The Institute for Biblical Research has launched the Bulletin for
Biblical Research as an instrument for understanding the religious
senses of scripture. The aim is to publish articles which are both fully
critical and generally accessible to the scholarly community. It is as-
sumed as a matter of course that strictures of literary and historical
reading apply in biblical exegesis. Yet current practice often does not
acknowledge that religious meaning was the obvious context in which
scriptural documents were produced, and the medium within which
they were transmitted and received. The concern of the Institute is not
to force all the articles it publishes into a single program, but to accord
due interest to the religious sources and purposes of our texts. We in-
vite the response of our readers, and contributions from any scholar
who is engaged by the meanings one encounters in the discipline of
exegesis.

                                                               Bruce Chilton, Editor-in-Chief
                                                               Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion                                                                                                                Bard College , Annandale-on-Hudson   
                                                               New York 12504 , U.S.A.