Browsing by Author "Qina, Axolile Ntsika Mandaba"

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    Reading John’s gospel within its socio-political context : a rhetorical analysis of John 8:12-59
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Qina, Axolile Ntsika Mandaba; Mouton, Elna; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: John 8:44 is a verse that has often justified Christians’ traditionally negative attitude towards Judaism, by indicating that the Judeans’ father is the devil, hence supporting the historical labelling of Jews as “children of Satan”. This kind of embarrassment regarding the reception history of a text happens when we limit our interpretation to its linguistic context only, instead of accounting for the historical, ideological, and sociological dimensions of the text as well. Texts are usually written in response to changing social circumstances. It is important, then, to realise that when we approach the Bible in general, and the New Testament in particular, we are not reading about people or characters who have fixed, homogeneous, and hypostatised religious identities, but about groups who are developing and formulating their identity within a diverse and changing social milieu. Therefore, reading John 8:12-59 within its socio-political context, aims at exploring the identity of the characters involved by understanding the text within the socio-historical world from which it originated. A rhetorical analysis of John 8:12-59 within its socio-political context attempts, therefore, to solve the interpretation problem referred to above by accounting for the historical, ideological, and sociological contexts of its time.