As a Report About Revelation the Bible I
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Abraham Joshua Heschel's provocative claim that "the Bible itself is a midrash" revolutionizes our understanding of divine revelation by positioning sacred text as neither purely literal nor symbolic, but "responsive." Through careful analysis of Heschel's corpus, particularly his adaptation of Husserlian phenomenology to prophetic consciousness, a sophisticated theological framework emerges that transcends traditional hermeneutical categories. The methodology involves close reading of Heschel's works, examining his phenomenological reduction as applied to biblical texts and prophetic experience. His approach treats both text and experience as non-natural aspects of consciousness accessible through eidetic vision, offering a powerful critique of both mythological thinking and literal-mindedness. By establishing a third interpretive category, Heschel preserves the mystery of revelation while maintaining textual authenticity. This phenomenological approach successfully unifies historiography and historiosophy, creating a framework where midrash functions as an "incandescent vehicle of meaning" that transmits divine significance across generations without reducing revelation to natural explanation. The implications fundamentally reshape our understanding of Jewish theological methodology and illuminate the complex relationship between textual interpretation and religious experience in Heschel's thought.

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Published 2002
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Lawrence Perlman