JESUS’S EPITHETS: “TEACHER” AND “PROPHET”

Book excerpt: The book “Jesus’s Epithets: ‘Teacher’ and ‘Prophet’ – A Cognitive Semantics Approach to Social Roles” is based on a completed PhD thesis from the Doctoral School of Languages and Cultural Identities at the University of Bucharest. It focuses on the interplay between Jesus’s epithets, specifically “teacher” and “prophet,” using cognitive semantics as a framework for analysis. The book explores the complementarity of these roles, highlighting their portrayal of Jesus’s key attributes and his dual human-divine identity. Cognitive linguistics provides the perspective for delving into these social roles, emphasizing their significance in understanding the complexity of Jesus’s character. It shows that Jesus embodies two complementary epithets – “teacher” and “prophet” – representing distinct approaches to knowledge transmission, either through human activity or divine intervention. The chapters systematically examine the roles of teacher and prophet, employing cognitive semantics tools and exploring textual fragments. The analysis of parables as Jesus’s preferred form of teaching uses metaphor and conceptual blending theories, providing insights into his pedagogical endeavors. The examination of Jesus as a prophet draws upon Dahlgren’s stereotypical model, establishing compelling evidence for Jesus’s prophetic role. The final chapter underscores the overlap between the teacher and prophet roles, emphasizing the usefulness of the radial concept. It challenges the notion of sequential roles, asserting that Jesus is simultaneously both a teacher and a prophet, with the two functions coexisting. The book illustrates the intricate complexity of Jesus’s character proving that Jesus not only fulfills but surpasses typical expectations in both roles, consistently revealing his dual identity and the permanent truth of both epithets.