Preunderstanding, Presuppositions and Biblical Interpretation

Abstract

For contemporary biblical scholars, the recognition that everyone interprets a text through one’s presuppositions and preunderstanding is axiomatic. If anyone claims to approach the biblical text without any presuppositions, this is in fact a presupposition. The pervasive recognition of presuppositions and preunderstanding in interpretation has largely developed out of the influence of modern philosophy, particularly in such representatives as Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. One’s presuppositions and preunderstanding form the grid through which one interprets everything, not only texts. The pervasiveness of presuppositions and preunderstanding has issued in a wholesale rejection of the possibility of objectivity in interpretation. This essay will argue that the rejection of the possibility of objectivity is self-defeating.