The problem of meaning is central to biblical hermeneutics. As the meaning of individual passages is profiled against the tapestry of the biblical conceptual framework, the reader needs to move beyond the traditional separation between semantics and pragmatics to grasp the meaning of a text. Cognitive linguistics offers the means to connect the conceptual framework of the Bible with the conceptual framework of the contemporary reader. The present study evinces the usefulness of such an approach by analyzing the conceptualization of theological knowledge formation as reflected by the linguistic unit ידע , "to know" in the Hebrew Bible. After introducing cognitive linguistics and its application in biblical studies, the cognitive analysis follows four steps to outline the schematic meaning of KNOWING GOD. The linguistic unit analyzed here conceptualizes the embodied human awareness of the divine realm by acquaintance with divine revelatory actions, according to a prototypical scenario. The study concludes with several epistemological implications that outline a minimal model of theological knowledge formation in the Hebrew Bible.
