Constructing Metaphoric Models of Salvation: Matthew 20 and the Middle English Poem Pearl

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity, Dec 2011

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.

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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 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sba BYU ScholarsArchive Citation 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)


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Miranda Wilcox. Constructing Metaphoric Models of Salvation: Matthew 20 and the Middle English Poem Pearl, Studies in the Bible and Antiquity, 2011, pp. 2, Volume 3, Issue 1,