Ascending to Jerusalem: On Spatial Cognition, Ideology and Language in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

This study focuses on the cognitive relation of interiority between an objective space and an objective ideological schema within the metaphorical use of ascending to Jerusalem. Hitherto, lexicons have failed to consider this specific metaphorical concept’s peculiar nuanced distinction within the verb עלה (ʿlh)’s horizontal and vertical spatial schemata and the verb בוא (bwʾ)’s horizontal spatial schemata. Methodologically, this study proposes a cognitive linguistic approach and argues that, apart from the horizontal spatial schemata used by the ancient Hebrew people, it seems that they also utilized unique vertical spatial schemata describing ideological experiences metaphorically.