GAMES WITH THE BIBLICAL SERPENT: HERMENEUTIC TRICKS OF HRYHORII SKOVORODA

Abstract

The paper gives examples of evident semantic inconsistency between the biblical text and its interpretation by Skovoroda. The aim of looking for mentioned details is not to assess the validity of statements about the biblical ideas (the author’s interpretations are usually provided with branched arguments) but to deeper understand the nature of Skovoroda’s work with the text of the Holy Scriptures. In all these cases, or almost all, the philosopher must have been aware of these discrepancies or at least the possibility of their existence. Sometimes Skovoroda’s conscious games with the text of the Bible are obvious if one compares the very quotes in his works even with the Church Slavonic version of the Bible alone. In other cases, the verification of the correspondence of the author’s interpretation of a quote to its linguistic meaning in the Holy Scriptures necessarily requires the involvement of the Bible versions older than the Church Slavonic one. Constructing his hermeneutic ‘symphonies’ on the basis of the word forms of a single lexeme or cognate words, which he collects in the Bible, Skovoroda often ignores possible polysemy of the word and also risks running into common linguistic errors of the Church Slavonic translation. At the same time, it is difficult to suspect him of lacking proper understanding of a textual nature (since elsewhere he willingly compares multilingual versions), nor of excessive sacralization of the Church Slavonic Bible (again, in some places he easily prefers the text in other languages). Baroque games with words and text, accompanying serious exegetical intention, add uniqueness to Skovoroda’s approach to the Bible. An explanation for this paradoxical combination may be his vision of the role designed for the Holy Scriptures. Not too exacting requirements to the semantic correspondence of a specific biblical text to the thoughts that, according to Skovoroda’s understanding, it should carry or confirm, is caused primarily by the idea of the Bible as a reflection of the spiritual world of its reader. Any role of it other than a mirror (which, however, not only reflects what is known but also helps to see and discover what has been hidden in oneself) is simply irrelevant for our author.