WHAT IS A GOD LIKE? META-THEISTIC PRESUPPOSITIONS IN THE LETTER OF JEREMIAH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2530Abstract
In the apocryphal text of the Letter (Epistle) of Jeremiah (Ep Jer), a long list of reasons is given by the implied author as to why certain entities alleged to be gods are not in fact such. Brief summaries of the author’s various points characterise scholarly perspectives thereon. What has been overlooked in the research, however, and the topic of this article, concerns the converse fact that, in the construction of a negative identity for divinity, the text also assumes a lot about what a god must actually be like. Moreover, what is implicit in these “meta-theistic†presuppositions has never before been identified; hence the need for an attempted inferential reconstruction of what, according to the polemics of Ep Jer, makes a god divine.References
Abbott, B 2000. Presuppositions as nonassertions, Journal of Pragmatics 32/10:1419–1437.
Adams, S A 2014. Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah: a commentary on the Greek texts of Codex Vaticanus. Septuagint Commentary Series. Leiden: Brill.
Atlas, J 1976. On the semantics of presupposition and negation: an essay in philosophical logic and the foundations of linguistics. Unpublished PhD. thesis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
_______ 1977. Negation, ambiguity and presupposition, Linguistics and Philosophy 1:321– 336.
_______ 1979. How linguistics matters to philosophy: presupposition, truth, and meaning, in Oh and Dineen 1979:265–281.
Atlas, J and Levinson, S 1981. It-clefts, informativeness and logical form: radical pragmatics, in Cole 1981:1–61.
Barlow, M, Flickinger, D and Westcoat, M (eds) 1983. Second Annual West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Stanford: Stanford University.
Beaver, D I 1992. The kinematics of presupposition, in Dekker and Stockhof 1992:17–36.
Beaver, D I and Geurts, B 2014. Presupposition, in Zalta 2015:n.p.,
Böer, S E and Lycan, W G 1976. The myth of semantic presupposition, in Zwicky 1976:1–90.
Buttrick, G A (ed.) 1962. The interpreter’s dictionary of the Bible. 4 vols. Nashville: Abingdon.
Chierchia, G 1995. Dynamics of meaning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cole, P (ed.) 1981. Radical pragmatics. New York: Academic Press
Davidson, D and Harman, G (eds) 1972. Semantics of natural language. Reidel: Dordrecht.
Dekker, P and Stockhof, M (eds) 1992. Proceedings of the Eighth Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam: ILLC.
Fillmore, C and Langendoen, DT (eds) 1971. Studies in linguistic semantics. New York: Holt, Reinhardt and Winston.
Freedman, D N (ed.) 1992. Anchor Bible dictionary. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday.
Frege, G 1892. Uber Sinn und Bedeutung, Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und philosophisch
Kritik C:25–50. (English translation: On sense and meaning, in McGuinness, B (ed.) 1984. Frege: collected works. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 157–177.)
Grice, H P 1989. Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hastings, R, Jackson, B & Zvolensky, Z (eds) 2001. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistics Theory 11. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications.
Heim, I 1982. On the semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Heim, I 1983. On the projection problem for presuppositions, in Barlow, Flickinger, and Westcoat 1983:114–126.
_______ 1992. Presupposition projection and the semantics of attitude verbs, Journal of Semantics 9:183–221.
Kaiser, O 2004. The Old Testament Apocrypha: an introduction. Edinburgh: Alban Books Limited.
Karttunen, L 1973. Presuppositions of compound sentences, Linguistic Inquiry 4:167–193.
Kempson, R 1975. Presupposition and the delimitation of semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kripke, S 2009. Presupposition and anaphora: remarks on the formulation of the projection problem, Linguistic Inquiry 40:367–386.
Langendoen, D T and Savin, H 1971. The projection problem for presuppositions, in Fillmore and Langendoen 1971:373–388.
Lewis, D 1979. Scorekeeping in a language game, Journal of Philosophical Logic 8:339–359.
McClellan, D O 2013. You will be like the gods: the conceptualization of deity in the Bible in cognitive perspective. Unpublished MA dissertation. Trinity Western University.
Metzger, B M 1957. An introduction to the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moore, C A 1992. Jeremiah, Additions to, in Freedman 1992/3:698–706.
