Metafore i geste u četirima evanđeljima
Authors:   , Musić Frano 
Published: October 2022

The aim of the thesis is recognised in a systematic presentation and description of metaphors and gestures in the four Gospels on the basis of conceptual metaphor theory, which was developed in cognitive linguistics at the end of 1980s and is based on replicating out of one concept domain to another based on similarity. Starting from that assumption, cognitive linguistics emphasises that verbal expressions are only one of the forms in which a metaphor can appear. Gestures are also another form of expressing metaphors. An increased interest in gestures as nonverbal metaphoric expressions started in the 1990s, which was reflected in research on the relationship between metaphors and gestures. A description of metaphors and gestures in Gospel texts is directed at their strength of expression and approach to abstract domains which cannot be uttered literally, nor can they be either conceptually or linguistically directly understood. A metaphor of the shepherd who appears in all four Gospels was chosen in the representative demonstration. It will be seen that the metaphor of the shepherd reflects a certain Middle Eastern notion and knowledge about the world, a special life bond between the shepherd and the sheep which is directly or indirectly copied onto Jesus in the synoptic Gospels. An insight into conceptual structures of the Gospel text and the core message offers seven self-revelatory metaphors from the Gospel of John in which Jesus represents his relationship towards people: “I am the bread of life”, “I am the light of the world”, “I am the gate (for the sheep)”, “I am the good shepherd”, “I am the resurrection and the life”, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”, “I am the true vine”. Using second person singular metaphors: “You are Peter...” and second person plural metaphors: “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world”, Jesus determines and draws closer the mission of his disciples. A full circle of viewing metaphoricity of the Gospel texts constitute the selected gestures, especially the ones which reflect abstract domains and participate in the message of the Gospel figuratively, where the kiss of Judas and Pilate washing his hands need to be isolated as they have entered the phraseology of many languages. The thesis is divided in three chapters and includes a theoretical part which is the basis and the framework within which the corpus research will be performed, i.e. the description and the analysis of individual examples of metaphors and gestures in the four Gospels. The first chapter will conceptually define metaphors firstly and mark their specificities and multiplicities which is the reason why they are being researched in many fields of science, e.g. philosophy, linguistics, psychology, theology. A historical overview of the most important theories of metaphor will follow the sequence from Aristotle’s definition and understanding the metaphor as a poetic device and a figure of speech which is based on borrowing and deviation from the literal use of language, all until cognitive linguistic and semantic definition of the metaphor as a cognitive tool and experience of the world. The choice of the authors and theoretical approaches shows the most important emphases in metaphor study which led to the cognitive theory of metaphor in which metaphors are presented as a foundation of thought, language and the understanding of the world. Along with the cognitive theory of metaphor, there grows an interest for gestures as nonverbal expressions of metaphor. That is the reason this theory will be the basis for describing metaphors and gestures in the Gospels. The second chapter refers to individual examples of metaphors in Gospel texts. It needs to be said that the Gospels are full of figurative speech, abstract notions and explicit metaphors. A metaphor is not simply a figure of speech which serves as a replacement or a fulfilment of conceptual and lexical voids, but it can be used simply, clearly and directly to approach the divine, invisible reality which transcends the visible world and physical experience. The greatest power of metaphors is exactly in the fact that we can mediate and explain something unavailable, unexperienced and unattempted based on the visible, available and experienced in the physical world. With this knowledge, it is easier to follow the description of the selected metaphors, starting with the metaphor of the shepherd which, as a repeating motif and symbol, finds its place in all four Gospels. In order to completely understand the importance of Jesus’s metaphor “I am the good shepherd, it was necessary to provide a historical, traditional and cultural framework from which it stemmed, as its rootedness in the Old Testament texts. All the other Jesus' self-revelatory metaphors, as well as metaphors in the second person singular and plural, require an interdisciplinary approach on a contextual, intertextual, philological and exegetical level. This approach should enable the discovery of an authentic meaning of these notions and their role in the creation of the theological message of each of the evangelists. A special contribution in this part of the thesis is the derivation of new conceptual metaphors. The last chapter includes gestures as nonverbal metaphorical expressions in Gospel texts. Same as with the analysis of metaphors, the first part of the chapter is the theoretical presentation of the gesture research, with a conceptual definition and relationship to metaphors and concludingly with the divisions certain authors have suggested. It is important to emphasize that gestures differ from other acts and movements by a communication characteristic, and in the Gospel texts gestures take part in the figurative sense with a precisely defined message and may not be taken literally. The metaphoricity of the described gestures stems firstly from the context and the Gospel message, but also from the cultural and linguistic background, which tried to reveal itself and connect to wider contextual frameworks. Certainly, that adds an additional value to this description. A division of gestures in the Gospels relies greatly on the division from the theoretical overview, except in the examples of Gospel gestures which by their roles and participation in communication do not fit in the established framework. Examples of this include the kiss of Judas, Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, writing with his finger in the sand, and Pilate washing his hands, all of which could be classified in a broad and general division of metaphorical gestures. By using an interdisciplinary approach, the set goal was reached – to systematically describe metaphors and gestures in the four Gospels beginning with their specificities and different understanding from everyday speech and other types of texts and to leave the door open for further research.