Buren (GA63:nota 11) – ἑρμηνεύειν (”interpreting”)

Both “to announce” and “to make known” have been used here to translate kundgeben  , which is the term Heidegger employs to describe what ἑρμηνεύειν   (”interpreting”) precisely does. Both English terms are used since neither by itself expresses the twofold meaning of kundgeben: (1) its linguistic and kerygmatic meaning of “to announce,” “proclaim,” “herald,” “communicate,” or “express” and (2) its phenomenological meaning of “to reveal” or “make known.” In connection with Heidegger’s earlier reference to the etymological connection between “hermeneutics” and “Hermes” (the “messenger of the gods”), his translation of Plato  ’s Ion 534e (”poets are but the interpreters of the gods” in the sense of their “heralds” [Sprecher]), his later translation of Philo’s phrase ἑρμηνεύς θεοῦ (”interpreter of God,” a description of Moses) as “messenger who announces [Künder] … the will of God,” and his later discussion of Augustine  ’s Christian hermeneutics as the kerygmatic interpretation   of the Word, note that Kunde means “message,” “news,” or “tidings” and that accordingly kundgeben (the activity of hermeneutics, interpretation) means literally “to give news (tidings)” or ‘bring a message.” It is against this background that Heidegger writes in the following paragraph in connection with ontology, the study of being: “hermeneutics is the announcement and making known [Kundgabe] of the being of a being in its being in relation to … (me).” He then proceeds to relate this kerygmatic dimension of hermeneutical ontology to its more phenomenological dimension by appealing to Aristotle  ’s On Interpretation and defining “interpretation” as “ἀληθε  ύειν [being-true] (making what was previously concealed, covered up, available as unconcealed, as there out in the open).” Even though “to make known” will henceforth mostly be used for kundgeben, the reader should constantly keep in mind both the kerygmatic and the phenomenological meanings of the German term. Regarding Heidegger’s kerygmatic reading of “hermeneutics” and “ontology,” on which he continues to draw in his later writings, see also Translator’s Epilogue. [p. 111-112]