The latest issue of DIU’s peer-reviewed Journal of Language, Culture, and Religion is now available. Issue 4.1 is the seventh issue, and the contributions are as quality as ever. DIU student Joshua Frost and DIU’s Academic Dean Heather Beal focus on orality and Bible translation, interacting with Biblical Performance Criticism and demonstrating from Luke 15 how one might apply this method to oral Bible translation. Dr. Beal teaches AL5308 Oral Translation here at DIU, where students can learn further about orality and its implications for translation.
Drew Maust engages modern ideas about translanguaging and how this linguistic concept affects how we think about the idea of “heart language” and Bible translation today. He concludes that translanguaging provides “valuable insight into the inner workings of the multilingual mind and therefore stands to add to and nuance our understanding of the BT process” (p. 50).
Stephen Levinsohn contributes to discussions among biblical Hebraists regarding word order and information structure, taking on constructions that involve a subject and the conjunction כִּי (ki). He draws out conclusions especially for topic switching, and provides some brief suggestions about the possible influence of Aramaic on some biblical authors.
Mark Harlan rounds out the articles with part two of his journey through the Old and New Testaments focusing on Ishmael. This second part focuses on the New Testament and looks at the connection between Ishmael, the Magi, Paul’s travels in Arabia, and the role of Hagar in Galatians 4. Harlan concludes that the “foregoing examination of Scripture supports a unique role for the descendants of Ishmael in the divine economy” (p. 90).
An array of book reviews will interest various types of readers. Topics include Northwest Semitic inscriptions, linguistics and New Testament Greek, maintaining biblical Hebrew, social epistemology, deaf studies, emotion studies applied to ancient Judaism, semantics, and Gospels studies.
Our JLCR editorial board and managing editorial team are grateful to the contributors for another quality issue, and for allowing our community to benefit from their research.
