ABSTRACT
This chapter considers basic areas of biblical studies long recognized as crucial for understanding of the biblical texts: lexical and grammatical studies, historical-critical studies, textual criticism, source and redaction criticism, and archaeology. It looks at some areas that received special attention in the second half of the twentieth century: canonical criticism, intertestamental studies and intertextuality. Archaeological discoveries continue to shed light on biblical religion and daily life. Pictures of excavations and artefacts can help translators to visualize items referred to in the biblical text. Source criticism of the Old Testament is one of the oldest of the critical methodologies. Post-colonial criticism is a relatively recent approach to reading the Bible, though the imperatives and underlying emotions that it expresses are as old as the Bible itself. The sociological approach in biblical studies provides an important cross-disciplinary supplement to more traditional methodologies and tools for exegesis.
