Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary: The Most Accurate and Comprehensive One-Volume Bible Dictionary Available (Premier Reference Series) Hardcover – Illustrated, February 6, 2011

Great update: newly written articles, new layout and format. Beautiful book!

I had an issue with my used book, they took care of it quickly and easily. I will purchase again soon. Life happens sometimes , I’m highly pleased that they stood behind it.

I would say heirloom quality, First class as far as manufacture. Binding is beautifully done. Book is quite heavy. It is around 2.5 inches thick. So far, everything I've wanted more information on, it's been in this book. Photo's and illustrations are very nice. The text is easy to understand and quite extensive. It's pricey but I guess you get what you pay for.

I have been the proud owner of the New Bible Dictionary for about 10 years. It is the best one available if you are a seminary student or otherwise doing academic work. However, the more I have been in pastoral ministry, the more that I have realized the need for a dictionary whose focus is primarily practical. Evidence about whether or not Shechem was located where we think it was or not, do not help me in any normal ministry context. What does help me is understanding the role that a person, or place plays through the course of the Biblical narrative. Ideally this could be done by taking a "Biblical theology" perspective of these topics and putting them in something like the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, but alas there is no such resource.So, since my two favorite dictionaries (above) didn't meet the need, and since, I wanted an actual "hold it in your hand" resource, I started looking carefully for a practically oriented Bible Dictionary. After looking at all of the Bible Dictionaries here (Unger, Nelson, Tyndale, Baker, Holman, etc), I became highly frustrated because there are so many and it seems impossible to tell the difference. They don't say what kind of unique spin or benefit they have, aside from how many illustrations or articles. So I drove over to the library of the nearby seminary and browsed through every Bible dictionary on the shelf for an afternoon (including the classics). I took several example articles (Aaron, Shechem, Midianites, Jericho) of things I was interested in and compared the quality of the articles. Honestly, for the most part the differences were not significant, and when they were, it was unpredictable which dictionary would be best.Eventually, I started to narrow down the choices to just the The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary and this one. Both are comprehensive resources which feel great in your hand and to read, with good coverage of all important subjects. By contrast the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, while well illustrated, feels a bit like a toy. Coverage is shallower, articles are shorter. I might pick that one for homeschool use. The old ISBE (Orr not Bromiley), Smith, and Easton are all great resources, which you can and should use on e-sword or some similar online program, but for the hold in your hand use, it was this or Baker.So eventually, to break the tie, I started paging through the two books, looking at what was covered, and what was said. Over time it became clear that Zondervan was just deeper. On the whole the articles are more substantial. Baker occasionally has a really good literature insight (such as pointing out the recent literary discovery that Haman was an Amalekite) but these were more like window dressing on a dictionary that is not as strong. Perhaps this is because the Zondervan is actually an abridgement of the longer The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible: Revised Full-Color Edition I looked at that as well, also. I concluded that the main difference was that the Dictionary leaves out some of the major multi-page type articles in favor of staying on "dictionary" topics, which are what I wanted anyway.I'm saying all of this to save you the intense work that I went through. If you are looking for a modern one-volume Bible dictionary, this is the one.

Don’t even try to do any Bible study without this thing! And I mean THIS particular Bible dictionary! You’ll thank me!

Content reflects the typical exceptional Zondervan scholarship. I rate the content 5 stars, but accessibility of the Kindle version 3 stars, resulting in my "average" rating of 4 stars. The content itself is exceptional: the number of entries (62,343), the text for each, and related illustrations. Accessing a particular word can be a chore on Kindle because the contents page only links to the first letter of the word -- A, B, C, etc. The Sections for each letter might be more than a hundred pages long, requiring the user to do much scrolling to reach a particular entry: for example, the "S" entries cover 154 pages. To locate "Syria" one would click on "S" in the Contents and start scrolling from "S" (location 49,699) toward "Syria" (location 55,860). A sub-index by second letters would be invaluable for assisting the user to have rapid access (for example, Sa-Sb, Sc-Se, etc). This is a minor, but irritating, deficiency that could be easily resolved. Regardless, I recommend the Dictionary because of the exceptional scholarly content.

The amount of information and how it is put together. The information is laid out alphabetically which makes it easy to find whatever I'm looking for and helps me understand the disciple's and others mentioned, in the Bible. Their own interpretation and experience regarding their faith or lack of. Beautifully laid out with photos of various items and lands. Thank you to the individuals who took the time, and dedication to provide this book!

It has so much. It's enjoyable to just read through.