Methods of Biblical Interpretation in the African Context
Biblical hermeneutics is a critical component of biblical studies that helps in unearthing the meaning of ancient text/narrative critically. Until the early 1960s, biblical hermeneutics in many parts of Africa was dependent on hermeneutical philosophies of the Euro-American cultural norms.[1] This is due to the fact that the Euro-American missionaries and biblical scholars did not know the primal religio-cultural norms of Africa. They did not consider them as factors in the hermeneutical spiral. This has led to the assertions that the efforts of the missionaries were also a form of colonization of the African people. Therefore, some African scholars find the need to re-read/interpret the various interpretations inherited from the Global North as a means of decolonization.[2] It is difficult to determine whether those interpretations by the Euro-American missionaries and scholars were meant to colonize Africans consciously or unconsciously. However, since biblical hermeneutics involves the context of the users of the interpreted texts, many Africans believed that it was a deliberate exercise to colonize Africans because interpreted texts are expected to speak differently to different audiences at different times.
Many biblical scholars of African descent were educated in Euro-American universities and theological seminaries. After a while, they began to identify the need to interpret the Bible from African experiences of life and nurture, which may resemble how some Euro-American scholars interpret biblical texts with their context in view. It led to the proposition of many methods/approaches to biblical hermeneutics in Africa including mother-tongue biblical hermeneutics,[3] postcolonial biblical interpretation,[4] communicative interpretation,[5] intercultural interpretation,[6] African biblical hermeneutics,[7] and African indigenous hermeneutics,[8] liberation hermeneutics[9] among others. Many of these methods/approaches are closely related in terms of engaging African realities in the hermeneutical process for Africans. The difference is in the varied contexts and experiences of African realities that are brought to the hermeneutical perspective. “African biblical hermeneutics does not necessarily mean that the interpreter must be an African or live in Africa, but should be any interpreter who takes into account the socio-cultural, religious, economic and political situations of Africa in his/her theologizing.”[10]
This volume contain twelve articles from scholars across Africa. Peter Adelaja Oyebanjo open the volume. He identified the challenge many Churches in Nigeria face due to the diverse cultural milieu of Nigeria and how to contextualize and apply the Bible in such context. Oyebanjo observed that there is the need to integrating indigenous cultural rudiments and outlooks in many Churches in Nigerian to deepen the understanding of the biblical passages and their appropriation to contemporary issues. Dike, Uzoma Amos focused on the contemporary issues of the use of Artificial Interligence (AI) in biblical interpretation. He identified the lacuna that exist among scholars whether to use AI or not for effective biblical interpretation in Africa. He used AI as an aid to interpret Genesis 2:21-23 to argue that African biblical interpretation must adapt AI into its fibre of biblical interpretation. The amalgamation of AI tools in African biblical exegesis offers substantial aids, including enhanced accessibility to original biblical languages and resources, aiding scholars and the users of the interpreted text. Julius Ndishua investigates the hermeneutics of liberation and its effect on the church in the African context. He undertook an assessment of Hermeneutics of liberation, its challenges and prospects for biblical interpretation for Africans. Ndishua concluded that hermeneutics of liberation embrace excessive budding for the church in Africa in promoting the empowering marginalised communities and individuals.
Ayodeji Olanrewaju Ogidiolu examined the etymology of the philosophy of hermeneutics and its significance for intercultural hermeneutics in the twenty first century African Churches. The general philosophical understanding of hermeneutics has influenced intercultural hermeneutics in relation to how the Old Testament Literatures and African concept influence each other. Ogidiolu concluded that the philosophical understanding of hermeneutics if incorporated in the exercise of intercultural hermeneutics would help resolve series of misinterpretations, and misunderstanding of the contents of the Old Testament Literatures in African Churches. He recommended dynamism in the intercultural hermeneutics and the conceptual understanding of hermeneutics for a contextual biblical interpretation in Africa. Adetola Ipadeola offered an Afrocentric view of marriage relationship between a man and a woman using 1 Peter 3:1-7 as a case study. It is intended to provide guidance and solution to ubiquitous tensions for women’s rights and liberty for married African Christian women. Decolonized and Africentric biblical interpretation could speak more certainly and convincingly to African Christians on contested grounds such as woman submission. Emmanuel Foster Asamoah the cultural milieu of the Bible and the contemporary society has created a gap that poses problem to the contemporary person’s understanding of the Bible. He contended that the lacuna calls for Bible interpreters to meticulously consider the worldview of the contemporary community they intend to reach, for a more meaningful, relevant, and comprehensive Scripture interpretation.
Victor Umaru focused on indigenous African approaches to biblical interpretation. He discussed various methods of biblical interpretation in Africa such as feminist hermeneutics, liberation theology, post-colonial scripture readings, etc. to indicate the role of indigenous African methods of biblical interpretation in Africa. Jiofack Kana C. Jésus examined the need for accuracy in the translation of the Bible from the biblical languages (surce languages (SL)) into African languages which is the target language (TL) without loosing or diluting the message. He argued that translators critically consider the triadic as a linguist, an interpreter of the word of God, and the hermeneut of God in the target community. He concluded that there is an intrinsic interplay between African hermeneutics, Linguistics and Bible translation in Africa. Jeremiah Agbeshie argued that difference approaches of biblical hermeneutics in the African context has yielded to varied interpretation of tithe in Churches in Africa. This has generated a controversy among Christians as to which theory of tithe to uphold. Agbeshie concluded that the theological ideology of pastors, and the denominational background is a key influencer of the various views of interpretations.
