Divining John 7:53-8:11 for Textual Gender-Motivated Violence: A Postcolonial Approach
15 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2012
Date Written: March 7, 2012
Abstract
This paper, by use of a postcolonial feminist hermeneutics, critiques the text of John 7:53-8:11. In doing this, it pays attention to Exum’s theory that “exposing gender-motivated violence in biblical texts is a contribution feminist biblical literary criticism can make to the work of feminism as a political enterprise.” In this regard, it incorporates an African category ‘divination’ as fronted by Dube to show that John 7:53-8:11 is a text riddled with textual gender violence and its plain reading can be detrimental to the being of women. In the end this paper proposes an alternative reading of John 7:53-8:11.
Keywords: Postcolonial, Gender, Violence, Hermeneutics, Women, Bible, Feminist, African
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