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carved out of τὰ πάντα. πᾶν ἑρπετόν means everything which crawls. Here it is not a question of the grammatical singular, but of a singular that means a plurality: everything that crawls. Is the sphere of land creatures that crawl outlined in opposition to creatures which live in the air and in the water? Is the manner of movement of land creatures characterized as crawling in contrast to the quicker flight of birds or the quicker swimming of water creatures? I would like to answer the question in the negative. My hunch is that with πᾶν ἑρπετόν we are not concerned {GA 15: 59} with a bordered region, but rather with the entire region of τὰ πάντα; that is, from a specific aspect that specifies πάντα in entirety as crawling. πᾶν ἑρπετόν must then be read τὰ πάντα ὡς ἑρπετά [everything as crawling]. In that case, Fr. 11 speaks of πάντα in so far as they are crawling. To what extent? What crawls is a conspicuously slow movement, the slowness of which is measured by a quicker movement. Which quicker movement is meant here? If we bring πᾶν ἑρπετόν, or πάντα ὡς ἑρπετά into connection with πληγή, it is the unsurpassably quick movement of the lightning bolt by which the movement of πάντα as crawling must be measured.
HEIDEGGER: If we no longer understand the lightning bolt only phenomenally but in a deeper sense, then we can no longer say of its movement that it is quick or quicker than the movement of πάντα. For "quick" is a speed characteristic that only pertains to the movement of πάντα.
FINK: The talk about "quick" in relation to the lightning bolt is inappropriate. Measured by the quickness of lightning, everything that comes to appearance in the brightness of lightning, and has its passage and change, is crawling. Seen in this way, πᾶν ἑρπετόν is also a statement about τὰ πάντα. Now, however, τὰ πάντα are looked back at from lightning. The crawling of πάντα is a trait that we could not immediately attribute to them as a qualitative determination. The manifold movements that πάντα in entirety went through are a lame movement as compared to the movement of the lightning blow that tears open lighted space.
HEIDEGGER: In order to bring to mind again the course of the interpretation of Fr. 11, just now put forward, we ask ourselves how the fragment is, therefore, to be read. {GA 15: 60}
PARTICIPANT: The explication, the purpose of which was to relate πᾶν ἑρπετόν to τὰ πάντα, began not with πᾶν ἑρπετόν, but with πληγῇ and νέμεται.
HEIDEGGER: That means that the saying is to be read backwards. How it is possible that we can read πᾶν ἑρπετόν as πάντα ὡς ἑρπετά, developed out of πληγῇ and νέμεται. From πᾶν ἑρπετόν alone, we cannot learn the extent to which πάντα are also mentioned with πᾶν ἑρπετόν. But by means of πληγῇ and νέμεται, which refers back to the lightning-fragment,