Scripture stands at the heart of the self-communication of God in history since biblical texts make present kinds of human speaking which are interpenetrated by and formed within the creative rhythms of revelatory divine speech. Old and New Testament are canonical compilations of hymns, historical narratives, dramatic interludes, stories, dialogues, songs, texts of thanksgiving and celebration, prophecies and parables, aetiologies and genealogies, proclamations and affirmations, ethical and legal codes, which are inwardly shaped by divine speaking. This is the distinctive characteristic of Scripture, that it is constituted as a form of testimony, as a witness to God's unfolding presence in history, in and through the creative power of the divine Word. But Scripture is also something other than the testimony of others, for it opens up to us new ways of speaking. Through our reading of Scripture, we come to inhabit utterances that are already shaped by the divine communicative presence. Our own voices enter the voices of others who have been reformed by the power of divine speech, and we learn new modes of speaking and listening. Scriptural reading is the slow learning of these new practices of speaking.

A further, defining particularity of scriptural reading is that we read in Scripture of how Christ himself, who is the meaning of the text, is the one through whom all things were made.