INTRODUCTION TO HERMENEUTICS F.P.A. Demeterio III Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word ερμηνευειν (hermeneuein), meaning to interpret, and its derivative ερμηνεια (hermeneia) meaning interpretation. It has a linguistic relationship with Hermes, the swift footed messenger of the Olympian gods, who necessarily had to master the language of the gods, understand and interpret what these immortal beings have in mind, and translate and articulate their intention to the mortal beings. The main reason why hermeneutics seemed to be a very complicated idea is that it has indeed become complex due to the inter-twining of its multiple layers of meanings and concerns. The first step, therefore, in understanding it is to untangle its multiple layers. In its barest sense, hermeneutics can be understood as a theory, methodology and praxis of interpretation that is geared towards the recapturing of meaning of a text, or a text-analogue, that is temporally or culturally distant, or obscured by ideology and false consciousness. Hermeneutics presupposes that texts and text-analogues that are distant in time and culture, or that are blanketed by ideology and false consciousness, would necessarily appear chaotic, incomplete, contradictory and distorted, and that they need to be systematically interpreted to unveil their underlying coherence or sense. As this working definition suggests, hermeneutics has three different layers of meanings and concerns: namely, 1) theory, which is concerned about the epistemological validity and possibility of interpretation; 2) methodology, which is concerned about the formulation of reliable systems of interpretation; and 3) praxis, which is concerned about the actual process of interpreting specific texts. Hermeneutics, as a praxis of interpretation, emerged very early in the history of civilizations. The great cultures of the antiquity generally had their share of sacred literature that need to be interpreted and re-interpreted by their priestly and royal classes. Thus, hermeneutics had been practiced by ancient people long before philosophy ever though of it as a discipline belonging to its own province. In late antiquity, the Greeks, the Jews and the Christians had been reading and re-reading their vital texts, namely the Homeric epics, the Torah, Tamud and Midrashim, and the Holy Bible, respectively. In the process of their textual labor, these people revised their own idiosyncratic sets of rules for doing interpretation: thus, hermeneutics, as methodology of interpretation, started to evolve from hermeneutics, as praxis of interpretation. The full development of hermeneutics, as methodology of interpretation, however, happened some more centuries later during the Renaissance period. This development was triggered by a heightened need for hermeneutic praxis that transformed the once purely practical operation into a self-conscious procedure. This heightened need for praxis in return had been catalyzed by two landmark historical phenomena: the protestant reformation and the renaissance’s fascination for classical Greek and Roman texts. The protestant reformation had spawned a whole process of debate regarding the christian’s relationship with the sacred scriptures. Whereas the catholic church re-asserted, during 1546 the Council of Trent, its age-old position that it is its own authority which is the ultimate norm of interpreting the Holy Bible, the protestants insisted on the principles of perspicuity—the need for a keenness of the interpreter’s discernment—and self sufficiency of the sacred scriptures. Freed from the blanketing dogma of the catholic church, the protestant theologians and scripturists, led by Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575), have to rely on more THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS