Tribals, Empire and God: A Tribal Reading of the Birth of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel by Zhodi Angami

Abstract

Reviewed by: Tribals, Empire and God: A Tribal Reading of the Birth of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel by Zhodi Angami Zorodzai Dube zhodi angami, Tribals, Empire and God: A Tribal Reading of the Birth of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017). Pp. xvi + 314. $128. Using what Angami calls tribal reading and drawing from the contextual experiences of Northern Indian communities in rereading Matthew's infancy narrative (Matthew 1–2), A. argues that Matthew's infancy stories remind local people of their own experience of military occupation and their resistance against occupation and oppression—aspects that A. assumes were contextual realities for Matthew's community. To understand how Northern Indian communities read, A. employs reader-response criticism and other approaches such as historical criticism, social-scientific approach, contextual hermeneutics, marginal/minority readings, critical correlation, and postcolonial biblical interpretation. In chaps. 3–6, A. takes various aspects of the infancy narratives and interprets them from different hermeneutical perspectives. The long genealogy list (Matt 1:1-17) is interpreted as both counterimperial and antipatriarchal. Matthew's mention of titles such as Messiah (political), son of David, and son of Abraham is read has having political connotations. Furthermore, Matthew's inclusion of women—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary—is "irregular" and clearly disruptive of patriarchal expectation where the son of a great figure is known through the patriarchal lineage. For tribal readers, the supernatural involvement in Jesus's birth, similar to Greek legends, is evidence of new creation, of the gods re-creating and reforming the present. Verse by verse, A. demonstrates how the infancy narratives were understood within the Greco-Roman worldview and also from the perspective of the tribes in Northern India. The birth of Jesus as king of the Jews has affinities with the birth and adventures of great Indian leaders. Further, the visit of the magi and the visible bright star remind the northern tribes of India of the importance assigned to stars. The birth of Jesus signifies the dawn of a new era in contrast to the oppressive rule of Herod. For A., the infancy story is a carefully crafted narrative of hope amid adversity. A. explains, "[E]mpire, as exemplified in Herod, is an evil mechanism, a killing machine that thrives to appease its own greed from wealth and power but has no concern for the subjects" (p. 258). Methodologically, A. offers a critical-analogical correlation of Matthew's historical context to Northern Indian communities. Analogies move from the known (Northern Indian communities) to the unknown (Matthew). Although A. uses the historical-critical method, he does not clearly demonstrate where he employs other approaches—social-scientific, contextual hermeneutics, marginal/minority readings, and postcolonial biblical interpretation. In the context of a critical-contextual correlation of Matthew's community to Northern [End Page 126] Indian communities, the Northern Indian communities' experience of military occupation and resistance to such oppression is read alongside that of Matthew. Angami's study is reminiscent of similar work by Gerald West of South Africa, who, through contextual Bible study, allows the readers to reflect on their experiences and their context in the reading process (Gerald O. West, "Contextual Bible Study in South Africa: A Resource for Reclaiming and Regaining Land, Dignity and Identity," in The Bible in Africa: Transactions, Trajectories, and Trends [ed. Gerald O. West and Musa W. Dube; Leiden: Brill, 2000] 595-610; idem, Reading Other-wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with Their Local Communities [SBLSS 62; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007]). In contrast, while A. refers to contextual Bible reading, he does not recount where and how the Bible study was conducted. A.'s study raises the following questions: First, how anti-imperial were the Hellenistic Jews of Antioch? The assumption of using military terms in identity construction suggests that closed diaspora Jewish communities such as that of Matthew were daily conscious of their exclusive identity as occupied people. Though Antioch was one of the famous Greco-Roman cities, such a reconstruction may miss moments of coexistence, hybridity, and or assimilation. After studying Galilee, Jonathan Reed says that, far from being a closed region, Palestine shared intersectional identities with surrounding regions (Archaeology...