Winnowing Words to an Unreceptive Judge

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how cognitive metaphor theory can illuminate the interplay between conventionality and creativity in the Dead Sea Scrolls, focusing on a striking metaphor in 4Q424 that conceptualizes speaking to an unreceptive judge as winnowing words in the wrong wind. Although cognitive metaphor studies have impacted many areas of the humanities, their potential for Scrolls research remains largely untapped. By situating 4Q424 within a broader tradition that associates winnowing with judgment, the analysis shows how the text activates familiar conceptual structures to ensure intelligibility while creatively reshaping them to heighten rhetorical force. Drawing on insights from cognitive linguistics, the study frames this phenomenon as “traditioned creativity,” in which inherited metaphors provide the scaffolding for innovation. The case of 4Q424 thus demonstrates how metaphors in ancient Jewish literature functioned as flexible instruments of reasoning and persuasion, capable of grounding discourse in tradition while generating fresh conceptual insight.