Abstract
The similarities between the Fourth Gospel and wisdom literature have been addressed by many scholars. This study is also intended to continue along this line by looking at the particular link between the Wisdom of Solomon and the Gospel of John with a specific focus on the concepts of immortality and eternal life. It was presumed that this approach will add to our knowledge and cognition of the Fourth Gospel’s cultural and conceptual background and the way how the ideas, motives, structures taken over from wisdom framework function in John’s theology. The theology of the texts in general was not the focus of this research. However, in order to have a proper understanding of these concepts, it was necessary to investigate into the themes, the patterns of thought related to them, as well as the worldview of the texts of the Book of Wisdom and the Gospel of John. To this aim the cosmological framework in which the concepts of immortality and eternal life are imbedded was examined, followed by an analysis of the various metaphors that conceive of immortality and eternal life. The metaphors they blend with, the coherence and cohesion between them, and the way they are imbedded in the theology as a whole have also been observed. The insights of cognitive linguistics were of great help in understanding the concepts of immortality and eternal life and the way they function in the context and theology of the Book of Wisdom and the Gospel of John. During this process the similarities in concept and worldview were uncovered, as well as the differences that are essential to understanding the concepts of immortality and eternal life in the Book of Wisdom and the Gospel of John.
