GREEK

Depicting the Ancient Greek legacy to hermeneutics entails, of course, that we face the challenges of interpretation itself. There are no clear accounts of the origins of hermeneutics, that is to say, no historic moment when, as with Columbus's discovery of the Americas or Newton's moment of realisation about gravity, we can say hermeneutics was discovered, or indeed invented. Furthermore, to say even in the broadest of terms when hermeneutics first arises is to encounter enormous problems in the interpretation of ancient cultures. Gerald Bruns, for example, reflects these issues in his most interesting discussion in Hermeneutics, Ancient and Modern. His broad point is that hermeneutics has multiple and conflicting histories, extending back before the origins of writing itself. He discusses the importance of Ancient Greece as a possible starting place for any perspective on hermeneutics' origins, but as he argues it is impossible to really trace back hermeneutic practice to a clear starting point. One of the reasons for Bruns's perspective is that he places little emphasis on the etymology of the term ‘hermeneutics’ but looks instead to an analysis of the act of interpretation as he believes it was performed by our ancient predecessors.

In spite of the difficulties faced in defining the origins of hermeneutics, most scholars agree that the Ancient Greek legacy is a good starting place and some do perceive this as a kind of beginning.