ABSTRACT
A text can be read as an autonomous structure or as a complex result of an ideologically shaped culture; it can be read as a collection of language signs that in interaction with a reader becomes a network of meaning, or as a product of an intentional writing process of an author. A text might also be read as a piece of work that is causally influenced by other works, or as a work in dialogue with other texts. All these approaches, as well as many others, function as windows that enable us to look at the text from different angles or perspectives; they make a special perception of the text possible. Construing new windows, and looking through the old and new ones, we might discover over and over again in the familiar textual forms new aspects of meaning. This article is primarily concerned with intertextuality, or the dialogue between texts. Consideration will be given to various views of intertextuality and to a procedure for studying the dialogue between biblical texts. In conclusion. a study of the intertextual relationships between the Ruth and Tamar narratives will be presented.
