This thesis looks at different stages of African reception and appropriation of the Bible in African prophecy. The researcher tried to separate the Bible from Christianity in order to understand the different stages of the reception of the Bible in Africa. The researcher uses Isaiah Shembe's appropriation of the Bible as a case study of how Africans accepted and interpreted the Bible.
I think the study of the reception of the Bible in the Nazarene church of Shembe must take its oral basis seriously. Rather, they are intended to open up the question of the early reception of the Bible in Southern Africa for further discussion (2002:40). How can we use African prophetic interpretations of the Bible as resources for the development of African biblical scholarship in Africa.
Research Methods
Delimitation
Chapter four deals specifically with the interpretation and appropriation of the Bible by the Church of the Nazarene. In other words, hymns and Shembe's sermons show that he lived in the world of the Bible. So one cannot talk about the reception of the Bible in Africa apart from Western colonialism.
Opland argued that Mgqwetho's poetry can be seen to both affirm and deny the Bible. Her claim implies that Africans were observers in the process of receiving the Bible in Africa. This chapter focused on the various phases of the Bible's early encounters with Africans.
The result was that most of the stories in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, reflected their stories. I would argue that the appropriation of the Bible in the Nazarite Church of Shembe takes seriously the believer's experience of faith.
Shembe and the Bible
In this chapter we will also try to analyze several sermons preached by the Nazarites, selected hymns of the Nazarites, and some interviews conducted in various temples of the Nazarites. Axel-Ivar Berglund, he told me that Shembe had a great respect for the Bible, in such a way that he never uses the name 'Bible' instead, he called it imibhalo engcwele (Holy Scripture). What strikes me most about the use of the Bible in the Nazarite Church of Shembe is the way the story of Shembe becomes the story of each member.
This is indicated by the fact that people come from all parts of the world to see how Shembe and the presence of Sundkler himself testify to this reality. Perhaps this is because Shembe did not consider the Boers to be the legal owners of the land in South Africa. I cannot speculate in what way, but it is picked up towards the end of the sermon where a narrative about Isaiah Sembe is told.
That is why I agree with Sundkler when he asserts: "On Shembe himself and his followers there was never any hesitation in their realization of the fundamental difference between God and his "servant". One of the prominent leaders in the Shembe Church, Evangelist Ntuli , argued that it was not Sembe who said he was God, but it was his followers. Some people among the Nazarites argued that we call Sembe "God" because of the works he performs.
Therefore, for the theological concept of Shembe, healing, baptism, Holy Communion in the evening and foot washing. 2This is my translation of the Zulu version of Dube's account of Isaiah Shembe in the Book entitled uShembe, 1936, p.31. I think that the understanding of God in Shembe Church of the Nazarene is a complex understanding and is to some extent influenced by the Zulu understanding of the Supreme Being.
3Note that the argument that the gender of the Holy Spirit is masculine is rather superficial because the Greek text in John 14:26 has1'0 nv£ut-tu 1'0 aytov (the Holy Spirit), This Greek word is neuter, meaning, that it is neither masculine nor feminine.
The Sermons of the Nazarites Church of Shembe
Nazirite sermons force the preacher to relate Isaiah Shembe's story to each member's story. These stories are not abstract, but come from people's life experiences. In a way, the life experience of the believer is connected in a special way with the Holy Scriptures.
Thus demons, evil spirits and all other misfortunes are cast out by the power of the Word of God, the Bible. It seems to me that the sermons of the Nazarenes are relevant to the life situation of the people. One cannot conclude a study of the Bible in the Nazarene Church of Shembe without looking at the hymns of the Nazarene Church.
In the hymns of the Nazarites we can record the beliefs and beliefs of the Nazarites. So in the hymns of the Nazirites we get a glimpse of what Shembe believed and hoped for. The hymns of the Nazarites also give us context and highlight the problems Shembe and his community faced.
He alludes to images or hints of language, but no direct reference to the Bible. Here again we must note the indirect use of the Bible in the above hymn. The psalms of Isaiah Shembe function in the same way as the psalms of the Bible in the history of Israel.
In fact some of Shembe's hymns are full of the language of the Psalms of the Bible.
