My younger daughter is an artist. Her paintings always impress me. I am fascinated by the way her creative mind works. Often I can see what she has in mind, but almost never would I have thought of expressing it in the way that she has. At other times I am at a loss to follow her creative thought even when I appreciate the beauty of the finished work. Early on, I learned that artists are not fond of the question, “What does it mean?” They may even find the question annoying. What the artist is apt to say is “What do you see?” Art is not defined by the artist’s intention alone, but also by the viewer’s response. It is, at best, a joint venture. What the artist intends and what the viewer sees are both important. The same sort of thing applies when we read something. It is not merely a matter of what the author intends, but also how the reader responds. In different times and cultures the “then” reader may have quite a different response than an earlier reader had. Real communication can be found in the space between the author’s intention and the reader’s response. All this may seem a bit complicated but in reality it is quite simple. It is a matter of what do we see in a painting and how close is that to what the painter intended? What do we see as the meaning of what we read and how does that fit with what the author intended? In the end, art, at its best, is a conversation rather than a monologue. How do you thing this might affect our reading of the books of the Bible?