Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept

by Joseph Lam

Sin, often defined as a violation of divine will, remains a crucial idea in contemporary moral and religious discourse. However, the apparent familiarity of the concept obscures its origins within the history of Western religious thought. Joseph Lam examines a watershed moment in the development of sin as an idea-namely, within the language and culture of ancient Israel-by examining the primary metaphors used for sin in the Hebrew Bible. Drawing from contemporary theoretical insights coming out of linguistics and philosophy of language, this book identifies four patterns of metaphor that pervade the biblical sin as burden, sin as an account, sin as path or direction, and sin as stain or impurity. In exploring the permutations of these metaphors and their development within the biblical corpus, Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible offers a compelling account of how a religious and theological concept emerges out of the everyday thought-world of ancient Israel, while breaking
new ground in its approach to metaphor in ancient texts. Far from being a timeless, stable concept, sin becomes intelligible only when situated in the matrix of ancient Israelite culture. In other words, sin is not as simple as it might seem.

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2016

Reviews

[Olivia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lam's research on metaphors for sin is the type of research that reminds the reader that the humanities in academia can indeed be surprising, innovative, beautiful--and that there are always stones left unturned that the modern researcher may tackle. Lam sufficiently explains and incorporates metaphor theory (e.g. Lackoff and Johnson), marrying his theoretical research with a robust knowledge of Hebrew Bible. He also agrees with me that "nida" in Lam 1:8 is a menstraunt, so that's cool.