Introduction: the distinct Bible -- Prologue: the African Bible -- The African Bible: Mediterranean North Africa -- The African Bible: Coptic, Nubian, and Ethiopian North Africa -- The Imperial Bible: sub-Saharan or tropical Africa -- The Imperial Bible -- The empires' Bibles: Portuguese East africa and Dutch South Africa -- The folk Bible: religion at sea -- The constrained Bible: bartering cattle -- The prescribed Bible: the role of the sick-comforter -- The retributive Bible: towards seizing African cattle -- The mundane Bible: company rhythms at the Cape -- The indigenous Bible: land and cattle as religion -- The local Bible: religions of extraction and subsistence -- The irrupting Bible: religion in an African context -- The revealed Bible -- The bartered Bible: trader-missionary travellers -- The covered Bible: Burchell's visit -- The uncovered Bible: Campbell's visit -- The probed Bible: conversations with Mothibi -- The dislocated Bible -- The unsettled Bible: negotiating place -- The relocated Bible: Hamilton's mundane mission -- The embroiled Bible: Hamilton manages the mission -- The eternal Bible: Hamilton's message -- The disruptive Bible: an unstable interior -- The observed Bible: the African gaze -- The translated Bible -- The theological Bible: Moffat's message -- The vernacular Bible: Moffat's language labours -- The military Bible: Moffat's mixed message -- The short and simple Bible: Moffat's ABC -- The (m)aligned Bible: Moffat's temporal and eternal message -- The instructive Bible: Moffat's mode of translation -- The appropriated Bible -- The cultural Bible: African culture as Africa's old testament -- The liberating Bible: Isaiah Shembe's Bible -- The oral/aural Bible: Shembe's law -- The re-written Bible: Shembe's teaching -- The liturgical Bible: maidens performing the Bible -- The communal Bible: corporate interpretation -- The contested Bible -- The trustworthy Bible: the book of hope -- The ideological Bible: the oppressive voices of the Bible -- The black Bible: what it means 'to have' the Bible -- The Africans' Bible: other African theologies -- The embodied Bible -- The Marabi Bible: corporate preachings of the Bible -- The sung Bible: the cadences of death -- Mbuli's Bible: re-citing the Bible -- The HIV Bible: the wages of sin and a word of hope -- The AIDS Bible: the beast in the Bible -- The narrative Bible: African commentary in art -- The apocalyptic Bible: the 'son of man' in South Africa -- The public Bible -- The RDP Bible: the Bible re-enters the public realm -- Mbeki's Bible: separating the moral and economic spheres -- The church theology Bible: after prophetic theology -- Mandela's Bible: Mandela's Methodism -- The ANC Bible: the RDP of the soul -- Zuma's Bible: a more popular religion -- Ramaphosa's Bible: the re-redeployed Bible -- Epilogue: the iconic Bible -- The football fans' Bible: conjuring the Bible -- Abahlali's Bible: the Bible among the social movements -- The people's Bible: getting the cattle back.