Includes bibliographical references (pages 459-491) and indexes.

Part 1 : The task of interpretation. The need for hermeneutics -- The history of interpretation -- The canon and translations -- Part 2 : The interpreter and the goal. The interpreter -- The goal of interpretation -- Part 3 : Understanding literature. General rules of hermeneutics : prose -- General rules of hermeneutics : Old Testament poetry -- Part 4 : Understanding Bible genres. Genres of the Old Testament -- Genres of the New Testament -- Part 5 : The fruits of interpretation. Using the Bible today -- Application -- Appendix : Modern approaches to interpretation -- Annotated bibliography : hermeneutical tools.

In this volume the authors: define and describe hermeneutics, suggest effective methods to understand the meaning of any biblical text, survey the literary, cultural, social, and historical issues that impact any text, evaluate both traditional and mordern approaches to Bible interpretation, examine our role as interpreters of the text and help us identify what we bring to the text that could distort its message, tackle the problems of how to apply the Bible in valid and significant ways today, and provide an extensive, revised annotated list of books that readers will find extremely helpful in the practice of biblical interpretation.