Cumulative Part-Whole Relations as a Verbal and Visual Rhetorical Strategy: Song of Songs 7 and Composite Beings of the Southern Levant

In biblical studies, a growing interest in metaphors as the conceptual key to the ancient mind has arisen. However, in contrast with the popularity of metaphor, other tropes have received little attention. This article sheds light on another rhetorical feature: ‘cumulative part-whole relations,’ whi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kim, Yeseul (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2023
In: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Year: 2023, Volume: 48, Issue: 2, Pages: 154-178
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Bible. Hoheslied 7,1-6 / Rhetoric / Mixed-natured monster / Hybridization (motif) / Metaphor / Trope (Philosophy) / Levant
IxTheo Classification:BC Ancient Orient; religion
HB Old Testament
Further subjects:B Mixed-natured monster
B Cumulative part-whole relations
B Hebrew Bible
B Ancient Near East
B Hybrid
B Rhetoric
B Levant
B Metaphor
B trope
B Song of Songs
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Description
Summary:In biblical studies, a growing interest in metaphors as the conceptual key to the ancient mind has arisen. However, in contrast with the popularity of metaphor, other tropes have received little attention. This article sheds light on another rhetorical feature: ‘cumulative part-whole relations,’ which construct a new whole by compounding disparate body parts, a textual and visual strategy deliberately used to cross boundaries of individual parts, to integrate the parts into a larger whole, and to demonstrate superiority and supernatural powers. Through examining visual and textual examples from the ancient Near East, including Song 7.1–6 and the composite creatures (Mischwesen) from the Levant, this article reveals that the rhetorical mechanism of the cumulation of part-whole relations follows the logic that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, while that whole remains a single one no matter how many parts are compounded.
ISSN:1476-6728
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/03090892231172532