Includes bibliographical references.

Precritical interpretation of biblical narrative -- Change in interpretation: the eighteenth century -- Anthony Collins: meaning, reference, and prophecy -- Hermeneutics and meaning-as-reference -- Biblical hermeneutics and religious apologetics -- Apologetics, criticism, and the loss of narrative interpretation -- Hermeneutics and biblical authority in German thought -- The quest for a unitary meaning -- Herder on the Bible: the realistic spirit in history -- The lack of realism in German letters -- Strauss's perfection of the "mythical" option -- Hermeneutical options at the turn of the century -- Myth and narrative meaning: a question of categories -- The hermeneutics of understanding -- "Understanding" and narrative continuity.