Customer Reviews

Catholic Bible Dictionary

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4 star:		(9)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Although I have only been Catholic for 6 years, for over 40 years I have been a Bible student and teacher with literally thousands of books and I do know good resource books. Catholic Bible Dictionary is a great Catholic Dictionary! I trust everything Dr. Scott Hahn has published because I know anyone seeking truth is safe under the teaching of this well-known writer and scholar; the information has been researched historically, as well as having used the Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I had been on the wait list for the Catholic Bible Dictionary and was anxious for it to arrive. The Dictionary was a long time coming but I knew it would be worth the waiting. I was right! Today the Catholic Bible Dictionary arrived. I dropped everything I was holding, ran for a knife and opened the box! I fell in love with the cover which is a picture of the center section of the painting The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck. (Saint Bavo Cathedral of Ghent.) The painting is glorious! And, that is even before I opened the book! Next I opened the book and the first thing I saw was the Imprimatur . . . that is a good thing. Converts really like that.

And then, I love the fonts. It is large print and you know immediately that everything is important. Sections are divided so that you will see where you have been and where you are going! In a dictionary? How unusual is that! And that is just at first glance! You see a list of the Church Fathers . . . this is just the beginning! I have hardly had time to look at everything but I have read some of the introductions of different Books of the Bible and they are perfect; each book of the Bible is identified. There is a history of the versions of the Bible! There are complete definitions for topics not covered in great detail in other dictionaries, i.e., Covenant, Liturgy, Interpretation of the Bible. On the cover there is a notation that there are "over five thousand entries as well as the latest up-to-date information on every important item, name, place, and event in Sacred Scripture."

Catholic Bible Dictionary is an academically solid CATHOLIC dictionary, with many superb references and very easy to read. I have already gifted this beautiful book to five friends and would not hesitate giving this to a Protestant. We will all find Truths we need to know in this new resource book. I will be back and edit this review after I use the book more, however, since people are going to want to know what people are saying about the Catholic Bible Dictionary, I wanted to get this on Amazon.

What do I say? I say one thing - "Buy it! You can't be disappointed."

I'm very pleased to present The Catholic Bible Dictionary after working on it for a number of years with a team of colleagues and friends. The book is a reference work aimed at highly motivated Catholic lay people who are intent on a lifetime of Scripture reading and study. I hope it will also be a handy and reliable resource for pastors as they prepare homilies and catechesis. For seminarians, it could provide a solid beginning for biblical research, leading to other resources (lexicons, commentaries etc.).

If you wish to get a good sense of what the Dictionary is about, I'd suggest that you read some of the following articles as samples:

Biblical Criticism; Covenant; Family; Inspiration; Interpretation of the Bible; Jesus Christ; Jubilee; Kingdom; Law; Liturgy; Marriage; Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Messiah; Parousia; Priest, Priesthood; Sacrifice; Temple; Typology.

I'd also recommend the entries on each of the different books of the Bible.

Anything that bears the name of Scott Hahn is going to be reliable, orthodox, and comprehensive! This book is no exception. A great resource tool you will "go to" again and again..... I highly recommend this excellent dictionary.... dare I say "encyclopedia!"... for your best reference when studying the Sacred Scriptures!

For anyone who reads the Bible, both Catholic and non-Catholic, this volume is extremely valuable. One is often confronted with a word or phrase that we think we understand; but do we really? For example: "The Garden of Eden." Prof Scott Hahn looks at this Garden from every aspect - from the physical location to the symbolic meaning of this earthly "paradise" where God is present. It is one of, if not the most, complete "encyclopaedias" related to every aspect of the Scriptures. For any student of the Scriptures or anyone interested in undertsanding the Scriptures this is a MUST reference book. For Catholics, as also for non-Catholics, it is important to know that the "Nihil Obstat" and "Imprimatur" declarations by Bishops of the Church means that the volume has been scrutinised and declared to contain no element at all that is in contradiction to the teaching of the Church and hence it may be published having the backing of the Catholic Church. Scott Hanhn is an extremely good writer and has a style of writing that is easy and interesting to read. Deacon A.(Tony) de Freitas PhD.

