Abstract
The continuous changing of cultures and of the ways people think about the world brought about a new change in the world of hermeneutics (ways of interpreting a text). Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer brought into hermeneutics the significance of recognising the contemporary issues, social status and location of readers (Jasper 2004: 104-106; Thiselton 1980: 24-47). This brought about a shift from the classical hermeneutical approach to the structuralist, humanistic and critical approaches. In other words, in contrast to the traditional approach of interpretation that focuses on the author, biblical interpretation now considers the world of the reader, which brings a new dimension. It recognizes that each person brings his/her own questions to the text, and thus shapes his/her interpretation of the text. This is not to give the reader the opportunity to impose his/her meaning on the text, but to recognize what the reader brings from his/her contemporary situation and takes back to that situation. Our people (Samoans) as Christians believe that we find in the Bible answers to any question about living life in this world. This article is an attempt by a Samoan reader of the Bible to develop a Samoan hermeneutical critical approach that recognizes questions on some local issues in our Samoan world, to be used as a reading approach to seek in the Bible answers to those questions. The issue that raises questions for the hermeneutic explained herein is the issue of egalitarianism in relation to gendering and elitism in our contemporary Samoan society. The hermeneutical critical approach is called Tautuaileva and how it is used in reading a Bible text will be shown in an interpretation of John 4:16-30. Elaboration on how this reading approach is used in interpreting the Bible, see Nofoaiga 2017. Another example of reading the Bible from the Samoan perspectives, see Nofoaiga 2018.
Keywords: Tautuaileva, hermeneutic, egalitarianism, hybridity.