Munitz, M and Unger, P (eds) 1974. Semantics and philosophy. New York: New York University Press. Oh, C K and Dineen, D A (eds) 1979. Presupposition. Syntax and semantics. Vol. 11. New York: Academic Press.
Russell, B 1905. On denoting, Mind 14:479–493.
Schlenker, P 2007. Anti-dynamics: presupposition projection without dynamic semantics, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 16/3:325–356.
_______ 2008. Be articulate: a pragmatic theory of presupposition, Theoretical Linguistics 34:157–212.
Sellars, W 1954. Presupposing, Philosophical Review 63:197–215.
Simons, M 2001. On the conversational basis of some presuppositions, in Hastings, Jackson & Zvolensky 2001:431–448.
_______ 2003. Presupposition and accommodation: understanding the Stalnakerian picture, Philosophical Studies 112/3:251–278.
_______ 2004. Presupposition and relevance, in Szabó 2004:329–355.
_______ 2006. Foundational issues in presupposition, Philosophy Compass 1/4:357–372.
_______ 2007. Observations on embedding verbs, evidentiality, and presupposition, Lingua 117/6:1034–1056.
Smith, M 2001. The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel’s polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stalnaker, R 1972. Pragmatics, in Davidson and Harman 1972:389–408.
_______ 1973. Presuppositions, The Journal of Philosophical Logic 2:447–457.
_______ 1974. Pragmatic presuppositions, in Munitz and Unger 1974:197–214.
_______ 1998. On the representation of context, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 7:3–19.
Strawson, P F 1950. On referring, Mind 59:320–44.
Szabó, Z (ed.) 2004. Semantics vs. pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tededche, S 1962. Jeremiah, Letter of, in Buttrick 1962/2:822–823.
Vriezen; T C & van der Woude, A S 2005. Ancient Israelite and early Jewish literature: Tenth, completely revised edition of De Literatuur Van Oud-Israël. Leiden: Brill.
Wilson, D 1975. Presupposition and non-truth-conditional semantics. London: Academic Press.
Zalta, E N (ed.) 2015. The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Available: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/presupposition/. [Accessed 2015/09/12.]
Zeevat, H 1992. Presupposition and accommodation in update semantics, Journal of Semantics 9:379–412.
Zwicky, A (ed.) 1976. “Papers in nonphonologyâ€. Working Papers in Linguistics Vol. 21. Columbus, Ohio: Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University
Adams, S A 2014. Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah: a commentary on the Greek texts of Codex Vaticanus. Septuagint Commentary Series. Leiden: Brill.
Atlas, J 1976. On the semantics of presupposition and negation: an essay in philosophical logic and the foundations of linguistics. Unpublished PhD. thesis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
_______ 1977. Negation, ambiguity and presupposition, Linguistics and Philosophy 1:321– 336.
_______ 1979. How linguistics matters to philosophy: presupposition, truth, and meaning, in Oh and Dineen 1979:265–281.
Atlas, J and Levinson, S 1981. It-clefts, informativeness and logical form: radical pragmatics, in Cole 1981:1–61.
Barlow, M, Flickinger, D and Westcoat, M (eds) 1983. Second Annual West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Stanford: Stanford University.
Beaver, D I 1992. The kinematics of presupposition, in Dekker and Stockhof 1992:17–36.
Beaver, D I and Geurts, B 2014. Presupposition, in Zalta 2015:n.p.,
Böer, S E and Lycan, W G 1976. The myth of semantic presupposition, in Zwicky 1976:1–90.
Buttrick, G A (ed.) 1962. The interpreter’s dictionary of the Bible. 4 vols. Nashville: Abingdon.
Chierchia, G 1995. Dynamics of meaning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cole, P (ed.) 1981. Radical pragmatics. New York: Academic Press
Davidson, D and Harman, G (eds) 1972. Semantics of natural language. Reidel: Dordrecht.
Dekker, P and Stockhof, M (eds) 1992. Proceedings of the Eighth Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam: ILLC.
Fillmore, C and Langendoen, DT (eds) 1971. Studies in linguistic semantics. New York: Holt, Reinhardt and Winston.
Freedman, D N (ed.) 1992. Anchor Bible dictionary. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday.
