The sum and substance of this short study is simply that letter kills, meaning that we do not need to hold on tenaciously to the literal meaning of a text but that it is spirit or the intended meaning of words that makes a text or narrated event meaningful; that is, narrative truth of the text is not necessarily one and the same as the literal meaning of the text or historical truth. St. Paul puts it brilliantly as follows: "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6).