With some ground rules for an interpretation now established, especially the crucial role of the Requiem's intertext—the Bible—and the importance of knowing the original context of its scriptural passages, in the current chapter I focus on an exegesis of the biblical excerpts in the Requiem as the principal guide to understanding the work. For the sake of relevance and length, I limit myself to elucidating points in the text that endow it with an explicitly Christian perspective. The doctrines addressed in the Requiem are true to the teachings of historic Christianity in its various creeds and are embraced by most Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, who believe in the trustworthiness of the Bible. Although much of the work reverberates with Lutheran doctrine familiar to musicians through the works of Schütz, Bach, and a host of other German composers, there is nothing here that is identifiable with a particular denomination. Unlike works that incorporate chorale texts and new poetry that may highlight current theological emphases or debates, by containing only scripture that articulates some of the most basic tenets of Christianity the Requiem transcends place and time. Therefore I freely reference a variety of theologians, including Luther himself and a number of conservative nineteenth-century German theologians representing the period of composition. I also draw on recent theological studies, because they contain a culmination and distillation of traditional Christian teaching. The opinions offered here were not chosen because they alone support an aberrant view of scripture, but because they summarize efficiently and poetically long-held judgments about the verses set by Brahms. From time to time, I compare the concepts presented in the Requiem to those in other well-known sacred works, to illustrate how conventional these ideas were and how they might be heard in the Requiem as in any other work. I also occasionally contrast its concepts with those expressed in secular pieces of the period, to indicate how the Requiem contains biblical doctrine that differed substantially from common nineteenth-century thought.