Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, The (6 volumes) / January 01, 2008

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary is a six-volume state-of-the-art dictionary of the Bible, six years in the making, offering the most up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of biblical subjects and topics.

The most extensive Bible dictionary ever created:

• Includes six volumes of approximately 1,200 pages each
• More than 6,000 entries
• More than 7,000,000 words
• Nearly 1,000 contributors
• Multicultural and interdisciplinary in scope
• An unprecedented interfaith exploration of the Bible
• Illustrated throughout with easy-to-find references
• Extensively cross-referenced for comprehensive coverage of topics
• Easy-to-read article and chapter headings for speedy location of material
• Full bibliographical references following all major entries

Other features include:

• Articles on pseudepigraphic and apocryphal texts, Nag Hammadi tractates, and individual Dead Sea Scrolls, including the most recently published sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls
• “Minor entries” on personal and place-names that go well beyond the one- or two-sentence descriptions found in other Bible dictionaries
• Outstanding summaries of the latest research on the historical Jesus
• Fascinating new articles discussing the growing reappraisal of early Christianity’s relationship to Judaism (Was Christianity an “offspring” or “sibling” of rabbinic Judaism?)
• Many articles illustrating the literary artistry of the biblical text
• Intriguing discussions of everyday life in Bible lands including articles that explore health and disease, the role of animals and plants in the ancient ecosystem, and the demographics of human settlement in ancient Palestine
• A richness of information unequaled in the history of biblical studies