The Metaphor of the Divine as Planter of the People: Stinking Grapes or Pleasant Planting? By Jennifer Metten Pantoja
In this revision of her PhD thesis from UCLA, Jennifer Metten Panjola sets out to trace the development of the root metaphor ‘God as planter of the people’ in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and in the literature of the Second Temple period. In chapter 1 she sets out her overarching aim: ‘to demonstr...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2020
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2020, Volume: 71, Issue: 2, Pages: 809-811 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this revision of her PhD thesis from UCLA, Jennifer Metten Panjola sets out to trace the development of the root metaphor ‘God as planter of the people’ in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and in the literature of the Second Temple period. In chapter 1 she sets out her overarching aim: ‘to demonstrate that the biblical literature portrays the divine/human relationship as a reflection of the natural environment’ (p. 1). She takes issue with those biblical interpreters who emphasize the mystery and transcendence of God in the Hebrew Bible, maintaining that this picture of the deity is the product of Western theology rather than study of the text. But she also notes the tension within the text, which ‘depicts the divine as anthropomorphically present and unbounded at the same time’ (p. 4). It is this tension in the portrayal of YHWH as both physically present yet also transcendent that explains why the biblical authors so often use metaphors to depict the deity. Metten Panjola then notes the prevalence in the Hebrew Bible of imagery taken from the plant world and horticulture, which leads to her chosen focus of YHWH as gardener and the root (or conceptual, as she terms it) metaphor of YHWH as planter of the people. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flaa087 |