Cognitive Linguistic Theory and the Biblical Languages

This chapter introduces Cognitive Linguistic theory with special at-tention to its application to the study of the ancient languages of the Bible. Beginning with a brief survey of the historical background and origins of Cognitive Linguistics, this chapter then identifies four key theoretical commitments that unify an otherwise diverse ap-proach. Subsequently, this chapter identifies six major concepts within Cognitive Linguistics—image schemas, frame semantics, domains and conceptual metaphor, mental spaces and conceptual blending, prototypes and semantic extension, and cognitive ap-proaches to grammar—explaining them in some detail and demon-strating their application to biblical texts in either Greek or Hebrew. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the use of Cognitive Lin-guistics within biblical studies over the past few decades, highlight-ing recent applications and identifying potential for future research. Key words: Cognitive Linguistics; Greek; Hebrew; Biblical Lan-guages; Biblical Studies