The article is devoted to a little-studied issue in Orthodox biblical hermeneutics related to the problem of the genesis, existence and development of the exegetical tradition. The author sets himself the task of answering the questions: what general laws does the life of the tradition of interpretation of Holy Scripture obey and what can be considered its semantic invariant? To solve this problem, he turns to the conceptual and terminological apparatus of phenomenological hermeneutics, namely to those ideas that P. Ricoeur develops in his monograph «Time and Story». In particular, the article pays attention to the French philosopher’s reasoning about the basic principles that underlie the interaction of human consciousness and temporary experience. P. Ricoeur’s teaching on mimetic activity, which is essentially a hermeneutic activity and thanks to which both a separate narrative and a cultural tradition as a whole arises, is examined in detail. According to the author of the article, the conclusions reached by P. Ricoeur are fundamental in nature and can be productively used within the framework of biblical hermeneutics, which is illustrated in the article with specific examples.