Formulation of the claim
The framing narrative gives the verses a historical and mythic dimension.
Explanation
In Arkoun’s thought, the framing narrative does not merely gather texts within a narrative context; it performs a cognitive function that makes the verses read within a historical horizon linking them to foundational events and narratives. In this sense, the verses do not appear as separate sentences, but as elements within a narrative structure that grants them place and meaning.
This function acquires special importance because it shows how the text operates at the level of formation and meaning at once: the narrative frame does not merely explain the verses, but also helps give them a mythic dimension, that is, it makes them part of a symbolic representation of the world and of the first religious experience.
Its place in the book’s argument
This atom falls within Arkoun’s interest in how religious meaning is formed within texts, not as a direct or transparent meaning, but as the result of an interplay between utterance, narrative, and the frame that surrounds them. It comes close to the book’s theses on the relationship between revelation and history, and on how meaning is constructed through discursive and narrative forms that give the text its authority and interpretive field.
Limits of the claim
This atom should not be burdened with a final judgment on the value of the framing narrative, nor reduced to being merely an ornamental element; the point is to describe its function in producing meaning within the text, not to offer a comprehensive account of every level of its presence.