ABSTRACT
Many colleagues react with sorrow and shock at the diffuse situation of biblical interpretation: ‘The great unifying concepts and ideas have disappeared. This is also true for biblical interpretation.’ Many fear that methodical rigour, objectivity, intersubjectivity, and the interdisciplinary reputation of biblical interpretation will be lost by opening the doors to pluralism. Biblical research is called to continually face new intellectual and cultural trends, even if these may seem confusingly complex at first. The goal must always be to develop adequate approaches to the Bible. The most important ethical axiom is habitually dealing with the Bible, living together with the Bible, even living in the Bible. A person can execute a series of laboratory experiments with the goal of collecting data without a deeper understanding of what it is he is measuring. A ‘holistic understanding of the Bible’ as the ideal goal of research is only possible in a synopsis of the various facets balancing each other.