NOTE: This review refers ONLY to the Kindle version and bemoans its nonexistent navigation. Given the lack of good Catholic references on the Kindle (e.g. no copy of the 1994 Catechism, no RSV or NAB Bibles in addition to an old copy of the Douay-Rheims), I was thrilled to see that Scott Hahn's excellent new reference was available. So, you can imagine my heartbreak when I purchased the Kindle version and discovered that the book was devoid of usuable navigation.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
A to Z
Appendix I: Chronology of the Old Testament
Appendix II: Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah

Want to read Hahn's magesterial reference like a novel from A-Z? Great. You'll enjoy the Kindle version. Want to look up a specific topic? You'll need the patience of Job. Actually, a search for "Job" using Kindle's excellent search function yields 170 results (that renders 34 pages with Kindle's medium 3/6 font size). Good luck finding the main entry for the Book of Job.

I fail to understand why the Kindle version of ANY dictionary would omit clickable links to individual letters of the alphabet, but such is the case here. No internal cross reference links or index, either. You could theoretically create your own Kindle bookmarks at the start of each letter entry and other meaningful places (Alt + B : then access them on MENU > My Notes & Marks > "Location xxxxx"), but that is insulting busywork considering that the price of the Kindle version is about the same as the print version (sigh).

Dr. Hahn's brilliant dictionary demands sensible navigation on the Kindle. I would give the content five stars, but zero stars for the Kindle format. My four-star rating should be lower for this Kindle version, but I didn't want to lower the overall review average for this outstanding and essential reference book. I'm glad that many of Scott Hahn's other fine books are available in Kindle format, but please, only buy his Catholic Bible Dictionary in regular book format. Caveat Kindle lector.

How frustrating!!

This is an excellent Bible Dictionary for the Catholic faithful to have. The Kindle makes dictionaries so very powerful as well! I was a little frustrated by the price, but the promise of this volume made me jump in and spend the money.

I am sorry I did.

The Kindle edition of this dictionary is awful. Navigation is next to impossible, making it unwieldy. But that is only the beginning of my criticism.

Consider Easton's Bible Dictionary for Kindle (instant definition lookup while reading any Bible) (Updated) This Bible Dictionary is set up for the Kindle. Once you set it as your primary dictionary (easy with a couple of clicks of the buttons) and open up ANY Bible on the Kindle and start reading, any word in the Bible you bring your cursor to will have its entry in the Easton Bible Dictionary show up at the bottom of the Kindle's screen. Then, all you have to do is push the enter key if you want to open the Easton Bible Dictionary to its entry of that word. It is so powerful a tool for Bible study that it is just plain silly... but it isn't Catholic. I was SO excited when I saw this coming out for Kindle... by the great Scott Hahn no less! I just had to buy it. What a disappointment!

IF they are going to charge an exorbitant amount for this Catholic Bible Dictionary for Kindle (anything over 9.99 for an ebook is exorbitant... there are NO production costs!!!) then they ought to take the time to format it for Kindle correctly. Formating this book as a Kindle dictionary would have made it one of the most important publications on Kindle in a long time. Imagine combining this book (formated correctly) with the Ignatius Bible recently introduced by Ignatius Press for Kindle. You would have, instantly and at your fingertips, the entire text of the Bible with outstanding explanations of key words instantly accessible.

WHY DIDN'T THEY FORMAT THIS AS A KINDLE DICTIONARY?! It boggles the mind.

I give the content of this book 5 stars (A+). In terms of its formating I give it an F-. What a waisted opportunity. What an exorbitant price!

I have been eagerly awaiting this new Bible dictionary, and it finally arrived today. It is good, but not what I expected.

At 1,000 pages, I expected something much more substantial, but it is limited because the book has a large type font with larger than typical margins (for a reference work) and greater than typical leading between the text lines. This makes for attractive pages for browsing, but less overall content.

