Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)

2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - György Kustár: Ont he Slopes of Sinai - Some Hermeneutical Questions in Light of the Kabbalistic and Historical Critical Exegesis

On the Slopes of Sinai - Some Hermeneutical Questions

Sinai Tradition. Both the incense and trumpet serves as signifiers and reenactments of the theophany. This reenactment in the central cultic place is a part of a larger development, that’s dynamic consisted, in addition to the act of transmission, as we have seen, an insertion of new considerations. The story of the Sinai Revelation represents the whole course of development in its narrative form.66 Thus, the narrative is a historical document of changing cultic traditions.

A fascinating logic operates here on the texts. In the narrative context of the Revelation story, the smoke and sound accompanied the presence of God and metaphorically connected to it. In the next step this metaphoric concept is de-contextualized and its association with the textural inner web of references is destructed through the usage of the arguments of inconsistency and ungrounded repetitions. This stage can be called the stage of sterilization. Then, the de-contextualized metaphor, detached from the text, is re-contextualized in a different setting, in the so called “real” historical background. Thus, although the transferred primary concept of the smoke and the trumpet as indication of the divine presence correspond to the meaning suggested by the narrative context, the referential character of these words changes profoundly. In short, the setting of the mountain is put aside as secondary to sweep away every hindrance in order to make possible the historical understanding of the metaphor — now, in the context of the cult of Israel. Purified and disconnected, this metaphoric relation can serve as the main reference, transforming it as detachable from the original scene to an implicit attachment to the cultic scene. By this, the mythical character of the primary narrative can be set aside as obscure and irrational, and by the same token preserve a part of the meaning that is comprehensible for a contemporary mindset. Accordingly, the narratives as they are in front of us get no focus, being primarily understood as fragmentary, mythical and fictitious that might contain reflections of cultic and historic developments. In this respect, the historical questioning appears to be an aggressive reading, reconfiguring the text, redefining its nature in order to reach its underlying historical meaning. The historical reading at this stage seems to represent a similar hermeneutical process to the mystical enterprise. In both cases the text is used in order to regain something “hidden” from behind the textual realm. In the latter case, we are assuming the mystical character of the biblical narratives, in the former case we presuppose that the text is in a certain sense a historical document. By this belief, the historical method creates a discontinuity between the narrative flow and the historical understanding, resulting in the suppression of the former in favor of the latter.67

66 As we have seen, the term Vergegenwärtigung reflects a creative representation of the tradition, which involves certain theological and narrative improvements.

67 In his discussion about the narrative character of the biblical testimony, Frei makes this claim the center of his arguments. Cf. Frei, Hans: The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, Chelsea, Michigan, Yale University Press, 1974.

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