Constructing Metaphoric Models of Salvation: Matthew 20 and the Middle English Poem Pearl
Constructing Metaphoric Models of Salvation: Matthew 20 and the Middle English Poem Pearl
Miranda Wilcox
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Title Constructing Metaphoric Models of Salvation:
Matthew 20 and the Middle English Poem Pearl
Reference Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 3 (2011): 1–28.
ISSN
2151-7800 (print), 2168-3166 (online)
Abstract The parable of the laborers in the vineyard in
Matthew 20:1–6 demonstrates the possibilities and
limitations of constructing metaphoric models of
salvation. It also exposes the inadequacy of
applying human economic analogies to divine relations
and invites its audience to consider the function and
purpose of using metaphors to understand spiritual
concepts. An anonymous fourteenth-century Middle
English poem called Pearl retells this parable and
questions whether terrestrial concepts of value and
exchange should frame salvation as a transaction
based on merit. The poem demonstrates in
metaphoric models that heavenly relationships,
particularly salvation and grace, operate on a different scale,
not one of terrestrial binary or comparative value but
of celestial fulness.
Constructing Metaphoric Models
of Salvation: Matthew 20 and
the Middle English Poem Pearl
Miranda Wilcox
Tbe the most unsatisfying parable in the Bible.
Thbleepcaormahe parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1–6) may
pares an employer remunerating labor and God granting salvation.
This parallelism becomes problematic at the parable’s end when
the employer grants all the employees equal payment in spite of
their varying amount of labor. The laborers who worked the entire
day express their dissatisfaction that their compensation was not
greater than the amount paid to those who were hired i n- the elev
enth hour. Like the angry employees, readers are often perplexed
at the apparent lack of commensurate remuneration for h-uman ser
vice to God; such exchange contradicts their expectatio-ns of pro
portionality in justice. The interpretative tension generated by thi
parable demonstrates the possibilities and limitations of- construc
ing metaphoric models of salvation, the process whereby God and
humans are reconciled. It also exposes the inadequacy of applying
human economic analogies to divine relations, and it invites its
audience to consider the function and purpose of using metaphors
to understand spiritual concepts.
Parables use metaphors as conceptual models to teach and to
generate new insight about spiritual phenomena. Generat-ing meta
phors and using them to teach produces the cycle of metaphoric
Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 3 (2011): 1–28.
modeling. The parable in Matthew 20 invites its audience to join this
cyclical process of metaphoric modeling. The fourteenth-century
poem Pearlexemplifies how extending the metaphoric mo d-el pre
sented in Matthew 20 conveys a vision of justification and s-anctifica
tion, dual processes of salvation that transcend some hum- an expec
tations about commensurate justice and comparativePevaarll’sue.
creative strategies demonstrate how metaphoric modeling generates
spiritual insight about salvationP.eTahr-lepoet explores analogies
between the equal payment of a penny to all the vineyard laborers
and the priceless gift of the pearl of great price, the eter n-al life prom
ised to all faithful Christians.
Pearl’s retelling of the parable in Matthew 20 questions whether
terrestrial concepts of value and exchange should frame salvation
as a transaction based on merit. The poem demonstrates -in meta
phoric models that heavenly relationships, particularly salvation
and grace, operate on a different scale, not a scale of terrestrial
binary or comparative value, but one of celestial fullne-ss, an end
lessly sufficient abundance that satisfies all lack and need. Before
discussing the interpretative challenges of the parable in Matthew
20 and its retellingPeinar,lthis paper will outline the necessity of,
as well as the inherent tension in, constructing metaphoric models
of salvation.
Pedagogical and Generative Functions of Metaphoric Modeling
Biblical parables tell stories that focus the audience’s attention
on the relationships between familiar human situations and less
familiar divine concepts. Humans are very adept at constructing
analogies between familiar and unfamiliar things, and cognitive
scientists now argue that much of human thinking empl-oys ana
logical process1eEs.ssentially, parables are metaphors in narrative
1. For an introduction concerning the widespread use of conceptual metaphors
in human cognition, see George Lakoff and Mark JohMnestoanph,ors We Live B,y2nd
ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). For an advanced discussion, see
Raymond Gibbs Jr., ed.T,he Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thou(gChatmbridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008). Conceptual phenomena are difficult for humans
to articulate and share because they exist outside the realm (...truncated)