These are excerpts from academic papers about Scripture use, written by Richard Brown, who works in England. These quotes are from a manuscript, "Adequate Scripture in Usable Media." Page numbers in brackets refer to this manuscript.

Adequate Scripture in Usable Media

Crossing Worldview Bridges

It is important to give the audience time to become comfortable with the Word and to be convinced, through the witness of the Holy Spirit, that God is speaking to them through it. To this end, it is helpful to begin with portions that seem relevant and interesting to them. It also helps to begin with portions that share cultural similarities with the audience, as this makes them comfortable with the story and helps them identify with its characters.

For example, nomadic peoples find it easy to identify with the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of their pastoral culture.... Traditional settled people identify well with the tribal or clan-based social structure, the agricultural festivals, concerns about honor, purification, blessings, curses and the importance of having heirs. Household servants and members of large families can identify with Joseph and the sibling rivalry that he faced. Women can identify with the problems of Sarah, Naomi, Ruth and Hannah.

There are people groups which identify with Abraham’s devotion to God, with the strict monotheism of Moses, and with the establishment of rule by law. They are also familiar with the names of many of the heroes of the Bible and are interested in knowing more about them. These points of common affirmation are sometimes called “bridges” because they facilitate cross-cultural communication. It is usually wise to select portions that have many bridges and few barriers as the first portions to be translated and distributed. [p 5]

Using Genres Appropriate for Oral Communicators

Most of our audiences are from oral cultures, in which oral communication is preferred over written communication. Oral communicators learn best from narratives, proverbs and poetry and do not learn as well from expositions, directives, recipes and other procedural genres.

Research among oral communicators and rural-oriented peoples, whether in the mountains or in cities, produced the following data. Retention among these types of people seldom was higher than 29% of the knowledge shared when communicated by means of logical and systematized outlines of the information. However, when a storying or chronological teaching method was used, retention rose to at least 75–80%. (Slack 1991:9–10)

In fact, people sometimes need repeated exposure to the whole biblical panorama of salvation history before they can understand the big picture. And they cannot fully understand individual sayings, events and portions until they see how these things fit into the big picture. This is the "hermeneutical cycle": Each time people read through the Scriptures, their understanding of the whole plan of God improves. This in turn helps them to understand the individual messages and events better. As they understand these messages and events better, they come to a greater understanding of the whole plan of God. So they cycle upwards towards better understanding and greater acceptance. But for this to happen, the Scripture portions need to appear so relevant and interesting that people are willing to read or listen through them many times. [p 10]

Our author, Richard Brown, writes about translation and Scripture Use and lives in England.