Interpreting the Passover in the Exodus tradition amongst the TIV as a narrative concerning origin and migration

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study has focused on interpreting the Passover in the Exodus tradition as a narrative oforigin and migration among the Tiv of Nigeria. The main aim of the study is to go beyond atheology of liberation from slavery and colonialism which has been the crux of the interpretationof Exodus to a theology of identity that commemorates the beginning of the migration fromEgypt through the ritual festival of the Passover. The study has argued that one's identity couldbe used as an indigenous interpretive resource to interpret the Passover in the Exodus traditionamong the Tiv of Nigeria who are mostly from an oral context. By employing a literary and socio-rhetorical approach (cf. Robbins 1996a:1), the research hasanalyzed the inner-texture, inter-texture, socio-cultural and ideological/theological intertexture ofthe Passover text of Exodus 12:1-28. It is argued that the Passover tradition had to survive theonslaught of royal and priestly ideology evident in its changing character from being a familyoriented feast (Ex. 12:1-28) to a centralized feast held in the temple in Jerusalem. Despite theonslaught, the Passover prevailed as a family feast in the end and theology triumphed overideology – in a manner of speaking. The different stages of development and celebration of thePassover in biblical times from family/non-priestly to priestly and centralized feast in the templeis also regarded as a clue to its survival of the onslaught of royal and priestly ideology.The socio-rhetorical approach is deemed appropriate for the interpretation of the Passover in theExodus tradition to an orality-based audience such as the Tiv of Nigeria especially in terms ofthe oral-scribal intertexture. The approach is relevant to the oral community because it integratesthe text with history and the readers to enable readers of any given text to interact with it usingtheir context full of different life experiences to come up with new and informed interpretationsthat are meaningful and appropriate to them.Thus, the study has argued that oral discourse should work hand-in-hand with the written as faras the interpretation of the Exodus and Passover (Ex. 12:1-28) among oral cultures such as theTiv are concerned. Readers and interpreters of the Passover tradition are enjoined to keep theireyes open to detect oral elements in the literary text and carry out interpretations of portions ofthe written text that cannot be explained through literary devices by taking into account orality. The study has also registered the need to pay more attention to a theological approach thatappreciates readers from an oral culture and their interpretation of and interaction with thewritten text when placed side by side with the reader's oral text that is full of stories of originand migration, identity, life experiences.Furthermore, the multidimensional approach by Robbins (1996a & 1996b) has been employed toanalyze the texture of Exodus 12:1-28 and its parallel texts in the Pentateuch, Prophets (Formerand Latter) and the Writings. Eleven pericopes on the Passover were identified that stretch fromthe Pentateuch to the Latter Prophets and they cut across the three biblical legal codes namely theCovenant Code (Ex. 23:14-19), the Holiness Code (Lev. 23:5-8) and the Deuteronomic Code(Deut. 16:1-8). The pericopes also span non-priestly texts (Ex. 12:1-28) and priestly texts (Ex.34:18-26; Num. 9:1-14; 28:16-25). In another sense, the Passover texts could be said to cover theDeuteronomistic text (Jos. 5:10-12; 2 Kg. 23:21-23), Chronist text (2 Chron. 35:1-18) and the Latter Prophets (Ezek. 45:21-24).By analyzing the Passover text of Exodus 12:1-28 against the backdrop of parallel texts in theOld Testament, the study has also identified eight variables in the texts on the Passover namelydifferent terminologies, place, date, sacrifice, preparation, officials and different links betweenthe Passover and unleavened bread as well as different links between the Passover and theExodus tradition. The eight variables demonstrate that the Passover has a dynamic and ongoingcharacter; as such, it should be interpreted as a ritual festival that commemorates the beginningof the migration of a chosen people out of slavery in Egypt. However, it should also be seen as afestival commemorating the identity of celebrants with different ideologies, cultures, religiousideas, and life circumstances over time and in different contexts. The different modes of celebrating or interpreting the Passover in different periods and contextsto different audiences with different needs have shown that the narratives of origin and migrationof the Tiv could be used as an indigenous interpretive resource for the interpretation of thePassover in the Exodus tradition among people from an oral culture. In addition, the Passovershould be interpreted as an ongoing ritual commemoration of the beginning of the migration from Egypt to mark the identity of celebrants in different contexts and cultures. In this way, asthe Tiv people celebrate their New Yam festival at the family level or the annual Tiv Day at acentralized place to commemorate their origin as a people that migrated from Congo via Swemin the Cameroon plains to their present home in Benue-Nigeria, fresh memories would be evokedof the Passover festival commemorating the liberation from Egypt to create hope of futuresurvival in present celebrants.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University