Conclusion
For example, West notes that "the history of the Bible and its interpretation has been a history of women being silenced. Women of the Bible have been silenced and women who have interpreted the Bible have been silenced." In this chapter we will look at the actions of the Nazarite women and their position in the Church.
I think that if Jephthah's daughter had reacted differently, she would have become the center of the story and our attention would have been drawn to Jephthah's audacity. In this chapter we will look at Shembe's use of the laws (imithetho) regarding women. In the previous chapter I mentioned that people sit in the temples of the Nazarite Church according to gender and hierarchy.
It should be noted that women, as in most other churches, constitute a large number of women in the Nazarite Church. This does not mean that women do not play a role in the Nazarite Church of Shembe. I don't think Shembe women like being left out of leading the service and other important matters in the church.
What is remarkable in the Nazarite Church of Shembe is that inhlonipho (respect) is more important. The Nazarite laws largely speak to how women and men should behave both in the Church and at home. Apart from this law on virginity, there are a number of taboos associated with women in the Nazarite Church of Shembe.
This distinction was embodied in the way the Nazarites employed the opposition's concepts of purity and pollution.
Conclusion
Comparisons and contrasts between Isaiah Shembe and George Khambule 1. Introduction
Background of George Khambule (1884-1949)
Using Khambule's diaries, which contain the liturgy of the church, he found the language to be an echo of the language of revelation. After giving this brief background of George Khambule and his iBandla labaNazaretha in Telezini, Nquthu, I would like to give this church's practice and appropriation of the Bible in comparison with the iBandla lamaNazaretha of Isaiah Shembe. The power and presence of the Holy Spirit displayed in external events in prophetic predictions becomes much more evident in the healing of the sick.
They are houses where the sick are believed to be healed of various diseases by the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the healing staff. To be a member of George Khambule's Church, you must enter into the marriage of the lamb. This was how Khambule interpreted and understood the descent of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and the marriage of the lamb.
The biblical reference for this hymn is the Book of Revelation 14:4, where it speaks of the wedding of the Lamb. Even though the Church of the Saints (iBandla labaHinzi) did not last very long, it left some marks on how Africans can contribute to the hermeneutical tools for studying and appropriating the Bible. In this chapter, it became apparent that culture and African worldview became a key hermeneutical tool in the appropriation of the Bible in Africa.
The purpose of this paper was to explore the reception of the Bible in African prophecy. This was done by looking at the Church of the Nazarene in Shembe and comparing the practices of that church with George Khambule's Church of the Saints (ibandla labaHenzi). The Church of the Nazarene in Shembe seems to have found a way of interpreting the Bible that makes sense and appeals to many African Bible readers.
The hymns, sermons and customs of the Nazarite Church in Shembe are typical examples of how both aspects of Western and African customs can be combined to renew our communities.
Bibliography
34; The Bible as Poisoned Onion, Icon and Oracle: The Reception of the Printed Sacred Text in Oral and Rest-Oral South Africa". 34; Folk Religions as Identity Support - Based on the Mexican-American Experience in the United States" in Abraham K.C and Mbuy-Beya Bemadette (ed.), Spirituality of the Third. 34; Marginalization, Ambiguity, Silencing: The Story of Jephthah's Daughter" in Brenner, A. ed.), Feminist Companion to Judges.
34;Power House, Prison House- An Oral Genre and its use in Isaiah Shembe's Nazareth Baptist Church".Journal of Southern African Studies, Vo!. 34;Spirituality and Transformation in Black Theology" i Abraham K.C og Mbuy-Beya Bernadette (red. .), Spiritualitet af. Teresa Okure (red), To Cast fire on the earth: Bible and Mission collaborating in now's multicultural global context,s.91-97.
1989. Race, Class, and Gender as Hermeneutical Factors in the Appropriation of Scripture by African Independent Churches. 34; The Image of the Book In Xhosa Oral Poetry" in Brown Duncan (ed.) 1999. Oral Literature & Performance In Southern Africa. eds.), Women Hold up Half the Sky, p. 55 Piertermaritzburg: Cluster Publications.
