An Issue of Relevance

As the center of the Christian world has migrated south, especially into Sub-Saharan Africa, a growing and dynamic African biblical scholarship has emerged. Prominent among the texts that have grabbed the interest of African biblical scholars is the gospel story of « the woman with the flow of blood (Mark 5:25-34; Matthew 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48). This book compares traditional North Atlantic scholarship on this gospel story with the new insights of African biblical studies in order to test the contention that these two versions of biblical scholarship are substantially different. In particular, this book argues that scholarships in the North Atlantic and African worlds differ in their conceptions of the goal of exegesis. For African scholars practical hermeneutical concerns are considered central to the exegetical task.