A Hierarchy of Scripture Provision and Use

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A Hierarchy of ScriptureProvision and Use

• North American Mission Board, SBC
• January 2008

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A Hierarchy of Scripture Use

• Presenting a process
• Underdeveloped to highly developed
• Rungs on a ladder

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AUTHORITY
USED
REPRODUCIBLE
UNDERSTANDING
POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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Hierarchy as Used in this Presentation

• Starting point
• Undeveloped
• no written language and no personal Scripture
  presence, oral or written.
• Proximity to other Scriptures
• Existing, but not in heart language

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Assumptions

• Literacy and orality varies
• Scripture may be written or oral
• OT NT are both required
• Universally present in CPMs
• Heart language is a priority
• Embracing the idiom of worldview
• Avoiding syncretism
• Cognitive decision-making

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Scriptural Sources

• Creation to Moses (Pentateuch)
• only in oral form
• Moses gt Christ gt Guttenberg gt Reformation
• Lack of available Scripture
• Gained in an oral, storied

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Assumptions

• It takes time
• 100 years to become 20 literate
• Western nations struggle
• 55-60 functional literacy level
• Despite education quality and prioritization

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60 are not yet at this level!
AVAILABLE
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Available

• Written
• Printed
• Oral
• Recorded
• Heart Language
• (The HIS network and Peoplegroups.org maintain
  an up-to-date log of this info)

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AWARE
AVAILABLE
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Aware Significant Cross-Section of the People
Group Knows Scripture is Available

• Is the general population commonly aware that the
  Scripture is available or unavailable?

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ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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Access

• Do individuals within the people group have
  access to the Christian Scripture should they as
  individuals desire and seek to personally possess
  it?

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POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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Possessed (Owned)

• Is Scripture being made available in oral or
  literate form to others?

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UNDERSTANDING
POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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Read with Understanding or Hear it Told With
Understanding

• Assuming that the Scripture is possessed by a
  significant segment of the population, can those
  owners, read the scripture with understanding
  if they are literate, or hear the Scripture told
  with understanding?
• For orals, the issue rises of local story styles
  and the story being in a told story format

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REPRODUCIBLE
UNDERSTANDING
POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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Reproducible When Needed

• Is Scripture reproducible as needed, and is it
  being reproduced (orally or in printed form) as
  needed within the people group?

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USED
REPRODUCIBLE
UNDERSTANDING
POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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The Scripture is Commonly In Use

• Is Scripture presently in common use among those
  who profess to be Christians within this people
  group?

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AUTHORITY
USED
REPRODUCIBLE
UNDERSTANDING
POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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The Scripture is Functioning As Authoritative

• Final level of the hierarchy
• Is the Christian Scripture functioning as
  authoritative and consistently producing
  Christian disciples among those in the religious
  community along with significantly influencing
  lost people in favor of belief in Christ?
• Is worldview being authoritatively impacted?

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IMPLICATIONSHierarchy of Scripture Provision
and Use
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Implications

• Scripture availability not simple
• Premature
• Misleading
• At least 60 of all peoples have not reached the
  Availability level

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Implications

• Heart language or dialect
• Hyper-fragmentation potential
• Idioms, pithy sayings, proverbs, colloquialisms
• Engaging a people group

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Implications

• Evangelizers
• Need for worldview follow-through
• Ongoing updating and maintenance
• Work to avoid market/national language
• Working through translators
• Media customized and contextualized

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Implications

• Scripture language choice
• Good Move closer to endvision
• Bad Seal off / alienation / irrelevant

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Implications

• Translation
• Move from oral to literate
• Evangelism efforts oral to literate
• Publishing
• Story/narrative versions
• Literate forms follow quickly
• Literacy work
• Primers developed along with oral Scriptures

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Implications

• Confusion
• Literate methods among orals
• Status
• Orals expect understanding
• Potential for disappointment from orals or
  literates
• Orals that do not understand
• think less of themselves and less of the
  literate who has engaged them through literate
  means

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Implications

• Boosts Scriptural Authority
• Respect increases
• Measurable literacy gains noted
• Advance to evangelization
• Tactfully prepared
• Relevant to worldview
• Addresses issues at the heart level

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Implications

• Best when personal precedes mass media
• Media reinforces established relationships
• Avoiding confusion
• Stories should contain common elements

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Implications

• Assimilation of immigrants in the West is not as
  fast as once thought
• Western appearances occur long before linguistic
  and cultural changes occur within the people
• Scriptures are vital for use in Western settings

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Implications

• Oral preferences dominate
• Cultural assimilation of immigrants is slow
• Geography should never dictate authority of
  Scripture

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Worldview resides in the idiom of a persons
heart language.

• React

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Implications

• Partnering accelerates authority
• OneStory partners linguists, translators and
  evangelizers
• Must not compromise preferences
• Print and Oral Scriptures must travel together

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AUTHORITY
USED
REPRODUCIBLE
UNDERSTANDING
POSSESSED
ACCESSED
AWARE
AVAILABLE
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• Dr. James B. Slack, IMB
• Mark Snowden, NAMB
• May 2006, revised January 2008