Thread: Encyclopedias, dictionaries etc

I have always found this handy:

Walter A. Elwell Evangelical Dictionary of Theology

Get a hold of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, in the second edition. You will find loads of help there on almost every Bible topic. It gives more info than a standard one-volume dictionary, which you would rather quickly outgrow. If you want even more information than that, I would go with the new IVP reference dictionary set, which has one volume on every major section of the Bible. The one on the OT prophets is still in preparation. It's more expensive, but also worth it. Beyond that, I would actually recommend commentaries. I have a commentary suggestion post on my blog for less technical but still helpful commentaries here.

You can try the free program E-Sword. You can 'try out' various resources that are available free (mostly older material without any copyright, but some is new). There are dictionaries, encyclopedias, commentaries, etc. Then, if you want to purchase a high quality hardcover book, you can do so with confidence that you will put it to good use.

Edit: As of May 6, 2008 - the new version of E-Sword has generated such downloading traffic that the download is not currently available due to server difficulties. If you are interested, wait a few days and check the website again.

Mcclintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia is excellent if a bit dated.

I wish it were possible to find Fairbairn's Imperial Bible Dictionary around here: you might have greater success with that in your part of the world.

Not Bible, but an essential for historical study is Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology, ed. Nigel M. de S. Cameron, David F. Wright, David C. Lachman, and Donald E. Meek. OOP but it needs to be reprinted.

Originally Posted by Tim

You can try the free program E-Sword. You can 'try out' various resources that are available free (mostly older material without any copyright, but some is new). There are dictionaries, encyclopedias, commentaries, etc. Then, if you want to purchase a high quality hardcover book, you can do so with confidence that you will put it to good use.

Edit: As of May 6, 2008 - the new version of E-Sword has generated such downloading traffic that the download is not currently available due to server difficulties. If you are interested, wait a few days and check the website again.

I second E-Sword.

I agree with e-Sword as one of the two best PC based FREE Bible software programs. If you wait until Monday, a wonderful site will be up again with LOTS of add-ons for free (in the ver. 9 format). http://e-sword-users.org/users/index.php

My other suggestion would be Wordsearch with all of their free materials as downloads.

I like Zondervan's Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible over ISBE. My favorite Bible Dictionary is Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vol.). It was one of the first one's that I purchased. It is old but very good. I have had others, some mentioned above, that are great, like Strong's Cyclopedia and ISBE. As far as topical studies go, I don't think you can get any better than the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible.