From Orality to Orality by From Orality to Orality. A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible (2009)

Author:From Orality to Orality. A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible (2009)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

* Vernon K. Robbins suggests a continuum within a rhetorical culture in terms of intertextuality: reference, recitation, recontextualization, reconfiguration, and echo (“Oral, Rhetorical, and Literary Cultures,” 82–88).

An early influential biblical scholar in relation to issues of orality is Pieter J. J. Botha. Botha has done a great service by condensing Harris’ general study of ancient literacy as well as contributing his own insights in his approach to New Testament studies.34 An important assertion by Botha is that the media—orality and literacy—are not neutral. The media shape the message. “Communication media not only reflect culture but also influence it fundamentally.”35 Botha confronts recent biblical studies and accuses scholars of assuming a print bias in their research. “The thesis of this paper is that an unrecognized assumption underlies most exegetical activities, namely that writing implies a constant role and/or function in communication.”36 While admitting that every society uses oral strategies in communication, Botha pushes to recognize a distinction in societies where oral communication is highly valued. “Orality refers to the experience of words (and speech) in the habitat of sound.”37 Botha is not seeking to establish a great-divide theory, but recognizes that communication media are culture specific. For the first-century setting, a fusion of written and oral was used, a fusion that made use of the oral bias of the society. “Particularly, it is the insight that writing and speech are culturally embedded phenomena, similar to other social conventions, that we need to facilitate in a comprehensive approach to our texts.”38 Noting the predominance of orality, yet appreciating the gradation of literacy in antiquity, Botha understands literacy’s role in the service of orality. However, Botha notes an important point that will be discussed in greater detail below: the relationship of bureaucratic power with literacy. This aspect of power is linked to religion: “But more significantly, the written word itself exercised religious power . . . But the use of the written word to convey religious messages remained connected to the oral (this is so even for Paul).”39

Besides the link of political and religious authority to literacy, Botha pursues the function of literacy in letter writing. This is especially helpful in order to imagine the use of literacy in the New Testament epistles—especially Paul.40 Beginning more broadly, Botha corrects some potential anachronistic assumptions about first-century literacy. Education does not equal literacy: “In Greco-Roman societies one could be educated without having the ability to read and write.”41 “To describe the Hellenistic age as an oral world does not mean that the people were not familiar with writing and did not employ writing during their lives . . . Writing was a product and a commodity to be sold, not an intellectual process . . . Whatever we make of ancient letters, orality was part and parcel of the whole process . . . The point to see is that they are texts that originated as and were designed for oral presentations.”42 The critical point about letter writing in an oral setting—specifically of the first century—is the communal and auditory components.

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