ABSTRACT
Biblical hermeneutics is the discipline of understanding biblical writing. It gathers discussions on a wide range of topics. On the one hand, it analyses how, and by what means, academic biblical interpretation proceeds and did proceed and subjects this process to critical examination. In this sense, it is a necessary part of basic methodological reflection within the discipline of theology. On the other hand, biblical hermeneutics examines how the Bible is and was understood and applied outside of the university. Several so-called ‘alternative methods’ are used by various groups within church and society. Their strengths and limitations must also be considered. In a certain sense, the combined theological voices of the New Testament are an attempt to understand what was said ‘to our fathers’ in the radical new light of God’s salvific action in Jesus Christ. Certain books of the New Testament can actually be understood as a biblical hermeneutics of the Old Testament.
