Growth Potential for the Chosen People: How are People Cultivated? : The Use of Metaphors in Isaiah 5, Romans 11 and John 15 in the Light of Cognitive Metaphor Theory and Blending Theory

This thesis explores plant metaphors in Isaiah 5, Romans 11 and John 15 using cognitive metaphor theory. Blending theory is used as theoretical background and associated commonplaces bring forward the understanding of when and in which ways the metaphors overlap eachother. The research questions concern the conceptual metaphors which can be found in each text, and attempt to approach the contexts that first received the metaphorical expressions – as far as the time between the origin of the texts and the present day allows. Moreover, they aim to overview the change that happens as time passes and in which ways the metaphors can be assumed to be constants through the time and contexts of the Bible. The conceptual metaphors identified are THE PEOPLE IS (PART OF) A PLANT, GOD IS A FARMER, GOD (JESUS) IS A PLANT and GOD IS A JUDGE, and it becomes clear that they are relatively constant over the years – as long as the legal system, the growing of wine and olives, and the relationship between God and the people still mean roughly the same thing in the cultures. To read the metaphors in a context existing two thousand years later requires a different level of preparatory work in to understand what the metaphors meant to the recipients of the past – and through that also how we can understand them today.