Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Rating:
Summary: A must have for any Bible student
Review: Having owned the earlier version of the Holman Bible Dictionary, I find this new edition is much more extensive with its content.

Many of the definitions are more like college-level essays on every Bible topic you can imagine. It also includes full outlines on every book in the Bible, full-color maps, and beautiful photographs of the Holy Land.

It is definitely not light reading, but for the serious Bible student or minister, the Holman Bible Dictionary is a volume you will be using again and again. I highly recommend the Holman Bible Dictionary.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and Well Written
Review: I owned other Bible Dictionaries but I can't resist buying this one because of the breath of topics covered in this book. The Timeline of the Biblical World and Christianity versus World Events are very helpful to see clearly how Christianity evolves while other world events are happening. Not only does this book covers topics from several bible translations, what I like most, is that it also covers theological topics that are scholarly written that most bible dictionaries don't cover. All sorts of maps, charts and diagrams add clarity and value to the definitions and foremostly, they are all in color.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and Well Written
Review: This is probably the best new bible dictionary to come along in some time. It contains over 700 full-color photos, illustrations, charts, and maps. And these are not just "eye-candy," they are meaty and well thought-out. For example, under the topic of "Revelation" there is a 5-page chart which summarizes how each of the major interpretive views (amill, historic pre-mill, pretrib premill, preterist, postmill) understands each major point of interpretation or passage (e.g., seven heads of Rev 13, Beast, bride of Christ, etc.). The maps are beautifully done and the text is conservative and information-dense. This is not your typical fluff published to make a fast buck. The topics covered are extremely comprehensive. This may be the best single-volume Bible Dictionary I've seen to date. The only slighly negative observation I could make is the size of the work (over 1700 pages) is a bit large for a single volume and the binding could probably be better. (I haven't had a problem yet, but I can tell that I need to handle it carefully due to its size and weight.)

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best New Bible Dictionaries
Review: This is probably the best new bible dictionary to come along in some time. It contains over 700 full-color photos, illustrations, charts, and maps. And these are not just "eye-candy," they are meaty and well thought-out. For example, under the topic of "Revelation" there is a 5-page chart which summarizes how each of the major interpretive views (amill, historic pre-mill, pretrib premill, preterist, postmill) understands each major point of interpretation or passage (e.g., seven heads of Rev 13, Beast, bride of Christ, etc.). The maps are beautifully done and the text is conservative and information-dense. This is not your typical fluff published to make a fast buck. The topics covered are extremely comprehensive. This may be the best single-volume Bible Dictionary I've seen to date. The only slighly negative observation I could make is the size of the work (over 1700 pages) is a bit large for a single volume and the binding could probably be better. (I haven't had a problem yet, but I can tell that I need to handle it carefully due to its size and weight.)