The Language of Colour in the Bible

Lourdes García Ureña; Emanuela Valeriani; Anna Angelini; Carlos Santos Carretero; Marina Salvador Gimeno

Published by De Gruyter 2022

The Language of Colour in the Bible

Embodied Colour Terms related to Green

Lourdes García Ureña

, Emanuela Valeriani

, Anna Angelini

, Carlos Santos Carretero

and Marina Salvador Gimeno

Translated by: Donald Murphy

Volume 11 in the series Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110767704

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the present day. However, there is one topic that has mostly been neglected and which today constitutes one of the most emblematic elements of the visual culture in which we live immersed: the language of colour. Colour is present in the biblical text from its beginning to its end, but it has hardly been studied, and we appear to have forgotten that the detailed study of the colour terms in the Bible is essential to understanding the use and symbolism that the language of colour has acquired in the literature that has forged European culture and art.

The objective of the present study is to provide the modern reader with the meaning of colour terms of the lexical families related to the green tonality in order to determine whether they denote only color and, if so, what is the coloration expressed, or whether, together with the chromatic denotation, another reality inseparable from colour underlies/along with the chromatic denotation, there is another underlying reality that is inseparable from colour. We will study the symbolism that/which underpins some of these colour terms, and which European culture has inherited.　

This lexicographical study requires a methodology that allows us to approach colour not in accordance with our modern and abstract concept of colour, but with the concept of the ancient civilations. This is why the concept of colour that emerges from each of the versions of the Bible is studied and compared with that found in theoretical reflection in both Greek and Latin. Colour thus emerges as a concrete reality, visible on the surface of objects, reflecting in many cases, not an intrinsic quality, but their state. This concept has a reflection in the biblical languages, since the terms of colour always describe an entity (in this sense one can say that they are embodied) and include within them a wide chromatic spectrum, that is, they are mostly polysemic. Structuralism through the componential analysis, although providing interesting contributions, had at the same time serious shortcomings when it came to the study of colour. These were addressed through the theoretical framework provided by cognitive linguistics and some of its tools such as: cognitive domains, metonymy and metaphor. Our study, then, is one of the first to apply some of the contributions of cognitive linguistics to lexicography in general, and particularly with reference to the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Bible.
A further novel contribution of this research is that the meaning is expressed through a definition and not through a list of possible colour terms as happens in dictionaries or in studies referring to colour in antiquity. The definition allows us to delve deeper and discover new nuances that enrich the understanding of colour in the three great civilizations involved in our study: Israel, Greece and Rome.

Author information

L. García Ureña and M. Salvador Gimeno, Madrid, E. Valeriani, Lausanne, A. Angelini, Zurich, C. Santos Carretero, Cáceres.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
I Colour Terms: object, study and method
I.1 Understanding colour in the Bible Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
II The Hebrew Bible Corpus
II.1 ירק yereq and its polysemy: ‘verdure’, ‘the colour of grass in the spring’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
II.2 יר קקר yǝ raqraq and its polysemy: ‘the colour of mould’, ‘the colour of gold’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
II.3 ירוק yā rôq: ‘greenery’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
II.4 ירקון yēr ā qôn: ‘the colour of fear’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
III The Greek Bible Corpus (LXX and NT)
III.1 Χλωρός and its polysemy: ‘the colour of vegetation’, ‘the colour of death’, ‘greenness’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
III.2 Χλωρότης: ‘the colour of a kind of gold’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
III.3 Χλωρίζω: ‘to turn greenish’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
III.4 Πράσινος: ‘stone as a colour’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
IV The Latin Bible Corpus
IV.1 Viridis and its polysemy: ‘the colour of grass’, ‘the colour of the almond, poplar and plane trees’, ‘greenness’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
IV.2 Viriditas: ‘greenery’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
IV.3 Viror and its polysemy: ‘the colour of calamus and reeds’, ‘the colour of a type of gold’, ‘verdure’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
IV.4 Vireo: ‘to show the colour of plants’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
IV.5 Viresco: ‘to become the colour of a tree or the new fresh grass’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
IV.6 Pallidus: ‘the colour of death’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
IV.7 Pallor and its polysemy: ‘mould’, ‘the colour of a type of gold’, ‘the colour of fear’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
V The language of Colour in the Bible
V.1 Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Index of Ancient Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226

(Deutsch)

Languages: English, Hebrew, Latin
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Researchers in Biblical Studies, Philology, Linguistics, Lexicographers and specialists in the field of colour.
Pages
- Front matter: 16
- Main content: 238
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 2
Keywords: Colour-terms; cognitive domains; definition; biblical lexicography

eBook

Published: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 9783110767704

Hardcover

Published: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 9783110766394