A Postcolonial Examination of Matthew 16:13–23 and Related Issues in Biblical Hermeneutics

Abstract

Using a postcolonial model, this paper examines Matthew 16:13–23 in order to show that the literary and interpretation processes do not happen in a vacuum. Instead, the processes involve active participation of real people in the historical process of transformation from within particular socio-political and religio-cultural contexts. A close examination of the cultural production, collective memory and literary imagination of the Matthean community, as revealed in Matthew 16:13–23, attest to the fact that biblical hermeneutics, just like other literary discourses, has both socio-historical origins and epistemological contexts. Most importantly, the paper shows that the critical principle of interpretation lies not in the Bible itself, but in the community of readers willing to cultivate dialogical imagination for their own liberation. Critical reading loses its meaning if it cannot be applied within the lived reality of the “subaltern”.