I have been the proud owner of the
New Bible Dictionary
for about 10 years. It is the best one available if you are a seminary student or otherwise doing academic work. However, the more I have been in pastoral ministry, the more that I have realized the need for a dictionary whose focus is primarily practical. Evidence about whether or not Shechem was located where we think it was or not, do not help me in any normal ministry context. What does help me is understanding the role that a person, or place plays through the course of the Biblical narrative. Ideally this could be done by taking a "Biblical theology" perspective of these topics and putting them in something like the
Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
, but alas there is no such resource.
So, since my two favorite dictionaries (above) didn't meet the need, and since, I wanted an actual "hold it in your hand" resource, I started looking carefully for a practically oriented Bible Dictionary. After looking at all of the Bible Dictionaries here (Unger, Nelson, Tyndale, Baker, Holman, etc), I became highly frustrated because there are so many and it seems impossible to tell the difference. They don't say what kind of unique spin or benefit they have, aside from how many illustrations or articles. So I drove over to the library of the nearby seminary and browsed through every Bible dictionary on the shelf for an afternoon (including the classics). I took several example articles (Aaron, Shechem, Midianites, Jericho) of things I was interested in and compared the quality of the articles. Honestly, for the most part the differences were not significant, and when they were, it was unpredictable which dictionary would be best.
Eventually, I started to narrow down the choices to just the
The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary
and this one. Both are comprehensive resources which feel great in your hand and to read, with good coverage of all important subjects. By contrast the
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary
, while well illustrated, feels a bit like a toy. Coverage is shallower, articles are shorter. I might pick that one for homeschool use. The old ISBE (Orr not Bromiley), Smith, and Easton are all great resources, which you can and should use on e-sword or some similar online program, but for the hold in your hand use, it was this or Baker.
So eventually, to break the tie, I started paging through the two books, looking at what was covered, and what was said. Over time it became clear that Zondervan was just deeper. On the whole the articles are more substantial. Baker occasionally has a really good literature insight (such as pointing out the recent literary discovery that Haman was an Amalekite) but these were more like window dressing on a dictionary that is not as strong. Perhaps this is because the Zondervan is actually an abridgement of the longer
The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible: Revised Full-Color Edition
I looked at that as well, also. I concluded that the main difference was that the Dictionary leaves out some of the major multi-page type articles in favor of staying on "dictionary" topics, which are what I wanted anyway.
I'm saying all of this to save you the intense work that I went through. If you are looking for a modern one-volume Bible dictionary, this is the one.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2014
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Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2017
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A very nice Bible dictionary.
By Cindy Perez on June 26, 2017
I am very well pleased with this Bible dictionary. It is very comprehensive and easy to use. I've had no trouble looking things up in it and have found the answers I'm looking for.
By Cindy Perez on June 26, 2017
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Top reviews from other countries
Linda from Southsea
Not easily understandable for majority of non academic readers to follow.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2018Verified Purchase
lw
Kindle version
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2017Verified Purchase
Chandra Shaw
Perfect for my needs
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2021Verified Purchase
Bessie
Helpful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2014Verified Purchase
Anionted 2 Win
Solid build but to big and combersome for my needs - lots of info though.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2018Verified Purchase
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