This article represents portions of the first chapter of my recent book, From Orality to Orality: A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible. In this article, I suggest that Bible Translation should be understood as an activity of contextual theology in which local host communities demonstrate their appropriation and proclamation of the Bible in their own languages. Understanding Bible translation in such a way valorizes the oral ethos of host communities and asserts that orality can play a central role in biblical exegesis, translation theories and methods, and the transmission of the translations.
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