Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics. Contemporary Metaphor Theories and the Bible: A Hermeneutical Check

Contemporary metaphor theories, and conceptual metaphor theory in particular, have gained significant traction in biblical studies. This article offers a hermeneutical check of these theories. Especially when these theories are mediated through other biblical scholars, interpreters may be unaware of their philosophical baggage and resulting hermeneutical liabilities. This article acknowledges the analytical power of these theories and suggests some possibilities for deploying them in conjunction with more traditional reading tools, but only after pointing out the said liabilities. The goal of this article, then, is to encourage greater hermeneutical self-consciousness on the part of exegetes when they use contemporary metaphor theories to read the Bible, although the full construction of any alternative account of metaphor must be left for another day.