"Rebirth" in the New Testament Writings. A new approach using Metaphor Theory after 100 years of history of research

谈到关于人类目前生活的“重生”，意味着比喻地说。在现代语言中，“重生”主要用于谈论健康的经历或政治实体的复兴。在基督教语境中，“重生”几乎只被福音派、五旬节派用来描述皈依的个人经历和作为“重生基督徒”的来世。通常提到的新约文本--特别是耶稣和尼哥底母之间关于“从上面降生”的必要性的对话(约翰福音3)--因此是相当选择性和有限的。以往的训诫研究也未能揭示出新约文本中“重生”隐喻话语背后的丰富潜力。因此，这个项目首先用一种分析的观点来描述--这是第一次--关于“重生”这一(相当不清楚的)主题的研究历史。本文运用隐喻理论，特别是莱考夫和约翰逊的概念隐喻理论，针对“重生”这一隐喻性特征进行了研究。借助于这一新的方法论方法，可以表明本研究只有一个表面上清晰的“重生”概念，并在这个标题下总结了不同的问题，将不同的隐喻混合在一起。在“重生”一词被解构之后，基于隐喻理论的研究问题可以有一个新的提法：主导概念不是“重生”，而是“出生”或“生成”。在约翰三书；彼得前书1：3，23；提多书3：5和雅各书1：18中，它被用作一个比喻的源域，用来描述与他们成为基督信徒有关的人生活中的一件事。随着出生或世代的比喻使用，一种新的经历被表达出来，到目前为止还没有任何词语(参看。比喻的突破性潜力)。通过文本中的比喻表达的具体方面远远超出了成为新的基本概念。事实上，由于出生的比喻，他们描述了一个世袭的头衔(永生；参见。彼得前书)，或新获得的属于某个家庭或国家的财产(参见彼得前书；约翰福音)，或一种继承的本性或决心，植根于“新生”的人类(参看。约翰；詹姆斯)。通过勾勒文本的多种意义潜力，本项目使(1)。对这些经文的解释作出了注释贡献。这一贡献是(2)。具有神学意义，因为它重振了圣经中一个重要的隐喻。这个项目使(3.)对当前关于人文和反思中的隐喻的讨论的方法论贡献(4)。从解释学的角度看神学描述语言与原始资料之间的关系。

To speak of "rebirth" concerning the present life of human beings means to speak metaphorically. In modern language, "rebirth" is mainly used when talking about experiences of wellness or the revival of political entities. In Christian contexts "rebirth" is almost exclusively used by evangelical, Pentecostal denominations to describe the personal experience of conversion and the following life as a "reborn Christian". The usual reference to New Testament texts--especially to the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus on the necessity of "being born from above" (John 3)--is thereby rather selective and limited. The previous exegetical research has also not been able to uncover the rich potential which lies behind the metaphorical speech of "rebirth" in the New Testament texts. This project therefore applies first of all an analytical view to describ--for the first time at all--he history of research on the (rather unclear) subject of "rebirth". In accordance with the metaphorical character of "rebirth" this is done by applying metaphor theory, especially "Conceptual Metaphor Theory" by Lakoff and Johnson. With the help of this new methodological approach it is possible to show that the present research has an only superficially clear notion of "rebirth" and summarises different problems under this headline, mixing together texts with different metaphors. Following the deconstruction of the term "rebirth", a new formulation of the research problem based on metaphor theory can be undertaken: The leading concept is not "rebirth" but birth or generation. It is used in John 3; First Peter 1:3, 23; Titus 3:5 and James 1:18 as a metaphorical source domain to describe an event in the life of the addressed people which is connected with their becoming believers in Christ. With the metaphorical use of birth or generation a new experience was expressed for which there were no words so far (cf. the catachrestic potential of metaphors). The concrete aspects which are expressed by the metaphorical expressions in the texts go well beyond a basic notion of becoming new. In fact due to the metaphorical birth they describe a hereditary title (of eternal life; cf. 1 Peter), or a newly gained belonging to a family or nation (cf. 1 Peter; John), or an inherited nature or determination which is planted into the "newly begotten" human beings (cf. John; James). By outlining those manifold potentials of meaning of the texts, this project makes (1.) an exegetical contribution to the interpretation of those texts. This contribution is (2.) of theological relevance because it revitalizes an important biblical metaphor. This project makes (3.) a methodological contribution to the current discussion about metaphors in the humanities and reflects (4.) hermeneutically on the relation between theological descriptive language and primary sources.