Dr. Nick Acker, a Carroll alumnus and Resident Fellow, just published his most recent book, Exegeting Orality. In it, he reminds us that the Bible is not just a text to be studied but a record of voices from the past who performed our definitive stories. We are grateful for Dr. Acker’s guidance in interpreting the rich oral tradition of the inspired canon. Nick Acker has served in pastoral ministry for twenty years while working on his MDiv and PhD. He currently serves as a copastor at Grace Church in Ventura, California. Dr. Acker is also an adjunct faculty member with Stark College and Seminary. He finds his greatest purpose and joy in his wife and three children.
The origin story of Exegeting Orality from Dr. Acker:
In 2014, I submitted an essay on biblical interpretation to B. H. Carroll as part of my application for their doctoral program. I was concerned that my arguments—particularly those centered on orality and textuality in Scripture—might be met with skepticism or even rejection. To my delight, I was welcomed with love and encouraged to pursue truth in the freedom of Christ.
My journey into studying the oral tradition behind Scripture began around 2012 when I read The Jesus Legend by Paul Rhodes Eddy and Gregory A. Boyd. A short section on oral traditional communication opened my eyes to a new way of understanding the Bible, forever changing my views on Scripture. I began seeing the Bible as a vibrant performance of communal identity.
Writing became part of human history around 3000 BC in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, giving humanity over 5,000 years with the written word. Yet, the printing press was not introduced in Western culture until the mid-1400s. To put this into perspective: if the entire history of humanity’s written word could be condensed into a single day, the printing press would appear only in the final two and a half hours. For most of history, people engaged their foundational stories not by reading, but by hearing them performed. Written words were largely used as memory aids for these oral performances.
Today, however, we often study ancient texts, including the Bible, through a post-printing press lens, shaped by the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. But the Bible was produced by an ancient, Near Eastern, tribal, oral traditional culture. We need to interpret the oral cultural realities embedded within its texts. We’re not merely dealing with intellectual data; we are entering into an entire oral tradition. We must learn not only to exegete the text but to interpret the orality behind it.
At Carroll, I pursued these studies, applying orality theories to my work in the Old Testament and passionately advocating for their integration into biblical studies. I am profoundly grateful to the faculty and staff, especially Dr. Timothy Pierce and Dr. Rick Johnson, for their guidance and encouragement.
The Bible is more than a text to dissect; it’s a performance of our communal identity as the images of God on earth. May we listen to that performance and embody this identity for God’s glory and our joy. That’s what my book, Exegeting Orality: Interpreting the Inspired Words of Scripture in Light of Their Oral Traditional Origins, is all about.
You can purchase the book at Wipf and Stock Publishers or on Amazon.