While Dr. Hahn is listed as the "General Editor", there is no indication of who the contributors are, if any other than Dr. Hahn. Since it is published by Doubleday, who also originally published the multi-volumne Anchor Bible Dictionary, I expected something like that only condensed to a one-volume, which this product is not. Both the HarperCollins (Society for Biblical Literature) and Eerdmans (David Noel Freedman) one-volume Bible Dictionaries seem to have more content and entries.

In this Catholic Bible "Dictionary", there are no pronunciation helps, nor any references to sources or suggested further reading. And while I have great respect for Dr. Hahn, sometimes in his works I get a bit uncomfortable with some of the classical Protestant-style scripture proof-texting, at times (in my view) taking texts out of context to prove a point and inadvertently tending to minimize the authority of Tradition in Catholic teaching (i.e., trying to "prove" Tradition by scripture proof-texting). While occasionally there is information here attributed to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other church documents and the Fathers, the overwhelming source of support for the entries is the Bible itself.

I look forward to continuing to browse through this new Dictionary, and it will take a place on my book shelves, but not the prominent place I had anticipated. My "go to" Bible Dictionaries remain HarperCollins and Eerdmans for one-volume, and Anchor Bible Dictionary for in-depth study.

This dictionary has been a long time coming, and it has finally arrived. It will aid the beginner and challenge the scholar. This dictionary is a wonderful presentation of authentic modern advances in biblical scholarship, combined with the living tradition of the Church, through the Church Fathers. Catholics, Protestants and others interested in the Bible would benefit from this wonderful resource.

My first recommendation is that you purchase this dictionary.

My second recommendation is that after you purchase it don't put it on the shelf, use it frequently in a spirit of prayer and humility. Definitely, do not let it collect dust.

I agree with the other reviewers in terms of the quality of the content - the Catholic Bible Dictionary is excellent. The Kindle version has some advantages over the paper one; it is less expensive and more portable. However, it is much more difficult to navigate. Some of these problems are the fault of the publisher; others are limitations of the Kindle.

Publisher problems

The dictionary has virtually no internal navigation aids.
1. The Table of Contents has a total of six links. One of those, "A to Z", is for the entire dictionary proper.
2. There are no active links in any entry to any other entry - a major missed opportunity.

Kindle limitations

We're all familiar with printed dictionaries. To find something, you open the book to an approximate location, look at the top of the page to figure out where you are, and quickly converge to the right place through trial and error. As long as you guess the first two or three letters correctly, spelling isn't a problem. The Kindle substitute for this process - search - can be (and usually is) frustrating.

Suppose you want to see the entry for Romans. You type "Romans" in the search field. The search takes a while. No wonder: it returns 421 matches in the Bible dictionary alone. (If you have a Kindle 1, as I do, you also search every other document on your device, as well as the built-in dictionary.) Just listing those 421 matches takes 71 pages. There is no way to move quickly through the list - it's one page at a time.

That makes it time for another guess. You type in "Romans letter". This search is faster. There are only 19 matches (requiring 4 pages), and the one for "ROMANS, LETTER TO THE" is on page 2. You bookmark it, because you never want to have to search for it again.

The more obscure the topic you seek, the better off you are. A search for "David" returns 822 matches; one for "Melchizedek" returns 54; one for "Methuselah" returns 4.

The Kindle is not at all suited for works where one flips around to find specific entries: dictionaries, Bibles, encyclopedias, etc. Search really only does the job for books you would not ordinarily search, like novels.

This problem has been solved on other platforms through the use of indices, a very old technology. PocketLingo dictionaries for PDAs are one example. As you enter the word you seek, you see a list of matches from which to choose. It's easy to catch spelling errors, and the system is fast. It is so fast that you have the equivalent of hyperlinks. If you see a word you don't know in a definition, you highlight the word and the dictionary jumps to its definition. The speed doesn't come from the hardware: it comes from the index. Amazon needs to implement this technology on the Kindle, or allow others to implement it.

Bottom line

Get the printed version.

This is a great resource for any Catholic to have in their home. The Bible Dictionary is very easy to use and the explanations don't go over your head. I know this is something I am going to use often, especially for the many things in Scripture I don't understand. Catholic Bible Dictionary