Customer Reviews

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: 4 Vol. Set

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Beware of the new cut-price printing of this set being offered various places for $99.99. The ads say you are saving $180.00, but it's not the same product. The cheap version has a cheap glued binding and no dustjackets. These books are too thick and heavy to be bound that way. With mine, the picture pages in the center just cracked loose and fell out. A 200-page novel that will be read once can have any kind of binding, but heavy reference books that will be used repeatedly are a different story. What looks like a super deal on eBay or Amazon Market is likely to be the cheapo version.

Earlier printings are available used for about the same price, with dust jackets and some of them (not all) have a far-superior sewn binding. It's nice not to worry about pages coming loose, and to have a book that lays open flat. The ISBN does not tell you what you are getting. For example, the May 1993 reprint of Vol 4 has a sewn binding, but the otherwise identical November 1988 printing does not. Maybe there were complaints about the earlier printing coming apart, I have no idea. I don't know whether the set Amazon sells for $176.40 has a sewn or glued binding; my advice is to call Eerdmans and find out before buying. The text is always identical, as long as it's the "Fully Revised" version; I believe the last volume, Vol 4, was first issued in its fully revised version in 1988, the other volumes earlier than that. The first printings of fully revised Vol 4 have 1211 pages, later printings have 1240. The difference is a set of errata pages, which you can photocopy from a library.

As a pastor, I find the ISBE a wonderful tool, not only for study but for ideas. Material from articles on subjects like "peace" or "conscience" provide information and insights not available elsewhere.

The ISBE contributors represent various evangelical positions. The set often includes articles that are barely evangelical, contributors frequently holding to inspiration but not inerrancy. Though I find myself more conservative than many of the contributors, I find the insights invaluable and the thinking scholarly. There's not a lot of the same old same old surface info, but depth and even some original thinking.

Highly reommended for students of the Word, with a note of caution to those of us on the conservative end of evangelicalism.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know the one book or set of books that should be a requirement for a Christian who is serious about his faith, then ISBE would be it. Yes, it's a little expensive. And yes, it is available on CD-ROM along with other Bible programs. (What an asset!) But, there is no substitute to having the real thing available on hard copy. (The computer screen can only last so long on one's eyes.) This encylopedia covers just about every biblical subject in a scholarly manner. You will have experts on the field to rely on for the articles you research. Well worth its weight in gold. Buy it now!

This has become a very useful tool for my adult Sunday School preparations.

It is packed with loads of information not only in the form of Biblical commentary but also in terms of information about people, places, things, and events in the Bible. Also, while Bromiley tends to be on the Evangelical side of things in terms of exegesis (he's from Fuller after all, as are some of his co-editors, one of whom is from Wycliffe), he at least mentions the many interpretations that various passages of scripture have (including neo-orthodox and liberal). He also provides numerous, though at times cryptically short, references for those with the desire to look them up in a good reference library.

One criticism I have is his writting style, particularly in some of the exegetical sections, is a little terse, and more explaination of the Hebrew/Greek would be helpful.

Great reference material on any and every subject you can think of in the Bible. This is definitly worth the price, if you're a serious Bible student, having this comprehensive work on your bookshelf would be an invaluable asset!

Highly Recomended!