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Can Illiterate People do Hermeneutics?
Author: Gilles
Date: 22.07.2010
Category: Orality
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Can an illiterate person do hermeneutics? That question may sound odd to some people, and it may seem like a good question to others, especially Western seminary-trained pastors. In the West, hermeneutics has typically been viewed almost like a hard science. That is, through good exegesis we know reasonably well what the words means. Then after combing that with scholarly Biblical and Historical theology we can arrive at a fairly precise interpretation of a Bible passage. The assumption is that the interpretation would be the same validated understanding for people anywhere. If hermeneutics really is a scientific process, then how could an illiterate oral processer ever participate in doing hermeneutics? How could oral Bible storying accomplish this?
First, the former view assumes that interpreting the meaning of a Bible passage in cultural context is the same as interpreting the meaning of biblical words in the original languages (exegesis). At least, it seems that is how Bible interpretation became during the western modern period; a written text-oriented activity, analyzing words then producing interpretations that were assumed to be universally valid.
Maybe that is why the “written biblical text” has lost so much relevancy in the West. Emergent church writers seem confused over the two as well. This is not necessarily so for oral processors. As the oral telling of scripture spreads among majority world cultures these days, they are doing hermeneutics in very dynamic and relevant ways. They revere the biblical text (the exegesis), but as a living communication where listening rather than reading is the same as listening to God. After all, it is His words. The oral processing of that communication in community is producing some very good and culturally relevant interpretations for the local tellers and listeners. Could it be because Holy Scripture is moving off the printed pages and back into the community where such conversations, learning and application can occur? What do you think?
Keywords: oral bible storying, hermenuetics, interpretation, exegesis, orality
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United States
I think you might be on the right track! When scholars exegsis the written text, they may un intentionally have a preconcieve notion as to what the text is revealing to them and to others. In the oral processing, it reaches the people where they are at in the moment. Perhaps that is what God intended for the people. It is so much easier for me to listen to someone speak the words from the Bible and then teach it to me verbally than it it for me to read and interpret for myself. When I had a Bible Study at my home for a while, I noticed that if the words were read aloud and no one read along, the people paid more attention. It seemed that they heard more from God that way.
11.07.2011
United States
@ MzBoom:
Yes, I believe illiterate people can do hermeneutics. An illiterate person will just explan what they are hearing and to the point. It is good you had someone read the bible out loud at Bible Study. Just orally reading something can have a better effect sometimes than reading to oneself silently.
16.07.2011
United States
Thanks for this posting. I agree with the comment made about the Holy Scriptures moving off the pages and back into communities. These conversations are good. They help the people to grow in their understanding. They help to meet people where they are. The word of God is alive and will accomplish what it is set out to do.
16.07.2011
United States
@ lmorrison:
We must remember that scripturre was first taught orally. Then it is possible that people interpreted the scripture by what they heard and the knowledge that they had of the culture at that time. So exegesis would be easy from them.
16.07.2011
United States
In my experience I encountered that oral learners tend to accept stories (including Bible stories) holistically without selecting out individual truths to emphasize. I encountered this as I began teaching Bible stories in rural villages and among tribal peoples. There was a reticence to deconstruct a story into component truths in order to examine each truth. Later I decided that their acceptance of stories holistically was like eating a bowl of soup. When tasted, soup is good/not good. Most of us do not begin to pick pieces of vegetables out of the soup to examine each piece and comment on it. If for some reason the soup does not taste good on the first spoonful or two, then we reject the soup—the whole bowl and not just individual components (now I know that some folks do dip out things they don’t like, so no illustration is perfect!)
Many years ago one of the missionaries with my organization told of an experience with an elderly African man. The man had just heard the whole story of Joseph. Following the story the missionary wanted the listeners to call out the things they learned from the larger story with all its component episodes. The man reflected for a moment and replied, “Joseph never forgot his family.” In essence that is a holistic view of the Joseph story. Usually the most I could do in many situations was to get listeners to mention what they thought the story or passage was saying that God wanted them to do or not do.
