| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is a New Testament study within the area of biblical contextualisation mediated through translation. First, Ephesians 2:11–22 is exegetically analysed with particular focus on the vertical and horizontal meanings of “reconciliation” and “peace”. Methodologically, the socio-rhetorical analysis described by Vernon K. Robbins is relevant to this work. Second, as contextualisation mediated through translation, answers to (1) how the impact of translating avpokatalla,ssw and eivrh,nh into mampihavana (fampihavanana) and fihavanana is on the transmission of the message of Eph 2:11–22 and (2) how the impact of the biblical message is on the socio-cultural meanings carried out by the terms fampihavanana and fihavanana, that are used in the biblical translation, are also presented. The presentation is made by means of a dialogue between the exegetical findings of the text (Chapter Four), the Malagasy ideological meanings of the Malagasy values (Chapter Five) and my Malagasy informants’ readings and understandings of the Malagasy version of the text (Chapter Six, 6.3).
Consequently, the thesis has two main Parts. PART ONE presents the reconciliation and peace according to Ephesians 2:11–22 (Chapters Two–Four). In the classical Greek, the Greco-Roman and Jewish contexts, reconciliation may be achieved (1) when a mediator or facilitator persuades two mutually antagonistic parties, or (2) when the subject takes the initiative to persuade the hostile party to give up his/her anger against him/her, or (3) when he/she gives up his/her own anger against the conflicting party (with the verb in the passive voice form). In the NT, the verb katalla,ssw and cognates are horizontally used according to the well-known usages from the Greco-Roman and Jewish contexts. However, coming to Paul we encounter a unique usage of the verb katalla,ssw and cognates – “The subject effects reconciliation by giving up its own anger against another party (verb active voice form)” (see 2 Cor 5:11–6:2; Rom 5:1–11; 11:11–16 and Col 1:15–23), and the same unique meaning of the compound verb avpokatalla,ssw is found in Eph 2:11–22 (see v. 16). This usage determines the theological concepts of reconciliation done on the cross. The active form of the verb (avpo)katalla,ssw is used to describe how God reconciles human beings to himself by putting away the sin which arose his own anger against them, by means of the atoning death of Christ on the cross. What particularizes Eph 2:11–22 is that, first, Christ is the agent who initiated reconciliation. Second, interestingly, Christ’s act of reconciliation of human beings to God is effective in breaking down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles and making them live in peace.
Generally speaking, “peace” is the goal of the act of reconciliation. Eivrh,nh has the sense of the peaceful state of the community. It can also be defined as the state of well-being or the healthiness of the relationship of the community, thus, the wholeness or unity of the community. The peace spoken about in Eph 2:11–22 is the result of Christ’s act of reconciliation on his cross. It fictively has a familial aspect.
In the Malagasy Bible(s) avpokatalla,ssw and eivrh,nh are rendered as fampihavanana and fihavanana, which are significantly used in the socio-anthropological and cultural relationships of the Malagasy community. Thus, in PART TWO, the relationships between reconciliation and peace in Eph 2:11–22 and the Malagasy fampihavanana and fihavanana are exposed. As we see in Chapter Five, fihavanana is a key Malagasy concept that embraces a number of socio-anthropological and cultural values that bind communities together. It encompasses the Malagasy concept of kinship, consanguinity, communality etc. between beings, both the living and the ancestors. Akin to mutual assistance and solidarity, fihavanana is also a basic principle of communal or collective life of the Malagasy. Fampihavanana is the act of restoring the fihavanana, which has horizontal (between two living contenders) and vertical dimensions (between the living and the ancestors), and also has a sacrificial aspect. It is particular to the Malagasy community that the alliance between two individuals or families, initiated through blood fusion aiming at forming a new extended family, is also called fampihavanana. In Chapter Six, the main questions raised in this PhD thesis are answered. Translating avpokatalla,ssw and eivrh,nh has double impacts. First, speaking of the locus in which the biblical and the Malagasy fampihavanana and fihavanana encounter each other in such a way that these Malagasy terms appropriately transmit the theological meaning of the biblical text, the Malagasy mampihavana, fampihavanana and fihavanana prove capable of transmitting this text’s theological messages conveyed by the Greek terms avpokatalla,ssw and eivrh,nh. However, the typical ancestrocentric orientation of the Malagasy fampihavanana and fihavanana should be transcended by the Christocentric characteristic of the biblical concept in order to transmit the theological message of the original text properly. This is necessary if these Malagasy terms are to reach a point of fusion of horizons where also the theological meanings of fampihavanana and fihavanana in Eph 2:11–22 come to fore.
Second, speaking of the impact of the biblical fampihavanana and fihavanana in the Malagasy context, to leave the main socio-cultural characteristics of these values behind is very unpleasant for some traditional Malagasy. Consequently, the biblical concepts are regarded as threats for these values, and for this reason they are sceptical to them or even reject them. For some practising Christians, however, the biblical fampihavanana and fihavanana do are not appear as totally foreign, but they are partly experienced as somehow already socio-culturally known. For these persons and groups, the biblical messages, conveyed by fampihavanana and fihavanana, are contextually welcomed into their home and received as a redefinition of these values. Eph 2:11–22 provides valuable insights for the redefinition of their fampihavanana and fihavanana. | nb_NO |
