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CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON-IRWIN
"But the serpent did not lie": Reading,
History, and Hegel's Interpretation of
Genesis Chapter 3
such but the spirit with which they are grasped."® It could
be argued that Hegel is not really denigrating the status of
the Bible as text (as "letter" or "words") so much as he is
arguing for an authoritative interpretation of the text based
on a philosophical conception of the infinite nature of spirit.
But the possibility of such an authoritative, philosophical
reading raises the question of what happens to the letter of
the text, to its significance and to its integrity. To what
extent could a philosophical reading be justified in
attributing "errors" or "contradictions" to a passage from the
Bible if the content of the passage did not lend itself to the
reading the philosophical interpreter wants to give it? It
would seem to follow from Hegel's position that the text
cannot be used to hold the interpreter accountable for his or
her hermeneutic choices.
Through the act of interpretation, philosophical reading
becomes increasingly less dependent on the language of the
Bible, to the point where philosophy will substitute its own
language for that of the text:
But just as soon as religion is no longer simply the reading and
repetition of passages, as soon as what is called explanation or
interpretation begins, as soon as an attempt is made by inference
and exegesis to find out the meaning of the words in the Bible,
then we embark upon the process of reasoning, reflection,
thinking; and the question then becomes how we should exercise
this process of thinking, and whether our thinking is correct or
not. It helps not at all to say that one's thoughts are based on
the Bible. As soon as these thoughts are no longer simply the
words of the Bible, their content is given a form, more
specifically, a logical form. (400)
The distinction between reading and interpretation in the
first sentence suggests that Hegel is reacting to a highly
conventional and limited understanding of what it means to
read the Bible. But as the passage goes on, it becomes
apparent that philosophical interpretation transforms that
which it interprets, thus leaving the words of the Bible in an
ambiguous position. It is not sufficient to say that the trans-
formation refers to the form of the text rather than its sub-
stantial content, for if the act of interpretation is understood
as giving the words of the Bible a "logical form," it begs the
question of what form they took previously, and why it was
7. See The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate, in Hegel's Early Theological
Writings, trans. T. M. Knox (Pbiladelpbia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1971).
8. See Hegel, The Philosophy of History, 320-23.
38 "But the serpent did not lie"
13. For the German original see Hegel, Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der
Religion, Teil 2: Die bestimmte Religion {Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion,
Part Two: Determinate Religion), ed. Walter Jaeschke (Hamburg: Felix Meiner,
1985), 425. Hereafter, all references to the German edition of these lectures will
be cited with the abbreviation VPR 2.
42 "But the serpent did not lie"
16, See G, M, Lukken, Original Sin and the Roman Liturgy (Leiden: E, J, Brill,
1973), Lukken outlines the way that the Eastern Church fathers tended to regard
the first sin as a result of some form of human weakness, while Augustine and the
Western Church argued that it was a product of human pride (52-60),
17, See, for example. Genesis Rabbah 21:4 and 21:6 in Midrash Rabbah:
Genesis, Volume 1, trans, H, Freedman and Maurice Simon (London: Soncino P,
1939),
18, As cited in Gerald J, Bildstein's In the Rabbi's Garden: Adam and Eve in the
Midrash (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997), 36-41,
44 "But tbe serpent did not lie"
19. See Franz Rosenzweig's "The Unity of the Bihle: A Position Paper vis-à-vis
Orthodoxy and Liberalism," in Scripture and Translation, trans, and ed. Lawrence
Rosenwald and Everett Fox (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994), 23. This hook is a
compilation of various articles authored or coauthored hy Buher and Rosenzweig.
Christopher Anderson-Irwin 45
20. Franz Rosenzweig, "The Secret of Biblical Narrative Form," in Scripture and
Translation, 141-42.
21. Martin Buber, On the Bible: Eighteen Studies, ed. Nabum N. Glatzer (New
York: Scbocken Books, 1968), 212-13.
46 "But the serpent did not lie"
22. All passages from the Book of Genesis are taken from Everett Fox's
translation in The Schocken Bible, Volume 1: The Five Books of Moses (Schocken
Books: New York, 1995). In keeping with Fox's translation, I am using his
transliterations of the Hebrew names, hence the spelling "Hawa" instead of the
more standard "Eve."
Christopher Anderson-Irwin 47
Humber College
Toronto, Ontario, Canada