In working with pastors in these places I found they did not do a hermeneutical study of the passages or stories in preparing to preach. Instead they tended to take a single holistic truth from it and then in effect to circle that truth, either in a sort of spiral by circling it in explanation or description, or they sort of bracketed the truth like petals on a daisy by mentioning things related to the truth or mentioning common experiences and then coming back to stress the truth before developing another petal.
The closest thing I experienced to any evidence of hermeneutical preparation was in the Philippines where many rural pastors used a form of proof-texting in which they would mention some truth in a passage and then quote a proof text scripture and reference that affirmed it.
Even those with some theological training did not do well with difficult or convoluted apologetic passages. They worked best either with slogan passages like: Taste and see that the Lord is good. Or they liked the simple miracle and parable passages.
Having said all this I will admit that in teaching sessions with rural pastors they devoured hermeneutical teaching. They were hungry to learn. But in their culture one does not always pick apart a story to discuss the pieces apart from the overall message the story or passage conveys. The story is, well, THE STORY.
There is an inherent caution here in training pastors to learn hermeneutical study habits. If that mainly helped them to understand the passage so they could then preach it in the best cultural pattern for their people, well and good. But if it encourages them to simply bring the piecemeal hermeneutical study to the pulpit and preach it to the people in many points, it may not be received as well by a congregation that is truly oral and that learns best from messages that have a truly oral format.
I longed for the day when the pastors I worked with could study Bible passages, get the correct meaning—especially in light of the whole Bible—and then be able to competently bring it before their own people. Most of these rural pastors who could read their Bibles still lacked any study resources at all. Their Bible was it. Any kind of study notes was a treasure like gold. So they need hermeneutical teaching but they also need modeling to see how to bring this wealth of scriptural knowledge to their people in portions the congregations can handle and in a form they can receive and understand. May God bless and prosper these emerging pastors in their calling and understanding of God’s Word so they can feed their own people.
14.08.2010
United States
Oral learners can definitely learn to interpret the Bible accurately. In Kenya a group of nonreaders learned 170 biblical stories that they could tell from memory. In Sudan a group of oral communicators learned 135 biblical stories in chronological order that they could tell from memory. In each case the leaders of the training observed that when people had learned between 50-70 biblical stories, they showed a sharp increase in their ability to interpret accurately biblical stories that they had never heard before.
As a former teacher of biblical hermeneutics, I found this very interesting. I theorize that knowing that many biblical stories arranged in a panorama of Scripture gave them the two foundational principles of biblical hermeneutics. First, they interpreted each new biblical story in light of the context of the whole of Scripture. Second, they were able to compare Scripture with Scripture. They used a "pattern-matching" process. That is, they searched their memories for a similar story that they already knew and used that to help them interpret the new one correctly.
In addition, the 50-70 stories had already given them a strong grasp of the nature of God. They had learned that he is consistent in his character and his ways. So they used that knowlege to interpret stories as well. If an interpretation seemed to run contrary to the nature of God that they knew from all the other biblical stories, they knew it was suspect.
I don’t know that oral learners will get to the point where they can easily talk about hermeneutics as an art and science, but I have seen that they are quite good at actually interpreting new biblical stories in light of the ones they already know. There’s more to the Bible than stories, of course, but if one can get those right, it’s a good start toward interpreting the rest of Scripture well.
12.08.2010
United States
The last question in this article was signifcant for a couple of reasons "Could it be because Holy Scripture is moving off the printed pages and back into the community where such conversations, learning and application can occur?"
First, the Holy Scriptures originated in an oral fashion - how they came to be compiled under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is a side issue. They were divinely designed to be heard and shared in community - from the narratives of Genesis and the Gospels, certainly the Psalms and Proverbs, as well to the apostolic letters and the apocalypse. That said, perhaps we can consider the possibility that the Scriptures are returning to their roots and bringing us along for the journey back into a learning, spiritual community.
