Ideology and Bible Translation: Can Biblical Performance Criticism Help?

Abstract

Biblical performance criticism (BPC) is a provincial practice with particular North American and European historical indices. When entering into a new context, this methodological genealogy needs to be recognized, because within those indices overt and covert interests are served. In order for BPC to be contextualized to serve local interests, it must recognize practices on the ground and how those practices have already been shaped or reshaped to serve local interests. I will highlight three practices in the Bik m context of Ghana to see how their ideological pathways have been (re)shaped to serve local interests: written Bible translation, oral tradition, and preaching. I will discuss two examples where written Bible translation has partially imitated the pathways of oral tradition and sermonic practice to better serve local interests. Then I will discuss the material dimensions of written Bibles and oral tradition as instructive for the way BPC materially contextualizes. Finally, I will suggest that if contextual Bible study as developed in South Africa could be adapted for the Bik m context, it could be helpful to Bible interpreters, translators, and performers as they seek to embed their Bible practices in locally controlled ways that foster local liberation.

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