Le fictif et le faux, l'authentique et le vrai dans l'histoire des religions

摘要

Fictitiousness and falsehood, authenticity and truth in the history of religions Some religious narratives relate events which the historian recognizes as being fictitious in nature. How can he distinguish between falsehood and truth ? Based on a study of examples taken from Herodotus, the Life of Apollonius of Туana and Apocryphal Scriptures, the author reaches the following conclusions. The narrative of an event implies how it was interpreted by contemporary eye-witnesses and, subsequently, by those who transmitted it down through the ages. The transformations the original event underwent over time signify the ever evolving meaning ascribed to the event itself. When a fact was changed or new ones invented, it often arose from a genuine desire to give the teaching encapsulated in the event greater depth.