Wolde E. Sentiments as Culturally Constructed Emotions: Anger and Love in the Hebrew Bible

Biblical Interpretation 16 (2008) 1-24.This article explores the language of the sentiments of anger and love in biblical Hebrew, English, and Japanese, where sentiments are defined as emotions that are culturally defined and organized. Its leading questions are: To what extent do people in different societies experience the same and different emotions because of their cultural backgrounds? And what does language reveal about emotional thought and its cultural construction in the Hebrew Bible? Emotions may break in into generally accepted hierarchical structures: anger may get hold of someone and love can defy determined positions. Nonetheless, cultural conventions are developed and used to defend the hierarchical order as a natural order. is explains why women are never said to be angry in the Hebrew Bible, and why it is only rarely expressed that a woman loves a man.