Abstract
The history of hermeneutics is not identical with the history of the term ‘hermeneutics’. Although it is the Greek word hermeneia which lies at the root of our modern expression, the activity to which our word hermeneutics refers is as old as the human practice of reflecting upon adequate methods of interpreting linguistic, pictorial and other forms of human expression and therefore is of course not limited to classical Greek culture and its rich heritage. Rather hermeneutical activities can be observed in all cultures wherever people reflect upon their ways of understanding. Nevertheless, in the Western tradition the term ‘hermeneutics’ cannot be studied without due regard to its Greek origins.
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Notes
Cf. H. D. F. Kitto, The Greeks (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957), 55.
Cf. Gerhard Ebeling, ‘Hermeneutik’, in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (= RGG), vol. 3, 3rd edn (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1959), 242–62, here 245
J. C. Joosen and J. H. Waszink, ‘Allegorese’, in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, vol. 1 (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1950), 283.
Cf. Richard N. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1975), 19.
Cf. Gershom Scholem, Ober einge Grundbegriffe des Judentums (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1970), esp. ‘Offenbarung und Tradition als religiöse Kategorien im Judentum’, 90–120.
Cf. Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period, vol. 1, trans. John Bowden (London: SCM, 1974), 99f.
Geza Vermesh, Post-Biblical Jewish Studies (Leiden: Brill, 1975), esp. ‘The Qumran Interpretation of Scripture in its Historical Setting’, 37–49.
Cf. Thomas H. Tobin, The Creation of Man: Philo and the History of Interpretation The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 14 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1983), 36ff.
Cf. James Barr, Old and New in Interpretation: A Study of the Two Testaments (London: SCM, 1966), 103–48, esp. 139f.
See also Leonhard Goppelt, Typos: Die typologische Deutung des Alten Testaments im Neuen. Reprint (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1990).
Robert M. Grant with David Tracy, A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible, 2nd edn (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 37.
Vincent of Lérins, ‘The Commonitory’, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Second Series. Vol. XI (Oxford: James Parker, and New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1894), 127–59, here 132.
Cf. also the excerpt in J. Stevenson, ed., Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Documents illustrative of the history of the Church A.D. 337–461 (London: SPCK, 1983), 298–300.
Cf. Hennig Brinkmann, Mittelalterliche Hermeneutik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1980), 225.
Cf. Helmut Feld, Die Anfänge der modernen biblischen Hermeneutik in der spätmittelalterlichen Theologie (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1977).
Cf. Josef Blank, ‘Was Christum Treibet - Martin Luther und die Bibel’, in Martin Luther, 1483–1983: Ringvorlesung der Philosophischen Fakultät, Sommersemester 1983 (Saarbrücken: Universität des Saarlandes, 1983), 63..
Cf. William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 120, note 71.
Cf. Gottfried Hornig, Die Anfänge der historisch-kritischen Theologie: Johann Salomo Semlers Schriftverständnis und seine Stellung zu Luther (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1961), 51.
Cf. Klaus Scholder, Ursprünge und Probleme der Bibelkritik im 17. Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Entstehung der historisch-kritischen Theologie (Munich: Kaiser, 1966), 137 and 145.
Emanuel Hirsch, Geschichte der neuere evangelischen Theologie, vol. 4 (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1954), 59f.
Johann Salomo Semler, Vorbereitung zur theologischen Hermenevtik 4 vols (Halle: Carl Hermann Hemmerde, 1760–1769).
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© 1991 Werner G. Jeanrond
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Jeanrond, W.G. (1991). The Development of Theological Hermeneutics (I): From the Beginnings to the Enlightenment. In: Theological Hermeneutics. Library of Philosophy and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09597-1_2
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