as scripture and its boundaries. Through the arrangement of the books and the use of important transitional reflections, there is a ‘definitive shape’ placed on the tradition, a shape which organises and unifies the material and invests it with meaning. The meaning stresses the importance of the word of God, a word with life and death significance.54 The same words that created the world (Gn. 1) can be meditated upon day and night to create a nation (Jos. 1) and they can also create an individual