Frege, G 1892. Uber Sinn und Bedeutung, Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und philosophisch
Kritik C:25–50. (English translation: On sense and meaning, in McGuinness, B (ed.) 1984. Frege: collected works. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 157–177.)
Grice, H P 1989. Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hastings, R, Jackson, B & Zvolensky, Z (eds) 2001. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistics Theory 11. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications.
Heim, I 1982. On the semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Heim, I 1983. On the projection problem for presuppositions, in Barlow, Flickinger, and Westcoat 1983:114–126.
_______ 1992. Presupposition projection and the semantics of attitude verbs, Journal of Semantics 9:183–221.
Kaiser, O 2004. The Old Testament Apocrypha: an introduction. Edinburgh: Alban Books Limited.
Karttunen, L 1973. Presuppositions of compound sentences, Linguistic Inquiry 4:167–193.
Kempson, R 1975. Presupposition and the delimitation of semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kripke, S 2009. Presupposition and anaphora: remarks on the formulation of the projection problem, Linguistic Inquiry 40:367–386.
Langendoen, D T and Savin, H 1971. The projection problem for presuppositions, in Fillmore and Langendoen 1971:373–388.
Lewis, D 1979. Scorekeeping in a language game, Journal of Philosophical Logic 8:339–359.
McClellan, D O 2013. You will be like the gods: the conceptualization of deity in the Bible in cognitive perspective. Unpublished MA dissertation. Trinity Western University.
Metzger, B M 1957. An introduction to the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moore, C A 1992. Jeremiah, Additions to, in Freedman 1992/3:698–706.
Munitz, M and Unger, P (eds) 1974. Semantics and philosophy. New York: New York University Press. Oh, C K and Dineen, D A (eds) 1979. Presupposition. Syntax and semantics. Vol. 11. New York: Academic Press.
Russell, B 1905. On denoting, Mind 14:479–493.
Schlenker, P 2007. Anti-dynamics: presupposition projection without dynamic semantics, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 16/3:325–356.
_______ 2008. Be articulate: a pragmatic theory of presupposition, Theoretical Linguistics 34:157–212.
Sellars, W 1954. Presupposing, Philosophical Review 63:197–215.
Simons, M 2001. On the conversational basis of some presuppositions, in Hastings, Jackson & Zvolensky 2001:431–448.
_______ 2003. Presupposition and accommodation: understanding the Stalnakerian picture, Philosophical Studies 112/3:251–278.
_______ 2004. Presupposition and relevance, in Szabó 2004:329–355.
_______ 2006. Foundational issues in presupposition, Philosophy Compass 1/4:357–372.
_______ 2007. Observations on embedding verbs, evidentiality, and presupposition, Lingua 117/6:1034–1056.
Smith, M 2001. The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel’s polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stalnaker, R 1972. Pragmatics, in Davidson and Harman 1972:389–408.
_______ 1973. Presuppositions, The Journal of Philosophical Logic 2:447–457.
_______ 1974. Pragmatic presuppositions, in Munitz and Unger 1974:197–214.
_______ 1998. On the representation of context, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 7:3–19.
Strawson, P F 1950. On referring, Mind 59:320–44.
Szabó, Z (ed.) 2004. Semantics vs. pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tededche, S 1962. Jeremiah, Letter of, in Buttrick 1962/2:822–823.
Vriezen; T C & van der Woude, A S 2005. Ancient Israelite and early Jewish literature: Tenth, completely revised edition of De Literatuur Van Oud-Israël. Leiden: Brill.
Wilson, D 1975. Presupposition and non-truth-conditional semantics. London: Academic Press.
Zalta, E N (ed.) 2015. The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Available: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/presupposition/. [Accessed 2015/09/12.]
Zeevat, H 1992. Presupposition and accommodation in update semantics, Journal of Semantics 9:379–412.
Zwicky, A (ed.) 1976. “Papers in nonphonologyâ€. Working Papers in Linguistics Vol. 21. Columbus, Ohio: Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University
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Published
2017-05-09
How to Cite
Gericke, Jaco. 2017. “WHAT IS A GOD LIKE? META-THEISTIC PRESUPPOSITIONS IN THE LETTER OF JEREMIAH”. Journal for Semitics 25 (2):523-45. https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2530.
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