Foundationalism, as we will see below, has a penchant for minutia which seems to assist readers of Scripture to read it fissiparously. Foundationalism has produced for us the plague of versitis, topicalitis, and systematitis.

The Bible was designed by God to be heard and read. In the “Welcome” section to the Contemporary English Version mission is described as being a translation that can be read, heard, and listened to with enjoyment. ¹ We must remember that the Bible was first meant to be heard ² as its stories were told and read later after they were written down. Of course, we in the Western world have a difficult time wrapping our minds around the idea of an oral Bible. We think that literacy comes from being able to read written works, so if one only had an oral work the person presenting and the people listening would thereby be illiterate. Susan Niditch argues the opposite point of view in her book, Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature. ³

1. 1 Promise Bible (Comtemporary English Version, vi.
2. 2 Everett Fox. The Five Books of Moses, ix.
3. 3 Susan Niditch, Oral World and Written Word, 39-41.