Aesthetics of the Bible:The Hebrew Imaginary in Hamann and Herder’s Theories of Interpretation

Abstract

This paper discerns two approaches to Biblical Hebrew in late-eighteenth-century Germany, which correspond with two diverging aesthetic theories. Presenting Hebrew as a spiritual artifact whose merits lie in the difficulty to decipher it, Johann Georg Hamann defines interpretation as a process in which the imagination, inspiration and creativity surpass the search for objective facts concerning the target text. The article traces how Johann Gottfried Herder’s influential approach to interpretation was modulated vis- a?-vis Hamann’s hermeneutics. Maintaining Hamman’s appreciation of individual engagement when reading a text, Herder nonetheless holds that objective truths concerning the Old Testament –and, in parallel, concerning any texts– should be sought and reached through the reader’s affective and empathic relationship to the authors. The article thus demonstrates that diverging approaches to Biblical Hebrew became emblematic of philosophical positions in the late European Enlightenment.