ABSTRACT
Metaphorical language forms an important part of any culture.1 Its main function is, in the words of two leading linguists: ‘to provide a partial understanding of one kind of experience in terms of another kind of experience’ (Lakoff and Johnson 1980:154). In Antiquity, as today, metaphors constituted an efficient way of communicating religious beliefs, political attitudes, and social values. The first Christians also made use of metaphorical language to provide understanding of fundamental Christian concepts. They developed metaphorical language stemming from notions as different as pilgrimage, slavery, and warfare.2 Metaphors of the family played a central role in this metaphorical network developed by the first Christians. The metaphors ‘God the Father’, ‘Jesus the Son’, ‘children of God’, ‘brothers and sisters in Christ’, along with a number of other family metaphors became a means by which to develop and communicate a Christian theology as well as constructing a church community with a certain kind of leadership and certain patterns of interactions between its members.
