ABSTRACT
In the search for the meaning of a particular text it becomes quickly apparent that meaning is not objective, but is rather constructed by the individual reader and interpreter. A text’s claim to reality is secondary to this intra-subjective activity; language refers to language. The manifold connections of a text to its intertextual context can never be fully described and analysed by any method. The passages on hermeneutics by Augustine have shown that one text carries several meanings that enable different readers at different times to draw different aspects from the text. The task of understanding is the study of the many ways in which a biblical text has been read. This task faces huge obstacles. Exegesis becomes intimately connected to church history, with the cultural history of the Judaeo-Christian world and its transformations in other cultures. Psychological exegesis takes the Bible seriously only as a book of peace according to the needs of psychological therapy.
