(along with the associated concept of ‘canon’) are commonly considered to have negligible exegetical value, and potential to cause exegetical damage. This is because they appear to encourage exegetes to overdetermine the interpretation of particular biblical texts by reference to some supposed ‘sense of the whole’, and so to risk violating the integrity of the diverse elements of the Bible. Only once this diversity is recognized, the argument runs, is it possible to construct some kind of account