Reading the Bible aims to provide a comprehensive, readable, and accessible guide to the diverse methods of biblical interpretation. The book falls into two parts.
Part One 'What is Biblical Interpretation?' deals with basic issues concerning the interpretation of texts. Questions encountered include: 'What is interpretation?' and 'What does it mean for a text to have meaning, and how do we identify its meaning?' Part One of the book also discusses the role of 'pre-understanding', i.e., the way our cultural background and personal interests affects the way we read texts. Attention is paid to the problem of cultural and temporal time-gap. A further concern in this chapter is to introduce readers to such technical terms such as 'hermeneutics, ' 'exegesis' and 'eisegesis, ' 'semiotics, ' and diachronic and synchronic approaches to the interpretation of texts.