Statement of the claim
A return to the earliest linguistic foundations of revelation is a prerequisite for understanding its aims and primary meanings.
Explanation
Arkoun holds that access to meaning does not come by merely relying on what later commentaries have added, but by returning to the first linguistic level in which revelation was formulated. There, signification appears in a form closest to its emergence, before layers of interpretation accumulate around it.
This return is not presented as a literal recovery of a completed past, but rather as an attempt to grasp what precedes subsequent interpretive layering. For that reason, in Arkoun’s view, the idea is tied to the question of how meaning takes shape, not simply to the collection of statements made about it.
Its place in the book’s argument
This atom appears in the context of Arkoun’s defense of a reading that goes beyond simply relying on the exegetical heritage, and reconsiders the conditions under which meaning is produced in the religious text. It is close to his broader thesis, which links an understanding of revelation to an analysis of its language, its history, and the field in which it took shape, rather than confining it to later modes of reading alone.
Limits of the claim
This return does not mean possessing a final meaning or eliminating the role of interpretation, nor does it reduce revelation to language alone. Nor should it be burdened with the promise of recovering a pure, closed origin outside history.