Introduction: Ex Africa aliquid semper novi

In this introduction, we provide context for this volume with reference to classic collections of Biblical essays from the Global South Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World (Sugirtharajah, 1991) and Reading from this Place. Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in Global Perspective (Segovia & Tolbert, 1995a, Vol. I, 1995b, Vol. II) and to the landmark collection of African Contextual Hermeneutics, The Bible in Africa: Transactions, Trajectories, and Trends (West & Dube, 2000). We argue that in the now crowded field of African Biblical Studies, our book offers three contributions. Firstly, some observations and analyses of the past trends and trajectories in the field from scholars of African Biblical Hermeneutics from around the world. Secondly, African Scholars take the opportunity to present new ideas for reading key themes in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, that are not stuck in the concerns of the Eurocentric debates. Thirdly, we present studies emerging from the Southern African context of Zimbabwe.