BOOK REVIEW : Six-Volume Reference Offers View of Bible From Various Sources

Anchor Bible Dictionary

Edited by David Noel Freedman

(Doubleday, 6 volumes approximately 1,200 pages each, $60 per volume, $360 set.)

In today’s fast-changing field of biblical research, there has been a growing need for a major new multivolume publication to keep up with these changes. The Anchor Bible Dictionary may be just what is needed.

Possibly the most expensive Bible dictionary ever undertaken, it is certainly impressive in scope and scholarship. Renowned Bible scholar David Noel Freedman collaborated with the publisher to work out the master plan for the monumental project and served as its editor-in-chief.

Six years in the making, this six-volume reference work is a companion publication to Doubleday’s highly acclaimed Anchor Bible, a multivolume, book-by-book Bible commentary series begun several years ago and still in progress. Together, the sets constitute an exhaustive and illuminating source of biblical knowledge.

This new publication has a list of nearly 1,000 contributors. Not all of the best-loved and most highly regarded giants in the field of biblical research during the last quarter century are on the list. What is refreshing is that the list includes a number of the new generation of Bible scholars who are not so well known, especially to those outside the academic world. And, in fact, not all are exclusively engaged in Bible research or in academia.

The format is designed to be user-friendly, with several innovative features. Page numbers include the volume number, and place names include map references keyed to the maps printed on the inside of the front and back covers.

There is a wealth of information in every entry, all carefully documented and with full bibliographies for even short entries. For complex subjects, many entries include a summary of scholarly opinion, past and present.

Tedious or not, one thing such exhaustive summaries show is how Biblical scholarship continues to evolve as researchers strive to come to grips with difficult problems.

For example, summaries try to establish with some degree of certainty the authorship of the books of the Bible and explore cultural and regional backgrounds in the ancient world to evaluate biblical social customs and legal restraints. The summaries also point up the fact that, even where a scholarly consensus seemed possible, any such supposed unanimity of opinion turns out to be ephemeral at best.

On this very point, the introduction notes that it has been 30 years since the last major Bible dictionary (the excellent, five-volume Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible) was published in the United States. “The emphasis in biblical studies has changed considerably since then. The mainstream American consensus that held in the 1950s and early ‘60s unraveled during the 1970s. . . . One will be hard pressed to find in these pages (of the new Anchor Bible Dictionary) any sort of . . . scholarly consensus. Scholarly consensus simply does not exist here at the end of the 20th Century.”

Of necessity, a work of this magnitude must not only meet the basic needs of the layman, but also the fullest in-depth requirements of scholars and university or divinity students. So the beginning student who seeks a deeper understanding of the biblical message should not be put off by the preponderance of detail he must plow through at times when what he really seeks is a concise definition or brief description. For if he persists in his search, he may suddenly come upon wonderfully satisfying and enlightening nuggets of wisdom, sometimes tucked into most surprising and unexpected places.

The new Anchor Bible Dictionary may not be for everyone. For most lay readers, a good one-volume Bible dictionary may be more practical and desirable. But for experienced Bible researchers, it will prove to be an invaluable resource. Certainly at the current retail price of $60 apiece for each of the six volumes, a total of $360 for the set, this dictionary may be financially out of reach for many.

For that reason, and for many others, it should find a place on the bookshelves of every university or college library offering courses in biblical studies and religion. And for those individuals who can afford it and for whom Bible study is a very important part of their lives, it is highly recommended.