Altogether fourteen essays in honour of Professor Lauri Thurén contribute to developing and applying methods for the study of the Bible and its world. In particular, many contributions focus on the biblical text as narrative, on rhetorical research and text's means of persuasion, which are special interests of the celebrant. The authors also explore various aspects of how the biblical texts were read in subsequent centuries, first in the Early Church and then in nascent Protestantism.

The Festschrift encourages methodological innovation and precision. The Introductory article offers a retrospective on Prof. Thurén's own work. The authors make new suggestions and applications of the concepts of prototype and exemplar, retrodiction, relecture and redaction, among others. Epistolography is put into dialogue with ancient rhetorics, and intersectional analysis is offered of ancient book production. 0ther examples of the essays include reading the archaeological remains of ancient synagogues as texts, and analysing the rhetorics of blame from Jesus to President Trump.