Thematic Guide to Biblical Literature

There are several broad approaches to the study of Biblical texts: first, the scholarly study and interpretation of the Bible which attempts to understand the text within its original context, and which takes account of the culture of the relevant period, the process of ancient textual formation from oral and written sources and subsequent redaction, and an understanding of the semantics of the original languages and their cognates; secondly, reading of Biblical texts for philosophical and theological content, which may be purely critical, but which may also be associated with contemporary interpretations of that content, or with devotional use of...