Respecting the literary aspects of the Bible is a way of observing the biblical authors' intentions. For a very long time, the cornerstone of evangelical hermeneutics has been authorial intention—the need to interpret a passage in keeping with an author's inferred intention. It is time that we put the literary approach to the Bible under that rubric. It stands to reason that if a biblical author entrusted his message to literary forms and techniques, he intended that we apply ordinary methods of literary analysis to the text.