ABSTRACT

Biblical texts are written from particular perspectives out of particular experiences. The original message and audience that Jennings is trying to recover may yet be that of the legitimated and interested ruling, elitist and patriarchal class that composed biblical texts. To begin exegesis with the biblical text is simply to recover that broad universal message of the text and apply it to a particular context. Caribbean hermeneutes cannot afford to approach biblical texts as if they were not written from a specific perspective and out of particular contextual realities, which need to be identified before whilst applying biblical texts to contextual realities. An integral dimension of this interpretive process is its interaction with the socio-ideological interests and social practices that are expressed in biblical texts. Re-reading biblical texts from the particularities of the experiences of the interpreter facilitates the exposure of the ideology, biases, silences, vested interests and dominant voices within biblical texts.