This article examines the interpretive activity of reading biblical texts in parallel, focusing on its role in conceptualizing the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Because the biblical canon provides no single, explicit articulation of its internal dynamic, this relationship is a crux interpretum that faces every reader of the Christian Bible. The first section surveys distinct biblical-theological frameworks for relating the testaments and notes that each conveys important insights but also has inherent limitations. The second section focuses on a specific example: the varied New Testament utilization of Psalm 110. This case study illustrates how the practice of parallel reading, even at the granular level of exegesis, requires navigating between canonical continuity and tension. Ultimately, this hermeneutical reflection on the canon’s internal complexity will deepen a reader’s understanding of Scripture’s multifaceted witness to Christ.

The relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament within the Christian Bible should be the defining focus of the discipline of biblical the-ology. This characterization provides a strong contrast with some historically oriented models of biblical theology and can also inform several intramural discussions within confessional approaches to the discipline. The viability of this large-scale exegetical inquiry can be seen in a stream of recent research that articulates a canonical approach to biblical theology. Several strategic passages in the New Testament also encourage this particular mode of biblical-theological reflection. An orienting focus on the rela-tionship between the Testaments will not resolve every riddle in the discipline of biblical theology, but it can produce a gravitational pull that can hold together a diverse con-stellation of methodological commitments and theological conclusions

******* Abstract: The literary notion of invokes a series of hermeneutically significant questions: What is it? Who produces it? and How can it be identified? These questions naturally lead to a further query: What is the relationship between this implied reader of a text and an actual reader of a text? This type of study is often associated primarily with reader-response theory and purely literary approaches. However, the concept can help uncover an often-neglected aspect of biblical interpretation, namely, the role of the reader. If biblical authors envision certain types of readers, then identifying the nature of this audience is an important part of the interpretive task. Further, because Christians read the biblical writings within the context of a canonical collection, this concept can be pursued in light of the Christian canon as a whole. Through this literary and theological study, I seek to demonstrate that strategic biblical texts envision an ideal reader, namely, an actual reader who seeks to identify with the implied reader.