Biblical interpretation – OralityTalks

Emotion Exegesis for Faithful Oral Bible Translation: Understanding the Emotional Dynamics of Scripture (Part 1)

Joshua C. Frost — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:35:28 +0000

While methods for tackling many of the issues that Bible translators commonly faced have already been refined over the decades, Bible translators have, by and large, not needed to translate the emotional dynamics of Scripture that could only be captured by voice. All of that is changing now that oral Bible translation has come onto the scene. In the last decade, oral Bible translation has grown from translation projects in a few dozen languages to translations in around a thousand languages. This 2-part paper presents a summary of my thesis findings on the topic of emotion exegesis for Bible translation. In the first part of the paper, I present three theoretical perspectives that Bible translators need to understand emotions in light of recent scientific discoveries.

Watch the related webinar presentation.

Check out further resources about orality in holistic hermeneutics at OralityResources.International.

Resources

The Bible in Culture: Reading the Bible With All the World Using Ethnohermeneutics

Josafá Correia — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 03:09:59 +0000

Ethnohermeneutics is a discipline born of necessity as Caldwell’s students in the Philippines struggled to grasp the Western grammatic-historical method of Bible interpretation. This book is the result of more than four decades of experience, including teaching hermeneutics and Caldwell’s research at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he earned his PhD in 1990. It addresses the challenge of interpreting the Bible while respecting the diverse cultures of the world and raises a critical question: Why can we no longer assume that our way is the best or only way?

Caldwell, L. (2025). The Bible in Culture: Reading the Bible With All the World Using Ethnohermeneutics. William Carey Publishing. ISBN 978 1 6450 8658 1.

Exegeting Orality: Interpreting the Inspired Words of Scripture in Light of Their Oral Traditional Origins

Janet Stahl — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 17:35:27 +0000

Nick Acker, an OT scholar, explores new discoveries in oral traditions and identifies several commonly used rhetorical features, such as repetition of themes, catchwords, patterns, and activation. He then demonstrates the recognition of these features in a text to help in the interpretation of portions of Judges, Habbakuk, the synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John, and portions of Paul’s epistle to the Romans.

Acker, N. (2024). Exegeting orality: Interpreting the inspired words of scripture in light of their oral traditional origins. Wipf & Stock. ISBN 978 1 6203 2942 9.