Explain why reading the whole Bible can help prevent interpretive imbalance, while still requiring attention to individual passages.

### Why this is right The source pairs whole-Bible study with careful attention to the passage under examination. Broad reading can expose neglected themes and help test interpretations, but it cannot replace analysis of context, speaker, audience, or literary form. ### The concept A canonical approach asks how a passage participates in the Bible’s larger account. An immediate-context approach asks what the passage communicates in its own literary and historical circumstances. Neither question should cancel the other. The student should avoid both fragmentation, where passages are treated as unrelated, and flattening, where every passage is made to say the same thing. ### What a good answer covers - Whole-Bible reading broadens the student’s perspective. - Selective study can overstate one theme. - Individual passages have particular contexts and purposes. - The larger story should inform, not replace, local interpretation. ### Remember The whole Bible gives a frame; the passage supplies its particular contribution.