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Title: The Oxford Companion to the Bible by Bruce M. Metzger, Michael D. Coogan ISBN: 0-19-504645-5 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A worthy companion
Comment: Oxford University Press has a reputation second to none in the production of scholarly reference works, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. It has certainly upheld that fine reputation for scholarship, objectivity, and authoritative research with its latest 'Oxford Companion to the Bible', edited by Bruce Metzger and Michael Coogan.
Pulling together a worthy group of researchers and scholars (the directory of contributors spans seven pages of rather small typeset print), the 'Oxford Companion to the Bible' represents a major work of reference useful in any biblical endeavour. 'Interpretation of the Bible has of course not been consistent, and throughout history the Bible has been used to support contradictory positions on such issues as slavery, the role of women, war and peace, forms of government, and finance. The Companion reflects this diversity: it is consciously pluralistic, and its more than 250 contributors, as well as its editors and editorial advisory board, encompass a wide spectrum of intellectual and confessional perspectives.'
In keeping with the diversity of authorship, the Companion is meant to be useful to a diverse range of Bible readers and religious. The Companion includes systematic treatment of the use, development, and role of the Bible in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, as well as the influence and significance of the Bible in thematic areas such as the arts, literature, politics, law, history, and culture.
This is not a simple Bible dictionary -- it has encyclopedic entries with in-depth analyses that go beyond mere definition, and contains more than 700 articles, each with authorship noted (so that the perspective can be known from whence the essay's asssertions come). Broad topics include:
- Formation of the Bible as a text
- Context and the Biblical World
- Concepts in the Bible (in the various interpretations)
- Uses and Influences of the Bible
While the Companion is arranged alphabetically, it is extensively cross-referenced by keywords, topically, and 'blind entries' (i.e., words that have meanings not expressly covered as separate entries, but are contained in more detail within other entries).
From Aaron to Zion, this is a book which, when pulled from the shelf, rarely remains closed for long -- I often use it to search for a particular theme, and find myself an hour later still perusing the Companion, having been tempted to follow the various strands through the book. While it is a reference book, and thus not one to be read simply by sitting and starting with the first entry, it nonetheless has an interesting, readable character that draws the seeker in. Treasures lie on each page.
From the possible influence of the ancient Gilgamesh Epic to the current practice of possessing and passing on a Family Bible, this reference is second to none in usefulness and comprehensive scope.
Rating: 2
Summary: Secular Screed on the Bible
Comment: This book possesses echoes too much textual criticism common to humanist critics of Christianity. The tone and views of many contributors is sharply cynical over the inspiration of the Bible and the truth of Christianity in general. Some reference material is informative and okay, but this book should be left to egghead intellectuals, humanists and unitarians.
Rating: 4
Summary: Critical, but opens a whole new perspective
Comment: This is the required text at my college and when I bought it I imediately went to my room and read. I must say I disagreed with most of the positions I read, but nevertheless, it was very emlightening and gave me a different perspective in the book. The theological position of the book varies: ranging from liberal to evangelically conservative. However, overall it adapts a mainline, critical, slightly evangelical appraoch to the bible. That is important to know before one reads the book, this is not an objective work. These writers, like all, have their own presuppositions (several of them outdated) and naturally, like you or I would, they put them into the text. This should not discourage the reader, a different perpsective is always needed. I would say that one should consult a book with a differnt approach at the same time one studies this. A book I would recommend would be The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology.
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Title: The Oxford History of the Biblical World by Michael David Coogan ISBN: 0195139372 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Oxford Bible Commentary by John Barton, John Muddiman ISBN: 0198755007 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
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Title: The New Oxford Annotated NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha, Third Edition by Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Pheme Perkins ISBN: 019528478X Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford Paperback Reference) by Elizabeth A. Livingstone ISBN: 0192800574 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Cambridge Companion to the Bible by Howard Clark Kee, Eric M. Meyers, John Rogerson, Anthony J. Saldarini ISBN: 0521343690 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
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