The Bible, even today, holds an unrivaled position of eminence and does so for many reasons. Three come readily to mind. It is the most influential text in the formation and history of Western culture and partially of others, and the culture for which it is central is not confined to religious contexts but includes everyday living. The second reason is that biblical texts constitute a complex, historically and culturally rich, and intriguing collection of ancient material that seems, even to the present day, to be an inexhaustible object of inquiry and lively scholarly debate. The third and most obvious reason is the standing and role of these texts as central for Jewish, Christian, and related religious traditions.

On the face of it, one would think that these three reasons for the Bible's standing and role, while distinguishable, need not be at odds with one another. The first of the three has the advantage of common agreement. Even if the Bible's contribution to the formation of Western culture is regarded by some as hindering the advance of cultural, especially scientific, interests, all would have to agree that the Bible is without rival when it comes to texts that have had a culturally formative role. The second and third reasons, however, have sponsored positions that are largely incompatible and even in conflict. One purpose of this book is to propose that the noticeable incompatibility between the second and third reasons is unfortunately exaggerated and can be eased.

The division of two kinds of interests in the Bible, scholarly and religious, is marked by exclusions imposed from both sides. Those who approach the Bible as a complex collection of historically and culturally interesting texts, an approach most related to scholarly, especially historical, pursuits, tend to exclude religious interests taken in them. This discounts the historical and cultural fact that the Bible has been and continues to be for countless people in diverse times and places crucial to their personal, group, and even cultural identities and worldviews. On the other side, religious, theological, and ecclesiastical bases for regarding the Bible highly can hold insufficient regard for historical and critical biblical scholarship. This deprives religiously motivated readings of the Bible of the richness and complexity of the texts seen in their historical and cultural contexts and developments.