Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 40:1 (Oct 2025)
Article: The Speaking God: Divine Revelation In Hebrews And Its Implications For African Biblical Hermeneutics
Author: Abeneazer G. Urga

SATS 40:1 (October 2025) p. 18

The Speaking God: Divine Revelation In Hebrews And Its Implications For African Biblical Hermeneutics

Abeneazer G. Urga

Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, Columbia International University

About The Author

Abeneazer G. Urga holds a Ph.D. from Columbia International University. He has served as the department head for the M.A. in Biblical Studies and is a Lecturer in Biblical Studies at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia International University and Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology. He is a member of Equip International, SIL Ethiopia/ International and an associate member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS). He is the author of Intercession of Jesus in Hebrews (2023).

Email: [email protected]

This article: https://www.sats.ac.za/conspectus/speaking-god-divine-revelation-hebrews https://doi.org/10.54725/conspectus.2025.2.2

Abstract

African Biblical Hermeneutics (ABH) is proliferating in and outside of Africa. ABH is concerned with making Bible interpretation Afrocentric rather than Eurocentric. ABH is not a monolith, however. There are various kinds of ABH approaches practiced by Africans. Many of the approaches that fall under ABH have a high view of Scripture while at the same time striving to be meaningful and sensitive to African contextual realities. Others are marked by the hermeneutics of suspicion, a low view of Scripture, and the trappings of the Enlightenment. I contend that these latter approaches of ABH have become both unfaithful to the text and irrelevant to the African context. In this article, I contend that it is possible to be faithful to the Scriptures and relevant to the African context by gleaning from the author of Hebrews. By exegeting Hebrews 1:1–2, 2:1–4, and 12:25, I argue that, by emulating the paradigm of the author of Hebrews, Christian Africans should read Scripture Christologically, with an eye on both African contextual realities and the authority of the Scriptures.

Keywords

Divine Revelation, African Biblical Hermeneutics, hermeneutics of faith, hermeneutics of suspicion, The Epistle to the Hebrews

SATS 40:1 (October 2025) p. 19

1. Introduction

The author of Hebrews writes an epistolary homily to the audience to briefly provide them with “the word of exhortation” (13:22