Noted Old Testament scholar Roland E. Murphy presents helpful insights for determining the meanings of Wisdom Literature and Psalms, from both a literal-historical perspective and a modern. twentieth-century interpretation. Beginning with a discussion of the origin of Wisdom Literature. Its background and characteristics, Father Murphy enumerates the presuppositions that have emerged from scholarly study. The chapter on interpretation deals with the cultural and religious presuppositions of the modern reader from interpretations of the past, using The Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes as illustrations. A number of passages have been selected from Job, Proverbs. Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, and the Psalms as examples of the process for interpreting these and other books of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. The examples illustrate the context of the passage, analyze the pertinent terms, and state the basic meanings, historical and modern.