The vicious hermeneutical circle

The hermeneutical circle in the analysis of textual data refers to a situation in which the reconstruction of the interpretive context is based on a previously adopted semantic hypothesis and is then used to confirm that very hypothesis. In such a configuration, context ceases to function as an auxiliary explanatory framework and instead operates as an evidentiary element, leading to the methodological closure of interpretation without independent verification of the data.

Within the Evidence-Based Biblical Studies approach, this phenomenon is not treated as an inevitable condition of understanding, but as a methodological error consisting in a violation of the independence of epistemic levels. Textual data, contextual reconstructions, and interpretive conclusions possess distinct epistemic statuses and cannot be mutually legitimized within a single, closed circuit of argumentation.

EBBS assumes that context has the status of a working hypothesis with a defined degree of uncertainty and cannot be used to confirm interpretations from which it has itself been derived. Control of the hermeneutical circle consists in the explicit marking of the epistemic status of context, the suspension of interpretive closure, and the restriction of inference to what is genuinely warranted by the textual data. In this sense, EBBS does not eliminate the hermeneutical circle, but subjects it to rigorous methodological control.

Vincent van Gogh, Still life with Bible, Public domain | Wiki