Job was written as a dialectic to refute the theology of reward and punishment of the Deuteronomistic theology. Using rhetorical approach, this article analyses Job 4:1-9, a passage where Eliphaz responds to Job's lament by advising him to accept suffering as divine punishment for sin. The study argues that Eliphaz's attitude of civility and advising are desirable attitudes, which contemporary Nigerian Christians can emulate when faced with life's hardships. Thus, the study concludes that the text can encourage civility, selflessness, and supportive counsel within faith communities, offering meaningful guidance for those in distress.

Old Testament scholars have proposed various interpretations of Psalm 72, viewing it as a coronation hymn, a reflection on geopolitical relations, or a commentary on poverty in ancient Israel. However, through the lens of African liberationist thought, particularly the Bosadi theoretical framework, this text explores whether Psalm 72 can offer liberating possibilities for the impoverished. The essay first outlines key aspects of the Bosadi framework and its relevance to discussions on poverty in South Africa and the Psalms. It then uses the song "Uhuru" as a hermeneutical tool to reflect on poverty in South Africa. Finally, it analyzes the grammatical and stylistic features of Psalm 72 in relation to the portrayal of poverty in "Uhuru," revealing both problematic and liberating elements of the psalm for those seeking socio-economic justice, celebrating Masenya's contributions to Old Testament scholarship.

For almost thirty years, Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan'a Mphahlele) has advocated the need for a unique African approach for women in biblical studies. Her African-South African hermeneutical approach, called the bosadi approach, includes not only problematising gender, race and class but also addressing colonialism, sexism, apartheid and HIV/AIDS issues, among others. Masenya uses local proverbs from her Northern Sotho context to interpret both grassroots women's lives and the biblical text and her aim is to regain self-worth and self-identity for African women. This essay evaluates the bosadi approach by first placing it epistemologically within African biblical hermeneutics. Then, it presents some of the criticisms of the bosadi approach in its early reception. The critique involves arguments about the approach as primarily a local approach, about not being critical enough of oppressive elements in African cultures and about not being empirically based. Lastly, the essay highlights the significance of developing a specific African feminist hermeneutical approach and indicates that the bosadi approach can be an inspirational tool for interpretation also in other contexts to confirm and liberate women.

This article engages Madipoane Masenya's Bosadi approach as a critical framework for re-imagining gender from an indigenous African perspective. Rooted in African womanist theology, Bosadi offers an epistemological alternative to Western gender constructs, foregrounding the lived experiences and intellectual agency of African womxn. Drawing on socio-linguistic analysis, the article interrogates the lexical and philosophical significance of the term mosadi, revealing its divergence from the Western category of "woman." Through a close reading of linguistic forms such as mosadi and umfazi, the study uncovers embedded cultural values grounded in ubuntu/botho, where personhood is communal and ethically anchored. The Bosadi approach is positioned as a transformative tool for scholars grappling with the entanglements of race, gender and colonial history in South Africa. Ultimately, this article affirms the importance of centring indigenous knowledge systems in feminist scholarship and demonstrates the expansive intellectual possibilities that Bosadi brings to decolonial gender discourse.

In honouring the biblical studies work of Madipoane Masenya (Ngwana' Mphahlele), my article situates Masenya within the debates in South African Black Theology on 'culture ' in the 1980s. This is the period Masenya began her formal biblical studies work, forging a distinctive cultural emphasis both within South African (largely White) Old Testament studies and an emerging African Biblical Interpretation/ Hermeneutics/ Studies. The particular focus of my article is on how Masenya' s (re-)turn to culture, intersected with the dominant race and/ as class analysis of Black Theology in the 1980s and how Masenya's work has over more than four decades intersected culture with gender as well as with multiple other systemic realities. My article places Masenya' s work alongside the related work of the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research, for both have sought to intersect ' culture' and ' racial capitalism' and both have sought to serve ordinary African women with their biblical praxis. The article uses Masenya's and the Ujamaa Centre' s pivotal work on Job to illustrate how socially engaged biblical scholarship heeds the summons of local African communities to serve their lived realities.

This article is inspired by Madipoane (Ngwan'a Mphahlele) Masenya's essay titled, The Dissolution of the Monarchy, the Collapse of the Temple and the "Elevation" of Women in the Post-Exilic Period: Any Relevance for African Women's Theologies? Masenya questions the possibility of gender equality within a patriarchal household due to claims of egalitarianism in the pre-monarchical and the post-monarchical communities in ancient Israel. Joining this conversation, this article suggests that describing ancient Israel and pre-colonial Africa as patriarchal may embolden patriarchists. It notes that patriarchists do not take responsibility for their patriarchal tendencies by claiming obedience to Scriptures and pre-colonial African tradition. Therefore, the study explores the idea of heterarchy as a social science model to explain the gender dynamics of the pre-monarchic and pre-colonial eras. It is argued that by establishing pre-monarchic Israel and pre-colonial Africa as heterarchical, patriarchists will be unable to hide behind the Bible and African tradition for their patriarchal tendencies. They will have to take ethical responsibility for the violation of the dignity of women. To demonstrate heterarchy inpre-monarchic Israel, the story of Deborah is used as an illustration and in the case of pre-colonial Africa, the status of four Southern African women-Nozidiya, Mkabayi, Lozikeyi and Modjadji-is considered.

This article explores the works of Prof. Madipoane Masenya, a Black South African theologian, and her theological approach known as the "Bosadi Reading." It analyses how Masenya developed and understands her theological position, highlighting the ways in which the "Bosadi Reading" differs from "womanhood" or feminist approaches and identifying areas of intersection. In the second part, the article considers what a white German evangelical theologian (the author) can learn from this approach and what critical questions could be posed from his perspective.

The Book of Judges is a continuation of Israel's history in the promised land, beginning from the death of Joshua to the time or before the birth of Samuel, the last judge of Israel (1 Sam 7:15). In Judges, we find a cycle of disobedience, infidelity, punishment, repentance and deliverance (3:7-16:31). Chapters 17-21 shed light on the social and religious history of Israel. They describe the cultic, moral anarchy of the era "when there was no king in Israel" (Judg 17:6; 19:1) and a time "when people did whatever was right in their own eyes" (21:25). In Judg 20, Israel overacts and revenges against injustices of Gibeah's crime (Judg 19). By doing these, she plunges into civil war against Benjamin. This affirms, in a way, the tragedy of confederacy without visionary leaders who fear the Lord, a phenomenon common in today's African societies. In the past, European and North American exegetes have interpreted Judg 19-20 historically, using various "western interpretative models." Conscious also of issues of wars and violence in Africa, this study analyses Judg 20 from the perspective of African Biblical Hermeneutics and as a post-colonial approach within the overall context of the theology of Deuteronomistic History (Joshua-Kings). It argues against incessant tragic phenomena of civil wars and domestic violence in African faith communities.

Isaiah 11, also known as the oracle of the "shoot of Jesse," imagines the ushering of an ideal age. The production of the book of Isaiah, including its multiple redactions, in the material circumstances of the subjugation of Israel under successive empires, makes it necessary to ask whether or how the text engages with its imperial milieu. What kind of figure does the "shoot of Jesse" represent in its imperial landscape? What kind of rule is imagined by the Shoot Oracle? This article engages with these questions by employing Homi Bhabha's concept of hybridity and argues that the poetic celebration of the "shoot of Jesse" presents a mimetic/hybrid figure and articulates an in-between space that subverts the imperial discourse as well as nationalistic hegemonic overtures of the Davidic dynasty.