Texts supporting liberation may also legitimate violence against others. It is difficult to separate liberation from oppression. Some people misuse the Bible by misunderstanding its message. Scholars using the disciplines of exegesis and hermeneutics strive to understand texts in their own contexts and to relate these texts to new contexts today. The use of critical methods for the study of the Bible can help people understand biblical texts better and apply them more responsibly.
Biblical theologians acknowledge that there is theological diversity within the biblical canon.
For many theological topics one can find diverse views within the canon. One can find texts which can be used for liberation and texts which can be used for oppression. This means, for example, that the same Bible can be used to support and to oppose apartheid theology. One must determine how one is to deal with this diversity. Different principles are proposed for differentiating values of particular texts related to other texts.