Reading always must take icontext into consideration. This implies that a small portion of any individual book in the Bible requires understanding the general meaning of the entire book.

That may sound daunting, but don't worry; we'll start small.

It may not be where you expect

A story which has one meaning in one culture may be very differently understood in another culture.

And Bible stories were all written for a culture different than ours.

How do I know? More important, how you can know how the biblical authors intended their words to be read.