Abstract
This paper presents considerations on the significance of myth, evil, and imagination in the religious thought of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, as seen in his biblical hermeneutics. According to Claire E. Sufrin, a scholar of modern Jewish thought and theology, Buber chose the term “saga,” not “myth,” in his hermeneutics. This paper, however, clarifies that myth—not only the term but also its meaning—played an important role in Buber’s hermeneutics. In looking at Genesis, Buber took up the stories of the Tree of Knowledge and the Flood and argued that these describe in mythical form the essence of the problem of evil. This paper explains that Buber’s biblical hermeneutics was mythological to a great extent, which indicates that, contrary to Sufrin’s claim, Buber placed tremendous importance on myth. Further, according to Buber, evil was the product of human imagination, and in that sense, it had its origin not in God but in humankind. For Buber, the Bible as a myth described “the human constitution and movement of evil.” This paper clarifies that in Buber’s biblical hermeneutics, myths—especially those concerning the problem of evil—have great significance.
