Beyond Convergence: A Corpus-Linguistic Conceptual Metaphor Analysis of Angels and the Devil in the Quran, Bible, and Tanakh

Abstract

This paper will give a corpus-linguistic conceptual metaphor of angels and the Devil in three major monotheistic scriptures the Quran, the Bible, and the Tanakh. The study is based on the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and extended by the theory of deliberate metaphor (DMT) of Steen et al. (2010) and takes a systematic approach to identifying, classifying, and comparing metaphorical constructions related to celestial and adversarial entities through the use of a corpus-linguistic methodology. Although a superficial reading could be tempting to propose convergence in all these scriptures; with all of them having an Abrahamic background, upon a close comparative reading, the conceptual metaphor will vary in many ways with regard to their source domains, entailments and theological implications. Angels in the Quran are constructed on ontologically-defined agents of divine order, unlike the role as messengers, whereas in the Bible, relational and eschatological aspects are prefigured, and in the Tanakh, these creatures are placed in a covenantal and juridical context. The comparison of the Devil and Satan shows even more pronounced differences: The Quran and the Bible tend to more and more personify the Devil as the opponent of the cosmos, the Tanakh introduces a concept of śataan as the judicial role of the divine court and does not include the evil force in person. These differences, this paper suggests, are not just about language, but are about entirely different theological cosmologies, anthropologies and conceptions of the relations between deities and humans. The work is relevant to the interdisciplinary field of cognitive linguistics, comparative religion and corpus-based discourse analysis.