The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible: Revised Full-Color Edition
The Bible is a work of immense complexity. When we speak of the Bible, we generally are referring to a collection of individual books that form the sacred scriptures of the Christian Church and were written over the course of many centuries by different authors, in different languages, for different purposes, and under varying political and social circumstances. However, the first 39 books found in most English translations of the Bible have been canonized by Jews and Christians alike and comprise the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, respectively. They are religiously significant to two traditions, a fact that can come into play with respect to questions of interpretation and meaning. Two new reference sets, The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible and Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament, will help interested readers navigate one of the most widely read books of all time.       The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible is a revised edition of the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, first published in 1975, and contains more than 7,500 entries on the people, places, concepts, objects, customs, and terms mentioned in the Bible or important thereto. Articles addressing such interesting topics as Education in biblical times and Science in the Bible are also included. New to this edition are several lengthy surveys, including Ethics in the Old Testament and God, biblical doctrine of. Many entries from the previous edition have been substantially revised, such as Archaeology, Biblical criticism, and Dead Sea Scrolls. In an attempt to make the content more accessible to a general audience, the use of Hebrew and Greek script is limited. Bibliographic references have been updated to include more recent scholarship and are incorporated into the text of the entries whenever possible, avoiding lengthy supplemental bibliographies at the end of articles. Like its predecessor, this new edition makes substantial use of color illustrations.   Because of ambiguities in the biblical texts, gaps in the historical and cultural record, scholarly differences assessing existing evidence, and differing approaches to textual criticism and historical method, final judgments as to questions of interpretation and meaning are often elusive. This does not mean that scholarly conclusions are not drawn. The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible strives to include these varying viewpoints but is honest and straightforward in stating that the conclusions it presents reflect a critical and theological position that is rooted in historic Christianity and is conservative/evangelical. Recommended for theological collections and research libraries. --Christopher McConnell