Second, despite hundreds of years of printed materials since Gutenberg (thousands before that in papyri , ink, parchment, etc.) widespread literacy is relatively recent. God’s stories were read from pulpits for centuries to oral cultures worldwide. The grand cathedrals, art and music verbiage remind us of the many attempts to communicate God’s revelation through "story, symbol and song" as we say at Freedom to Lead.
Oral learners were the first exegetes - they did not have to come from the outside to get the context or meaning of words. We are the ones on the outside attempting to get back into their shoes or sandals! The rising numbers of brothers and sisters in Christ who are from cultures close to the oral community have much to teach us. We would do well to listen and learn that we may avoid being fruitless eisegetes and remain faithful exegetes of His Word.
11.08.2010
United States
The question of hermeneutics is critical in light of the many off-the-cuff interpretations by whoever is looking for biblica supoprt for his or her position. Rules of interpretation are necessary to minimize misinterpretation and most importantly making the text say whatever we like it to say. I have written a series of articles on Hermeneutics in missiology. Please visit http://biblicalmissiology.org and leave comments.
31.07.2010
South Africa
Great post. We need more published in this area. As well, it is amzing the theology that comes from oral communictors as they internalize, discuss and apply God’s Word. Thanks!
23.07.2010
Paraguay
Great post. You got me thinking about the definition of hermeneutics, and what better place to go for definitions than Wikipedia. Check this out.
Biblical Hermenuetics— refers to the study of the interpretation of written texts, especially texts in the areas of literature, religion and law.
OK. So it seems that strictly speaking oral-learners would have a tough time with this because it deals with text. But look at the definition that follows.
Contemporary, or modern, hermeneutics encompasses not only issues involving the written text, but everything in the interpretative process. This includes verbal and nonverbal forms of communication as well as prior aspects that affect communication, such as presuppositions, preunderstandings, the meaning and philosophy of language, and semiotics.
Now that’s pretty highfalutin language there and I don’t know what it all means, so I am not ready to endorse “modern hermeneutics”, but it might be interesting to look into.
But I digress.
You asked “Could it be because Holy Scripture is moving off the printed pages and back into the community where such conversations, learning and application can occur?”
I do think that Scripture is moving off the printed page and back into community, but how can we encourage this process and yet still retain the canon of scripture. I believe we can do this through the recording of scripture so that believers can become “Berean like” and check what they hear against the very words of God. They can refine their stories by returning to the the unchanging word in recorded form.
Here in Paraguay we have taught our leaders how to listen to scripture in Guarani using a small mp3 player. They gather together asking God to lead them and then they listen again and again to a portion of scripture until they know what they want to teach or how they want to tell what they just heard. When there is consensus, they tell each other the story until everyone has it, and then later that week they pass the story on to there families and groups.
Another way we use the recorded Canon came up the other day. I asked a non-believer if she knew any Bible stories and she said, “Oh yes, there is one my dad told us often”. It was the story of the prodigal son. She began the story with an very illustrative extra-Biblical introduction and then proceeded to tell the rest of the story pretty well. I was able to tell the story of a carpenter who was asked to build a set of 6 chairs for a family he knew. He measured carefully the first chair with his tape measure, but after that he always used the previously made chair to make his measurements for the next one. When he was finished, he lined up all the chairs side by side and they were all different sizes. Because he didn’t continue to use the measure for each chair.
After telling the story I told them that was just like our stories, we need to keep going back to the measuring tape which is the Bible to make sure our stories always stay accurate and as precise as we can make them. At that point I pulled out the audio Bible I had and we listened to the story from God’s Word. After listening she realized that she or her father had changed the story a little bit.
So I say “amen” get scripture of the written page, but let’s seek oral ways to maintain the Canon.
22.07.2010
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