The Conversation of Humanity: Franz Rosenzweig on the Secrets of Biblical Narrative

Abstract:At first glance, it seems obvious that the secret with which Franz Rosenzweig is occupied in his 1928 essay “Secret of the Form of Biblical Narratives” is the inexplicit form through which the Bible transmits the meaning of its narratives. But the claim put forward in this article is that the role of intertextual allusions in determining the Bible’s meaning—concealed from those not privy to this literary device—is neither the only nor the most consequential secret to which Rosenzweig wishes to draw his readers’ attention in his essay. The more far-reaching secret Rosenzweig seeks to convey involves the redemptive role readers of the Bible are intended to play when they bring their respective acts of biblical interpretation into conversation with one another.