From Plato to Adam: the biblical exegesis of Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin finds the Bible a slippery text. For all his interest over a number of writings, especially The Task of the Translator, On Language as Such and the Language of Man and The Origin of German Tragic Drama, and for all the efforts to develop a theory of history deeply indebted to the Bible, the biblical text trips him up, refusing to provide what he wishes to find. This article traces those difficulties. Copyright 2007 Roland Boer. No part of this article may be reproduced by any means without the written consent of the publisher.