An Analysis of Idioms in the Bible Based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Abstract

The Bible is a remarkable classic in the world, which has exceedingly profound and lasting influence all over the world, but its influence is more than limited to the field of religion. Moreover, the Bible has a high literary value and a wealth of genres, which has provided abundant creative themes for writers and scholars at all times and in all countries, and directly affects the development of English language. The English idioms in the Bible have deep religious, historical and cultural backgrounds and are one of the most important sources of English idioms. It is precisely for this reason that accurately grasping, fully understanding, and correctly using these idioms are a challenge for most readers. As a cognitive phenomenon, metaphor has an extremely wide and profound impact on human thinking and language using. This thesis uses the conceptual metaphor theory, one of the  cognitive semantics theories, to interpret and explore idioms in the Bible.

This thesis consists of the following four parts. The first part briefly introduces conceptual metaphor theory, especially the three theories involved in it and analyzes the current research and limitations of it. The second part introduces the definition of English idioms and analyzes the characteristics and main forms of idioms in the Bible. The third part is the most important part of the thesis. The writer uses three theories of conceptual metaphor to explain and give examples of the idioms in the Bible. The fourth part deals with the inadequacies of the interpretation of the idioms in the Bible by the conceptual metaphor theory.

By analyzing the idioms in the Bible, the author tries to emphasize the necessity of understanding the allusions and historical and cultural background behind the idioms in the process of learning English idioms. Using conceptual metaphor theory to understand these idioms can help readers to be more capable of using the language in future learning. 

Key words: conceptual metaphor theory; the Bible; idioms