BIBL 000: Bible Dictionaries/Encyclopedias and Commentaries

Massive work with emphases on archaeology, languages, texts, and cultural history; comparatively light coverage of biblical-theological topics. Intended for advanced students, scholars, and specialists.

The most recent of the major multi-volume Bible dictionaries that have been completed. Rivals ABD as the best work of its kind with a heavier accent on biblical-theological topics. Unfortunately, the bibliographies for too many of the entries are inadequate.

The two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible is the first in this series of specialized reference works, each addressing a specific subfield within biblical studies... The Encyclopedia contains almost 120 in-depth entries, ranging in length from 500 to 10,000 words, on each of the canonical books of the Bible, major apocryphal books of the New and Old Testaments, important noncanonical texts, and thematic essays on topics such as canonicity, textual criticism, and translation.

The projected thirty-volume Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) is intended to serve as a comprehensive guide to the current state of knowledge on the background, origins, and development of the canonical texts of the Bible as they were accepted in Judaism and Christianity. Unprecedented in breadth and scope, this encyclopedia also documents the history of the Bible's interpretation and reception across the centuries, not only in Judaism and Christianity, but also in literature, visual art, music, film, and dance, as well as in Islam and other religious traditions and new religious movements.