Introduction

The field of semantics in biblical studies has gone through a series of developments over the past few decades, largely arising from problems with trying to translate and interpret the biblical text. One of the main issues is that meaning must be related to the intent of the author(s) and the significance to the original audience, which can only be partially discoverable within their historical, cultural, and literary context.

As Sue Grooms says, “In any language it is context which helps resolve ambiguity and assists in the identification of a suitable gloss” (Groom, Linguistic Analysis, 105). Semantics is a growing and developing area of research, foundational to biblical studies, translation, and interpretation of Scripture. It has expanded into a multidisciplinary field that includes incorporating history, anthropology, cognitive studies, linguistics, and literary studies into the context necessary for determining meaning and significance of words.

Semantics can be divided into two main subfields:

1. lexical semantics, referring to all the possible meanings of a word, also known as a semantic range

2. semantic pragmatics, referring to the specific meaning of a word within the context generated by the author or speaker derived from the interrelationship between words and concepts

There is an ambiguity in the use of the word “semantics” related to the two subfields. The term can be used to refer to general meaning, the content of what is expressed from a range of meaning, or it can be used to refer to what is implied—the significance of what is being expressed contextually (Heusinger and Turner, “Introduction,” 1). As Ronald Langacker states, “the distinction between semantics and pragmatics is basically a matter of degree and descriptive convenience” (Langacker, Foundations, 147).

The problems of determining meaning in biblical texts are complicated by idioms, words with a wide semantic range, historical development of word meaning, and the effect of cultural norms, expectations, and events on interpretation. Translation requires the finesse of determining what is a “literal” or a “literalistic” interpretation of the text. For example, in the sentence “he flew by us,” the meaning of the word “fly” and the identification of “he” would be different in the context of running a marathon, driving along a highway, flying in an air show, travel in a science fiction novel, or bird watching. Therefore, meaning cannot be derived outside context, but only in relationship within it.