities reading these sacred texts conceptualized sin. When sin is understood as a stain, a concrete entity that can be visualized and acted upon, communities understand washing to be a viable, symbolic pratice in response to sin. Thus, washing, a metaphor within the Hebrew Bible, came to be applied as a practical ritual solution to sin within these communities so inspired and influenced by their sacred texts.
- By (author) L.R. DiFransico
Other Titles in this Series
Die eschatologische Rede des Spruchevangeliums Q
Redaktions- und traditionsgeschichtliche Studies zu Q 17,23-37
Volume 19
Die sieben Sendschreiben Apk 2-3
Studien zu ihrer Entstehung und ihrem Verhaltnis zum apokalyptischen Hauptteil Apk 4-22
Volume 39
Ephesische Enthullungen 1
Fruhe Christen in einer antiken Grossstadt. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage nach den Kontexten der Johannesapokalypse
Volume 6
The Spirit Helps our Weakness
Rom 8:26a in Light of Paul's Missiological Purpose for Writing the Letter to the Romans
Volume 36
Constructing Religious Identities during the Second Temple Period / Construction des identites religieuses a l’epoque du Second Temple
Festschrift for Jean Duhaime on the Occasion of his 86th birthday
Volume 24
The Vocabulary of Luke
An Alphabetical Presentation and a Survey of Characteristic and Noteworthy Words and Word Groups in Luke's Gospel
Volume 10
Similar Books
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
Die Jüngerinnen und Jünger im Thomasevangelium
Ein narratologisch inspirierter Zugang zum Text als Einheit
Parola di Dio, di uomo e di Re
L'assoluta verità della Bibbia nella dottrina cattolica di Bacchisio Raimondo Motzo
Übergemeindliche Verbindungen in den Briefen der paulinischen Mission
Vorkommen, Bedeutung, Funktion und Plausibilität
Wie JHWH spricht
Die temporelle Steuerung von Verbalaussagen in den Reden nach den Gottesspruchformeln
Breaking New Ground in John
Imagery, Parables, Characters, Christology, and Ethics in the Fourth Gospel
Volume 531
But the Wise Shall Understand
Reuse of Prophecies, Chronotope, and Merging of Eschatological Horizons in Daniel 10-12
Creation Concepts and Creation Care
Perspectives from Early Judaism, Early Christianity, and Beyond. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics XVII
De-colonising the Biblical Narrative. Volume 4
The Colonial Worldview of the Book of Joshua
Volume 4
Paul and Sacrifice in Corinth
Rethinking Paul's Views on Gentile Cults in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10
Volume 623
