Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents:

Introduction: Scripture as communicative act --

Terminology and context for hermeneutics --

A communication model of hermeneutics --

Authors, texts, readers: historical movements and reactions --

Affirmations about meaning from a communication model --

Developing textual meaning: implications, effects, and other ways of going "beyond" --

An invitation to active engagement: the reader and the Bible --

Genre and communication --

The language of the Bible --

The social world of the Bible --

Literary context, intertextuality, and canon --

Conceptualizing contextualization --

Contextualization: understanding Scripture incarnationally --

Appendixes. Guidelines for exegesis --

historical criticism --

Parallelism in Hebrew poetry --

Epistles: following an author's flow of thought --

Narratives: visualizing plot and theme --

How to go about topical studies.

Jeannine Brown, a seasoned teacher of biblical interpretation, believes that communication is at the heart of what happens when we open the Bible. We are actively engaging God in a conversation that can be life changing. In this guide to the theory and practice of biblical hermeneutics, Brown emphasizes the communicative nature of Scripture, proposing a communication model as an effective approach to interpreting the Bible. The new edition of this successful textbook has been revised and updated to interact with recent advances in interpretive theory and practice.