Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets (The IVP Bible Dictionary Series)

In a 20-year period InterVarsity Press has produced a top notch series of dictionaries on the Old and New Testaments. The series of large volumes in black have been completed with the latest volume just out, dealing with the prophets and prophetic writings. So now we have eight magnificent volumes available, and this really is a superb set.They are a must addition to any serious theological library. Many hundreds of expert articles penned by leading OT and NT scholars, theologians, historians, and Bible scholars are laid out over many thousands of pages. All the important issues you may wish to study are found in these terrific volumes. Let me lay them out here in biblical order, with authors, date, and page numbers:-Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. David W. Baker and T. Desmond Alexander, eds., 2002, 954pp.-Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books. Bill Arnold and H.G.M. Williamson, eds., 2005, 1060pp.-Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry and Writings. Tremper Longman and Peter Enns, eds., 2008, 967pp.-Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets. Mark Boda and J. Gordon McConville, eds., 2012, 965pp.-Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Joel Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall, eds., 1992, 934pp.-Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. Gerald Hawthorne, Ralph Martin and Daniel Reid, eds., 1993, 1038pp.-Dictionary of Later New Testament and Its Developments. Ralph Martin and Peter Davids, eds., 1997, 1289pp.-Dictionary of New Testament Background. Craig Evans and Stanley Porter, eds., 2000, 1328pp.That is some 8535 pages worth of hard core theological and biblical material. Roughly speaking each volume contains around a hundred (or a bit more) articles, perhaps averaging around 10-12 pages each. First rate scholars have been part of this for the past two decades. Just a few names of many can be cited here:Douglas MooBen WitheringtonScot McKnightDA CarsonChris WrightThomas SchreinerLarry HurtadoDaniel BlockRikki WattsLeslie AllenRichard HessClinton ArnoldStephen WesterholmAl WoltersCraig EvansFF BruceKenneth KitchenRichard BauckhamCraig BlombergBill ArnoldRT FranceJohn WaltonDonald GuthrieEdwin YamauchiCraig KeenerJohn GoldingayGordon FeeColin KruseJohn OswaltDouglas StuartSo obviously these volumes represent the best in mainly conservative, evangelical thought. And with around a thousand different articles, all the important topics are covered. Also, each article features an extensive bibliography for further reference.Consider the most recent volume on the prophets as an example. In it are 115 articles by 94 different scholars, ranging from `Abrahamic Covenant' to `Zion'. In addition to articles on all the prophets and their writings, there are pieces on such subjects as:AfterlifeBabylonBlessings and cursesDay of the LordHebrew languageHonor and shameIdols, idoltryLawMarriage and divorceNationsRepentanceSacrifice and atonementSufferingTempleTrue and false prophecyWrathBetween these eight volumes you will likely find something on just about any biblical topic or theme you are interested in. A whole generation of great biblical experts are found here in one place, bringing us the most up-to-date scholarship and research on a huge amount of subjects. If you have the money and the book shelving, these eight volumes are a must purchase.

Great articles and scholastically worthy of study. Easy to read format. Articles are meant to be exhaustive. They are very well written and scholastically beneficial. Could be considered a must addition to your library on the Prophetic writings of scripture.

This book is for those who want to have a deeper scholarly look into the world of the Old Testament prophets and prophecies. It is a collection of essays from the world foremost scholars on this subject. There is a bibliography after every essay which helps if one wants to do more research. Although this volume is part of the “Black Dictionary” series, it is an independent lexicon just on the subject. This book is a little bit pricey, but worthy of its price.

Clear and concise collection of articles from this section of the OT. I use this every week in sermons.

This resource leans heavily to the conservative side. Use another resource for balance, such as the Anchor Bible Dictionary. Don't rely on a single source.

This is a must-have for students, pastors and everyone interested in getting to know the OT Prophets. The articles are academic, and the bibliography in each article points to more helpful resources for those interested in a particular topic. I highly recommend it.

Great

An excellent aid for the student or teacher of Old Testament prophets. Extremely complete, readable, plenty of sources. Get the hardback for sure.

Excellent book

Since I have read the entire work for my personal blog (where I have extensively discussed this book in a series of longer posts), I thought I should do a short review here as well. I have hesitated between giving it two or three stars. In the end, I opted for three, since the subtitle (only included on the cover) does warn that this is a “Compendium of Contemporary Biblical SCHOLARSHIP” (emphasis added), which is not the same as an expanded Bible dictionary. Many articles include an overview of at least the more important or influential scholarship on their particular topic - however flawed the respective scholarly view turned out to be eventually. And if that is what you want, you may be happier with this dictionary than I was.For evangelical readers like myself, however, I would only give this two stars. Here is my angle on this.First, I came looking for something that is helpful in preparing teaching or Bible study. This it is not. I won’t often go back to this volume for my lecture preparation. I do use and enjoy the NT volumes in this series (so mine is not a case of anti-intellectual bias or rejection of scholarship as such). For this reason, I actually looked forward to this volume (this is why I wanted to read it), but I am disappointed.Second, I expect something that is legible and comprehensible for non-experts. This, too, it is not. The style and the level of writing are usually highly academic and difficult to read. Too often, an article presupposes quite a bit (how many readers know what semiotics or post-structuralism is?). In fact, it has made me wonder what the intended audience for this book is. For the biblical scholar it probably offers too little, for many others too much may be unintelligible. This leaves the book as a suitable shortcut for theology students, but that would be a rather small audience and I doubt it was intended this way. But if that is you, the book may be helpful, since it provides a quick overlook of scholarly opinions.The scholars involved may be experts on their topic, but some are not overly gifted as writers or teachers. In my opinion, it would have been better for IVP to work with a smaller team of contributors with greater communicative and didactic skills.Third, I expect an evangelical dictionary, since IVP is an evangelical publisher. In most articles, however, I do not recognise an evangelical approach or voice.Most articles do display a clear historical-critical approach. Don’t get me wrong: I do not imply that evangelical and historical-critical are incompatible adjectives. (Although the particular brand of historical-critical in many articles probably does not sit easily with many evangelicals. Most articles assume that the prophetic books are the work of many hands over a long stretch of time, repeatedly adding substantial amounts of newly created material; I think it is fair to say that this is the axiom – the term used in “Formation of the Prophetic Books” – underlying most of the contributions to this volume.)My point is rather that it has a clear position, identity, and flavour on this score, but “evangelical” is nowhere near as clear or frequent. Most articles connect their presentation with the history of mainline, non-evangelical scholarship and with present discussions in mainline, non-evangelical quarters, much less so with the discussions that have marked the evangelical movement in past and present.Again, it is a compendium of biblical (not evangelical) scholarship. To me, it is an anti-climax to the series. Therefore, two stars if you are an evangelical.

I bought this book to help me go into deep learning and understanding of the old testament prophets and wasn't disapointed at all. it is a must read for every scholar, preacher who wants to understand the topic and one book that you need continue referring too for many years to come.

Excellent resource!

E' un testo adatto a docenti universitari. Garantisce un aggornamento molto equilibrato sulle problematiche tecniche. Tendenzialmente conservatore, ma non fondamentalista.