Reading the Scriptures, or Performing Them? Authoritative Reading versus Dramatic Expression

Performance Criticism is a promising new development in Biblical exegesis and Scripture engagement. It highlights the importance of the oral-aural nature of the Biblical texts and the interaction between oral and written communication in their original settings. The oral and dramatic dimensions of the Biblical texts are not just optional additions to a written source text, but they are part and parcel of the Biblical texts that have been handed down to our communities of faith in a diverse process of oral and written transmission.

This paper examines the claim made by Rhoads (2006) that Biblical texts in their original settings were performed and/or quoted from memory rather than being read aloud. It also explores the performative difference between (public) reading of authoritative texts on the one hand, and the reproduction of the same texts from memory in oral-dramatic performance on the other.

Based on a survey of relevant Biblical texts, the paper concludes that the public reading of the Scriptures played an important role in liturgical settings in the Old and New Testament. There is no evidence from the Biblical texts themselves that Biblical texts were performed rather than read aloud in public gatherings of the congregation. Performance of authoritative texts would have run the risk of undermining the (implied, claimed and perceived) authority of those texts.
Oral-dramatic performance of Biblical texts can play an important role in Scripture engagement. But, from a performative and theological perspective, it is not a substitute for written Bible translation.