The role of historical-critical methodology in African Old Testament studies

Based on the observation that the historical-critical methodology used in mainstream biblical studies reflects 18th to 20th century western epistemology and hermeneutics, the article addresses the role of this methodology in African Old Testament studies as it has developed since 1960. African Old Testament studies – in relation to historical-critical methodology – is then approached in three steps: first its context, with a focus on institutional and methodological perspectives; then its content, with a focus on its preference for comparative perspectives; and finally a critical perspective, with a focus on the potential of historical-critical methodology – at least when consciously used – to express critical concerns vis-à-vis the challenge that faces Old Testament interpretative communities not only in contemporary Africa, but at all times and places, namely to be more than just a mirror of current religious, cultural and politi­cal power structures.publishedVersio

David Tuesday Adamo’s Academic Context: Nigerian Biblical Studies Navigating Between African Interpretive Concerns and Western Scholarly Traditions

All the contents of the OTE journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.The essay focuses on some aspects of Nigerian biblical studies, that is, Prof David Tuesday Adamo's immediate academic context. The core question of the essay is how the balance between African interpretive concerns and Western scholarly traditions has developed over the last four decades in the Nigerian guild of critical biblical studies. First, the 1980s were characterised by a more or less Western dominance but it saw the beginning of an institutionally and hermeneutically self-conscious Nigerian biblical studies. Second, the early 2020s are still characterised by Western dominance but it sees an increasing interest for interpretive concerns as those voiced by Nigerian biblical scholars. Professor Adamo has been part of the Nigerian guild of biblical studies throughout these four decades and his academic publications serve as an illustration of the material.publishedVersio

Pregnancy and psalms: Aspects of the healing ministry of a Nigerian prophet

The essay analyses the healing ministry of a prophet operating within one of the African Instituted Churches in Nigeria, and it focuses on his instrumental use of texts from the biblical Book of Psalms – read “into” olive oil and water – in connection with per¬sonal crises in relation to pregnancy. With some theory from glocal studies and postcolonial biblical hermeneutics, the prophet’s use of Psalms texts is related to the development of a contextually sensitive biblical studies.publishedVersio

The second commandment and the question of human dignity in Africa : a creation-theological perspective

CITATION: Holter, K. 2011. The second commandment and the question of human dignity in Africa : a creation-theological perspective. Scriptura, 106:51-60, doi:10.7833/106-0-146.The original publication is available at http://scriptura.journals.ac.zaIn a context focusing on the Decalogue in relation to the question of human dignity in Africa, two sets of texts interacting with the Second commandment from a creationtheological perspective are analyzed. One is the core of Deuteronomy 4, the other is four passages in Isaiah 40-55, and it is argued that both see the act of making ‘a graven image' as a perversion of the concept of the human being as created in the image of God. This interpretation of the Second commandment, relating it to a broader creation-theological discourse, may provide an interpretative model for contemporary readers of the Decalogue, in casu in relation to the question of human dignity in Africahttp://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/146Publisher's versio

Thou shalt not smoke: Content and context in the Lord’s Resistance Army’s concept of the Ten Commandments

With the Ten Commandments as a case, the overall focus of this article is how a reader’s a priori concept of a text influences how he or she allows textual content and interpretive context to interact. The frame of the article is the claim by the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda that they will establish a society built on the Ten Commandments, a claim that raises questions about what they mean with this reference to ‘Ten Commandments’. The article falls into two parts. The first part surveys some examples from the history of interpretation of the Ten Commandments, demonstrating contextual and terminological fluidity both in their biblical versions and in their postbiblical history of interpretation. With this insight, the second part discusses how LRA refers to the Ten Commandments in ways that demonstrate that the very concept ‘Ten Commandments’ is stronger than the details of their content. This enables the LRA to form ‘new commandments’ fitting with their ideology and struggle

The Theological Significance of Africa and Africans in the Bible

The essay discusses the potential of the theological significance of the so-called “African presence” in the Bible, that is, biblical texts referring to entities that today would be labelled “African,” in particular, references to Egypt and Cush. The focus, therefore, is on the encounter between these texts and the socio-religious experiences and concerns of contemporary African biblical studies. The essay concludes that the presence of “Africa and Africans” has the potential of balancing the universalistic trajectory of the Bible. Without a concrete example such as “Africa,” universalism would be empty rhetoric and without a universalistic frame of interpretation, the “African presence” would face the danger of simply repeating—although this time from an Afrocentric perspective—the ethnocentric fallacy we have seen so much of by Eurocentricists in the past. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2023/v36n1a13  

Bildeforbudet i det gamle testamente

En skal ikke lese lenge i Det gamle testamente (GT) før en ser at gudebilder â det være seg bilder av det gammeltestamentlige Israels egen JHWH eller av andre guder â ikke er videre populære. Det vil si, det er vel nettopp populære de er, det er det som er problemet, ifølge forfatterne av GT. Tekstene synes å forutsette en utbredt aksept av gudebilder blant folk flest, men sier samtidig at slik skal det ikke være! Derfor angripes gudebildene og alt deres vesen, tvers gjennom GTs ulike tekstgrupper, sjangere og tidsepoker

Å skape guder i menneskets bilde

A popularization of parts of the author's dissertation: Imago hominis : a study of Second Isaiah's idolproduction passages - Oslo University, 199