RT Article
T1 Darkness or Blackness?: A Semantic Study of ḥshkh (Joel 3:4)
JF Journal of Biblical literature
VO 142
IS 1
SP 111
OP 127
A1 García Ureña, Lourdes ca. 20./21. Jh.
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1847372333
AB Joel's oracle proclaiming the day of the Lord concludes with the announcement of a series of wonders. The event that the prophet announces is not devoid of chromatism, since the language of color emerges in the prophecy through elements of nature that connote color (blood, fire, smoke [Joel 3:3-4; Eng. 2:30-31]). It is logical, then, to ask if [inline-graphic 02] means "darkness" or, on the contrary, "color." In order to determine if [inline-graphic 03] has a chromatic meaning, I will apply a specific methodology based on cognitive linguistics. First, I will discuss the "encyclopedic knowledge" of the native speaker, describing the meaning of the color terms proposed in the main dictionaries and undertaking a comparative study of how the terms have been translated in the early versions of the Bible. I will then study the occurrences of the color terms in context and analyze the entity that describes the color term—the sun. In the light of this semantic analysis, I conclude that [inline-graphic 04] expresses color in Joel 3:4, and this fact has great relevance for the interpretation of the prophecy.