Beyond Just Wages: An Intercultural Analysis of Matthew 20: 1–16

Abstract

The present study offers an intercultural exegesis of Matt 20:1-16 and shows how it provides grounds for alleviating poverty and promoting justice which goes beyond just wages. This exegesis proceeds through a constructive dialogue between a contemporary culture, a church culture and an original biblical culture. After a detailed presentation of intercultural exegesis, the concept of just wages is examined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and its neighbour Rwanda before exploring it in a Catholic Church culture and in an original Matthean culture. Rephrased in words borrowed from G. West, 'the world in front of the text' is here represented by a contemporary target culture, while both 'the world in the text' and 'the world behind the text' rhyme with an original biblical culture; and finally a Catholic Church culture stands for 'the world around the text.' The word 'text' refers to Christian canonical scriptures.

Intercultural Translations of Christian Canonical Scriptures

“…An intercultural translation refers to a constructive narrative involving the creation of a contemporary target text from a source culture text, as understood in its own original cultures, its intermediate cultures and in the current target cultures (Loba Mkole 2013; 2016c). An intercultural biblical exegesis is the constructive representation of the source text culture through a target audience culture, taking into account critically assessed interpretations of a church culture (Loba Mkole 2004;2005a;2005b, 20062008;2009;2010;2011;2013;2014;2016a,b,c;. An intercultural biblical canonicity is an intercultural approach to biblical canons; as the nature and scope of the latter are viewed, their nature and scope in dialogue with the original biblical cultures, church cultures and target contemporary cultures (Manus 2003;Loba Mkole 2016b).…”

Intercultural Construction of the New Testament Canons

“…It is the combination of intercultural and construction perspectives that leads to the concept of intercultural construction, where the two perspectives together contribute to the process of building a renewed culture or a new interculture. Intercultural construction is also a meaning-construction strategy (Schnelle 2003) that is developed through dialogue among three frames of reference: original biblical cultures, church cultures, and contemporary target cultures (see Loba-Mkole 2010; 2011; 2013; 2014; see also Ukpong 1996 and Manus 2003, who did not explicitly include church cultures). An intercultural approach to canon will involve thinking about the nature and scope of canonical Scripture in each of these different cultural contexts, and bringing them into connection with each other, without any one being made subservient to another.…”