The Function of Metaphor in the Depictions of Disability in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls

在现代医学和技术进步之前，由视力或听力丧失、骨折或慢性疾病引起的损伤在很大程度上得不到治疗。因此，在古代，几乎每个人在他们的一生中都会经历某种形式的损伤（Garland 1995）。缺陷是否被视为残疾是由社会结构和观念决定的（Oliver 1983）；希伯来圣经和死海古卷（DSS）中对残疾的描述描述了许多在现代社会可以被纠正的残疾。例如，在发展支持计划中，近视被描述为“眼睛暗淡”（4QDb 5.iii）。1)，被认为是一种残疾，并导致部分社会排斥（Hempel 1998）。该项目将调查希伯来圣经和DSS中对残疾的引用（Melcher等人，2018;Dorman 2007），特别关注隐喻在古代残疾结构中的功能。在试图描述难以表达的生活经历时，隐喻尤其普遍（Littlemore 2019），而且往往潜意识地揭示了文化观念。因此，我将分析隐喻在残疾描述中的文学和文化功能，以确定残疾在这些文本中所描绘的思想世界和社会结构中所扮演的角色。我将研究这些隐喻的意义和功能在多大程度上受到其文学和/或历史背景的影响（Cameron et. al. 2009）。例如，在希伯来圣经的预言文学中，失聪和失明等残疾被贬义地比喻为无知和不服从（以赛亚书29.18;42.18）。在DSS中，赞美诗文本扩展了这些隐喻的功能：在身体上和隐喻上“自由”这些相同的残疾是成为共同体成员的先决条件（例如4Q434 1.i.2-4）。

Before modern medicine and technological advancements, impairments caused by vision or hearing loss, broken bones, or chronic illness would have largely gone untreated. Consequently, almost everyone in antiquity would have experienced some form of impairment within their lifetime (Garland 1995). Whetherimpairments are to be regarded as disabilities is determined by societal structures and perceptions (Oliver 1983); accounts of impairments in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) portray many impairments which are rectifiable in modern society as disabilities. For instance, in the DSS, shortsightedness,which is described as having 'dimmed eyes' (4QDb 5.iii.1), was considered a disability and resulted in partial social exclusion (Hempel 1998).This project will investigate references to disability in the Hebrew Bible and the DSS (Melcher et. al. 2018; Dorman 2007), focussing specifically on the function of metaphor in ancient constructions of disability. Metaphors are particularly ubiquitous in attempts to describe lived experiences that are difficult to articulate (Littlemore 2019), and often subconsciously reveal cultural perceptions. Therefore, I will analyse the literary and cultural function of metaphors in descriptions of disability in order to determine the role disability played in the thought world and social structures portrayed in these texts.I will examine the extent to which the meaning and function of these metaphors are shaped by their literary and/or historical contexts (Cameron et. al. 2009). For example, in the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible, disabilities such as deafness and blindness function pejoratively as metaphors for ignorance and disobedience (Isaiah 29.18; 42.18). In the DSS, hymnic texts extend the function of these metaphors: being 'free' of these same disabilities, both physically and metaphorically, is a precondition for membership of the Community (e.g. 4Q434 1.i.2-4).