XXIII Convegno di Studi Veterotestamentari (Bologna, September, 1-4, 2024)
The Metaphors of the Divine
(from Sunday, September 1 to Wednesday, September 4, 2024)
The conference aims to investigate, in the form of an essay and not necessarily exhaustively, the metaphors used in the Old Testament to describe Yhwh, His relationship with the people, and His actions throughout history.
The first part will highlight the linguistic foundations of the discourse on metaphor. Additionally, since the use of metaphors in the Old Testament takes place against the backdrop of the ancient Near East, some testimonies from these cultures will be considered, particularly those from Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The second part, dedicated to deepening the theme within the Old Testament, will focus on an approach that combines essays of analysis conducted on two particularly significant corpora (the Torah and the Psalms) with those done from an anthropological perspective (traumatic situations and gender differences).
The third part aims to address, with examples from two important ancient versions, the issue of metaphor translation: the choices of the ancient translators are likely a clue not only to the ancient interpretation of these metaphors but also to their value in expressing the divine reality.
The development of the theme in intertestamental literature and Jewish tradition is tackled in the fourth part. The concluding paper, revisiting some of the findings from the previous discussions, will seek to place them in a theological perspective, in which metaphor is primarily conceived as "a word that dares to speak of God."
September 4
9:00 - "Le metafore del divino nella letteratura enochica" (Daniele Minisini, Sapienza University of Rome - University of Zurich) [online presentation]