While the act of reading is held in common by all, there are many different types of readers. I note three here: (a) the implied reader, the one for whom the text is written (see next chapter). This reader is inferred from data within the text itself (in a similar way one speaks of an implied author); (b) the historical reader, the reader who would have read the text in ancient times, which may correspond to the implied reader in many ways; (c) readers in every postbiblical generation. The latter are the special concern of reader-response criticism.
