圣经阐释的“现实主义”传统

The "Realistic" Tradition in Biblical Interpretation

推举字面义解经的"现实主义"传统,是18世纪以前西方圣经阐释的主流,它包括三个方面:一是视字面义为历史事件的记载,二是设定圣经是一部统一的经典,三是把一切当代的和读者的经验也包括其中。以后伴随着叙述描述和"真实"世界的渐行渐远,字面义解经和与它同根而生的比喻义解经相继遭遇危机。但是现实主义的叙事传统延续了下来,圣经和但丁的《神曲》、19世纪小说一样,是这个传统的三个光点之一。就这个传统强调主体和社会背景紧密联系,人物和外部环境彼此相依而言,即便是圣经中的奇迹叙述,只要它们实际上没有去象征被描述行为之外的什么东西,也可被视为具有现实主义的性质。遗憾的是,圣经叙事的现实主义或者说历史的性质,远没有得到充分的重视,反而每每被人误解现实主义叙事就是历史的叙述,而两者其实是大相径庭之事。

Before Eighteenth century, the 'Realistic' tradition which focuses at once on literal and historical readings is the mainstream of Western biblical interpretation. It includes three aspects: to see the literal meaning as the record of true historical events, to read Bible as a united canon, and to take in all readers' contemporary experiences. While both literal and figural readings of the biblical stories decay accompanied the distancing between the narratively depicted and the 'real' world, the realistic tradition is going on, of which the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy and novels in 19th century are three highlights. So far as this tradition implies that subjects or characters are firmly set in the context of the social environment, the miraculous accounts are also realistic as long as they do not in effect symbolize something else instead of the action portrayed. However, the realistic or history-like features in the biblical narration are far from being fully appreciated, on the contrary, they are often misread as historical narration, a quite different issue however.