Dead Spots or Living Texts? A Matter of Biblical Reading

Parallel stories, such as the Genesis tales of the wife/sister ploys on the part of Abraham and Isaac, raise the questions of difference and relationship. Choosing which questions to ask of these texts is a methodological exercise which heightens the challenge of difference, for different questions will elicit different answers from the text. Our awareness of this challenge and our choice of questions will allow texts to challenge us in our own contexts. These tales told with difference can symbolise the task to be undertaken “again and again and again”.