Nature Imagery and Conceptions of Nature in the Bible

Call For Papers: We are planning on three sessions in San Antonio 2023. All are open for suggested proposals. (1) We call for proposals on two themes: (a) Wind as a climate experience: authors in the Bible have utilized phenomena related to winds and their effects within narratives, poetry, wisdom writings, and more. (b) Landscapes: biblical authors describe, or implicitly reveal, geomorphological and phytogeographical (flora formation) characteristics of the land of Israel and its environs, and not least refer to human-made landscapes. We encourage presenters to enter into multi-disciplinary collaborations with experts on either climatology or geography and human-made environment to decipher the biblical imagery, its contents and functions. (2) This year we begin a new methodological collaboration with the Biblical Lexicography unit on “Lexicography of Nature in the Bible,” focusing in our first year on flora and fauna. This session will explore zoonyms and phytonyms in the Hebrew Bible and pay attention to the methodological issues related to the study of the vocabulary for animal and plant names in antiquity. The session will focus on (a) semantic examinations of the Hebrew vocabulary in its Near Eastern context, including a comparison with Semitic and specifically West-semitic lexica; (b) lexicographical histories of interpretation of biblical vocabulary in the ancient versions of the Bible (LXX, Old Latin/Vulgate, Targums, Syriac), possibly involving a comparison with Greco-Roman zoology. While this will be partly an invited session, we do welcome proposals. (3) We further invite papers for an open session on any topic relevant to this group’s focus on nature imagery in the Bible.

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