Descriptive varieties of philosophical commentary

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that philosophical criticism as a form of biblical criticism can supplement literary-historical interpretation. Descriptive philosophical analysis has as its primary aim the clarification of meaning, namely understanding - not the justification or critique - of truth-claims. Three forms of functional philosophical commentary are discussed: presupposition reconstruction, conceptual analysis and philosophical translation. The objective is to demonstrate how these varieties of philosophical exegesis aimed at understanding rather than at adjudication are able to reveal dimensions in the text otherwise inaccessible to non-philosophical approaches to the Hebrew Bible.