Kwame Anane discussed the role of mother-tongue in the understanding of biblical passages. He used Matthew 18:18 as a case study to examine how the passage was rendered in the Asante-Twi translation of the Bible, which poses problems to the users of the stranlated passage. An appropriate mother-tongue translation of Matthew 18:18 would help readers offer prayers that are theologically-balanced perspective. Livingstone Yao Torsu continued with the escapade of the mother-tongue in biblical interpretation to argue that mother-tongue is critical for the translation and contextualization of Scripture into native languages of African communities. It enable readers to associate more intensely with biblical passages, and fosters accessible and germane discourse for native readers. Torsu engaged Judges 4:15-20 to test how its mother-tongue interpretation will resonate with the Anlo Ewe people of Ghana. He concluded that advocates of mother-tongue biblical hermeneutics need to advocate for support in order to make the approach popular. Mark, Morris sought to boost the delivery of theology that emanates from the African culture and philosophycal framework. He added that contextualization is a conducive strategy to produce balanced theology that is Scripturally accurate and context relevant.
Prof. Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh
Managing Editor
Perez University College / Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon Ghana.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] George Ossom-Batsa, “African Interpretation of the Bible in Communicative Perspective,” Ghana Bulletin of Theology 2 (2007): 91-104.
[2] Musa W. Dube, “Reading for decolonization (John 4:1–42),” Semeia 75 (1996): 37–59.
[3] John D. K. Ekem, Early Scriptures of the Gold Coast (Ghana): The Historical, Linguistic, and Theological Settings of the Gã, Twi, Mfantse, and Ewe Bibles (Rome and Manchester, UK: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura and St. Jerome Publishing, 2011), 19; Benhardt Y. Quarshie, “Doing Biblical Studies in the African Context – the Challenge of Mother-Tongue Scriptures,” Journal of African Christian Thought Vol. No. 1 (2002): 4-14; Jonathan E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, “Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics: A Current Trend in Biblical Studies in Ghana,” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies (JETERAPS) 3(4) (2012): 575-579; Jonathan E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, “A comparative study of Matthew 6:12 and its parallel in some Ghanaian mother-tongue translations of the Bible; in Proceedings of International Conference on Research and Development, Vol. 3, No. 4, ed., Freda M. Nekang (Accra: Pan-African Book Company, 2010): 62-66; Jonathan E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, “Interpretations of mias gunaikos andra (1Tim. 3:2a) in some Ghanaian mother-tongue translations of the Bible,” Journal of African Biblical Studies, Ghana Association of Biblical Exegetes (GABES) Publication. Vol.3 (January 2011): 43-61.
[4] Musa W. Dube, “Reading for decolonization (John 4:1–42),” Semeia 75 (1996): 37–59.
[5] George Ossom-Batsa, “African Interpretation of the Bible in Communicative Perspective,” Ghana Bulletin of Theology 2 (2007): 91-104
[6] Jean-Claude Loba Mkole, “Beyond Just Wages. An Intercultural Analysis of Mt. 20:1- 16,” Journal of Early Christian History 4/1 (2014): 112-134; Jean-Claude Loba Mkole, “The New Testament and Intercultural Exegesis in Africa, in New Testament Interpretations in Africa,” (Special Issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament 30/1, Sheffield: SAGE, 2007b), 7-28; J. S. Ukpong, “Inculturation hermeneutics: An African approach to Biblical interpretation,” in D. Walter & L. Ulrich (eds.), The Bible in a world context: An experiment in contextual hermeneutics (William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI. 2002a), 17-32; J. S. Ukpong, “Reading the Bible with African eyes: Inculturation and hermeneutics,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 91 (1995a) 3–14; Chris U. Manus, Intercultural hermeneutics in Africa: Methods and approaches (Nairobi: Acton 2003).
[7] M. Speckman, “African Biblical Hermeneutics on the Threshold? Appraisal and Wayforward,” Acta Theologica Suppl 24 (2016): 204-224; David Tuesday Adamo, Explorations in African Biblical Studies (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001); David Tuesday Adamo, “What is African Biblical Hermeneutics?” Black Theology, 13:1 (2015): 59-72; Benjamin Abotchie Ntreh, “Human Complicity in Flood Occurrence: An African Biblical Hermeneutical Reading of Genesis 6:5-8:22,” Illorin Journal of Religious Studies. Vol. 2. No. 2 (2012): 91-102; Benjamin Abotchie Ntreh, “The Survival of Earth: An African Reading of Psalm 104” in The Earth Story in the Psalms and the Prophets. The Earth Bible 4. Edited by Norman C. Habel (Sheffield Academic/The Pilgrim Press 2001), 98-108.
[8] Elizabeth Mburu, African Hermeneutics (Hammond, IN: HippoBooks, 2019).
[9] Gerald O. West, “Liberation Hermeneutics after Liberation in South Africa,” in Trajectories of Religion in Africa https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401210577_022; Gerald O. West, Contextual Bible Study (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 1993).
[10] Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh, “Inductive Biblical Interpretation and Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics: A Proposal for Pentecostal/Charismatic Ministries in Ghana Today,” The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies 3/2: (Summer 2016): 140-160.