Orality And The Scriptures

In this groundbreaking work, Bible translation is presented as an expression of contextualization that explores the neglected riches of the verbal arts in the New Testament. Going beyond a historical study of media in antiquity, this book explores a renewed interest in oral performance that informs methods and goals of Bible translation today. Such exploration is concretized in the New Testament translation work in central Africa among the Vute people of Cameroon. This study of contextualization appreciates the agency of local communities--particularly in Africa--who seek to express their Christian faith in response to anthropological pauperization. An extended analysis of African theologians demonstrates the ultimate goals of contextualization: liberation and identity. Oral performance exploits all the senses in experiencing communication while performer, text, and audience negotiate meaning. Performance not only expresses but also shapes identity as communities express their faith in varied contexts. This book contends that the New Testament compositions were initially performed and not restricted to individualized, silent reading. This understanding encourages a reexamination of how Bible translation can be done. Performance is not a product but a process that infuses biblical studies with new insights, methods, and expressions.

What does "orality" (oral forms of discourse) have to do with the "Scriptures," a corpus of sacred written documents? The aim of these essays is to reveal how the field of "orality studies" concerns the manifold process of composing, translating, and transmitting the diverse texts of Scriptures. This oft-neglected oral/aural dimension of communication provides us with a sharper perception of and greater appreciation for the various literary features of the biblical writings and their associated semantic and spiritual implications. Part One, ORIENTATION, overviews the principal aspects of orality studies: key terms, methodologies, as well as controversies about the transmission of Scripture. Part Two, DOCUMENTATION, presents three illustrative "case studies" involving composition, featuring full-text analyses that expound an oral-oriented, literary-rhetorical "hearing" of Isaiah 66, John 17, and Philippians. Part Three, APPLICATION, invites readers to engage more actively with translating the biblical text by critically considering four additional passages from an oral-aural "soundpoint"-Song of Songs 8, Revelation 5, Philemon, and 1 Corinthians 13. The final chapter encourages the application of an orality-based methodology, to achieve an exegetically accurate, yet artistically dynamic transmission of the Bible in today's media-rich world. The book thus seeks to motivate its readers-whether teachers, students, translators, or mass-media communicators-to always lend a sensitive ear to the text whenever they engage the Scriptures. "Throughout this book, Wendland progressively, and with increasing intensity, draws our attention to an enormous amount of detailed examples of the manifold poetic and rhetorical phenomena encoded in biblical orature. The cumulative effect of these detailed examples builds a powerful case for the necessity of recognizing and exploiting the expressive nature and potential of biblical oral arts. Clearly, oral verbal arts communicate much more than "mere words." As Wendland puts it, they also 'animate hearts'" (from the Foreword). Ernst R. Wendland (Ph.D., African Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin) is an instructor at Lusaka Lutheran Seminary and a dissertation examiner in Zambian languages at the University of Zambia. A former UBS Translation Consultant, he still serves as Professor Extraordinary in the Centre for Bible Interpretation and Translation in Africa, Department of Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

In the current context of globalization, relocation of cultures, and rampant technologizing of communication, orality has gained renewed interest across disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. Orality has shed its once negative image as primitive, non-literate, and exotic, and has grown into a major area of scientific interest and the focus of interdisciplinary research, including translation studies. As an important feature of human speech and communication, orality has featured prominently in studies related to pre-modernist traditions, modernist representations of human history, and postmodernist expressions of artistry such as in music, film, and other audiovisual media. Its wide appeal can be seen in the variety of this volume, in which contributors draw from a range of disciplines with orality as the point of intersection with translation studies. This book is unique in its exploration of orality and translation from an interdisciplinary perspective, and sets the groundwork for collaborative research among scholars across disciplines with an interest in the aesthetics and materiality of orality. This book was originally published as a special issue of Translation Studies.

The concept of 'scripture' as written religious text is re-examined, considering orally distributed sacred writings.

For too long, critical biblical studies have applied modern textual assumptions to ancient oral cultures. Exegeting Orality challenges many of these modern approaches, distilling decades of studies in oral traditions to redirect pastors and scholars toward a more accurate narrative of biblical origins, identity, and meaning. Many works in the area of orality, textuality, performance criticism, and media studies focus on critical issues. Exegeting Orality guides pastors and scholars through a brief introduction to these fields, emphasizing biblical inspiration, interpretation, and proclamation. This work honors the rich oral traditional foundations of the inspired canon, urging a transformative shift in how we interpret the Bible. The stories we believe define us. The Bible is not just a text to be studied but a record of voices from the past who performed our definitive stories. The Bible is a tradition to be reproclaimed and reenacted in the community of faith. Let us not recast these ancient voices into modern epistemological molds without letting them speak from within their own cultural realities. Their voices still call out to us through the abiding Holy Spirit who connects us all to the story of Jesus. May we live out that ancient story today together.

How did the visual, the oral, and the written interrelate in antiquity? The essays in this collection address the competing and complementary roles of visual media, forms of memory, oral performance, and literacy and popular culture in the ancient Mediterranean world. Incorporating both customary and innovative perspectives, the essays advance the frontiers of our understanding of the nature of ancient texts as regards audibility and performance, the vital importance of the visual in the comprehension of texts, and basic concepts of communication, particularly the need to account for disjunctive and non-reciprocal social relations in communication. Thus the contributions show how the investigation of the interface of the oral and written, across the spectrum of seeing, hearing, and writing, generates new concepts of media and mediation.

Religious scholars take up various questions relating to the relationship between orality and literacy in the context of colonized people in antiquity, and explore the role of orality in relation to this hegemony. Among the topics are theoretical and methodological foundations, Mithra's cult as an example of religious colonialism in Roman times, th

This classic work explores the vast differences between oral and literate cultures offering a very clear account of the intellectual, literary and social effects of writing, print and electronic technology. In the course of his study, Walter J. Ong offers fascinating insights into oral genres across the globe and through time, and examines the rise of abstract philosophical and scientific thinking. He considers the impact of orality-literacy studies not only on literary criticism and theory but on our very understanding of what it is to be a human being, conscious of self and other. This is a book no reader, writer or speaker should be without.

Stories of Glory: An Orality Journey Through the Bible is the instructor's manual for the Metanarrative Bible course of God's grand redemptive story. It is comprised of fifty compelling stories from Genesis through Revelation with supporting biblical passages to expound on the storyline. The book is complete with initial questions for each story and then detailed, reflective, and life application questions to enrich class discussions after the story presentation. The crafting of the book was designed to provide practical training for the pastors, church leaders, or church planters in apologetics, homiletics, theology, and leadership with orality methods of teaching and preaching the Word of God.It is my prayer that after a person complete the Stories of Glory: An Orality Journey Through the Bible course they will acquire an increased knowledge and understanding of the biblical metanarrative, God's covenantal love, His faithful commitment to the redemption of His people, and His longing for an authentic relationship with each one of us. I also hope that they will gain greater confidence to embrace their significance in God's grand story with the ability to think through life situations from a biblical worldview and apply the beauty of God's unconditional love to their lives. To God be the glory! Amen. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:14 NIV)