Keywords
redaction criticism
Amos
Isaiah
How to Cite
Abstract
Though the state, the church, theology, and biblical interpretation have been considered ‘sites of struggle’ by South Africa’s liberation theologies, the Bible has not. This article reappraises the work of South African Black theologian Itumeleng Mosala (thirty years later) and considers his particular understanding of the Bible as a site of struggle, drawing as he does on redaction criticism. The article analyses Mosala’s notion of the ideological dimensions of redaction criticism, clarifies some of the concepts Mosala uses, argues for the role of literary methods in redactional criticism, and advocates for the inclusion of the ‘exploited classes’ in the exegesis as well as the appropriation of biblical texts.
References
Black, C. Clifton. "Redaction Criticism: New Testament." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, edited by Steven L. McKenzie, 240-51. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Boer, Roland. "The Sacred Economy of Ancient 'Israel'." Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament: An International Journal of Nordic Theology 21, no. 1 (2007): 29-48.
Brett, Mark G. Biblical Criticism in Crisis? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
———. "Imperial Imagination in Isaiah 56-66." In Isaiah and Imperial Context: The Book of Isaiah in the Times of Empire, edited by Andrew T. Abernethy, Mark G. Brett, Tim Bulkeley and Tim Meadowcroft, 167-81. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2013.
Carr, David M. "Source Criticism." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, edited by Steven L. McKenzie, 318-26. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Chaney, Marvin L. "Bitter Bounty: The Dynamics of Political Economy Critiqued by the Eighth-Century Prophets." In The Bible and Liberation: Political and Social Hermeneutics, edited by Norman K Gottwald and Richard A Horsley, 250-63. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993.
———. "Micah - Models Matter: Political Economy and Micah 6:9-15." In Ancient Israel: The Old Testament in Its Social Context, edited by Philip F. Esler, 145-60. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006.
Coote, Robert B. Amos among the Prophets: Composition and Theology. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1981.
Gottwald, Norman K. "A Hypothesis About Social Class in Monarchic Israel in the Light of Contemporary Studies of Social Class and Social Stratification." In The Hebrew Bible in Its Social World and in Ours, edited by Norman K. Gottwald, 139-64. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993.
———. "Sociological Method in the Study of Ancient Israel." In The Bible and Liberation: Political and Social Hermeneutics, edited by Norman K. Gottwald and Richard A. Horsley, 142-53. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993.
Horsley, Richard A., ed. Oral Performance, Popular Tradition, and Hidden Transcript in Q Vol. 60, Semeia Studies. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006.
ICT. The Road to Damascus: Kairos and Conversion. Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1989.
Kairos. Challenge to the Church: The Kairos Document: A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa. Braamfontein: The Kairos theologians, 1985.
Kugler, Robert. "Redaction Criticism: Apocrypha and Deuterocanonical Books." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, edited by Steven L. McKenzie, 232-40. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Leonard, Gary S.D. (Compiler). "The Kairos Documents." Ujamaa Centre, http://ujamaa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/manuals/The_Kairos_Documents.sflb.ashx.
Mbembe, Achille. On the Postcolony [in English]. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Mosala, Itumeleng J. Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.
———. "Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa." PhD, University of Cape Town, 1987.
———. "The Use of the Bible in Black Theology." In The Unquestionable Right to Be Free: Essays in Black Theology, edited by Itumeleng J. Mosala and Buti Tlhagale, 175-99. Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1986.
Nolan, Albert. God in South Africa: The Challenge of the Gospel. Cape Town: David Philip, 1988.
Okure, Teresa. "Feminist Interpretation in Africa." In Searching the Scriptures: A Feminist Introduction, edited by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, 76-85. New York: Crossroads, 1993.
Olson, Dennis T. "Literary and Rhetorical Criticism." In Methods for Exodus, edited by Thomas B. Dozeman, 13-54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Pleins, David J. The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible: A Theological Introduction. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
Römer, Thomas. "Redaction Criticism: Hebrew Bible." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, edited by Steven L. McKenzie, 223-32. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990.
Speckman, McGlory T., and Larry T. Kaufmann, eds. Towards an Agenda for Contextual Theology: Essays in Honour of Albert Nolan. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2001.
Terreblanche, Sampie. A History of Inequality in South Africa, 1652-2002. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 2002.
West, Gerald O. "Explicating Domination and Resistance: A Dialogue between James C. Scott and Biblical Scholars." In Hidden Transcripts and the Arts of Resistance: Applying the Work of James C. Scott to Jesus and Paul, edited by Richard A. Horsley. Semeia Studies, 173-94. Atlanta and Leiden: SBL and E.J. Brill, 2004.
———. "Newsprint Theology: Bible in the Context of HIV and AIDS." In Out of Place: Doing Theology on the Crosscultural Brink, edited by Jione Havea and Clive Pearson, 161-86. London: Equinox Publishing, 2011.
———. "The Not So Silent Citizen: Hearing Embodied Theology in the Context of HIV and AIDS in South Africa." In Heterotopic Citizen: New Research on Religious Work for the Disadvantaged, edited by Trygve Wyller, 23-42. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009.
———, ed. Reading Other-Wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with Their Local Communities, Semeia Studies, vol. 62. Atlanta and Leiden: Society of Biblical Literature and EJ Brill, 2007.
———. The Stolen Bible: From Tool of Imperialism to African Icon. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
———. "Tracing the 'Kairos' Trajectory from South Africa (1985) to Palestine (2009): Discerning Continuities and Differences." Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 143 (2012): 4-22.
West, Gerald O., and Sithembiso Zwane. "“Why Are You Sitting There?†Reading Matthew 20:1-16 in the Context of Casual Workers in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa." In Matthew: Texts@Contexts, edited by Nicole Duran Wilkinson and James Grimshaw, 175-88. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013.
Whybray, R. N. Isaiah 40-66 [in English]. London: Oliphants, 1975.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).