Product Description

An encyclopaedic treatment of Scripture's first five books

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #446586 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 954 pages

Rev Philip Eveson; Foundations; May 2003
... informative and detailed information on almost every aspect of
Pentateuchal studies.

S J Osgood; The Evangelical Quarterly; April 2005 Evangelical Quarterly,
... the whole provides a handy summary, a gift to students and
teachers alike.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament; July 2004
... very readable and will be a useful addition to anyone's
library.

Customer Reviews

Fabulous resource, superb quality and worth every penny: but it should be digitised
The IVP (Inter-Varsity Press) Dictionary of the Old Testament is actually several individual volumes which combine to make one (massive!) dictionary resource. It comprises:

* DOT Pentateuch [the first five books of the Bible]
* DOT Historical Books [from Joshua to Nehemiah]
* DOT Wisdom, Poetry & Writings [Psalms, Ecclesiastes, etc.)

(I expect there is a DOT Prophetic Books [Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.] planned for the near future, though I couldn't find any mention of one on the IVP website.)

While this makes them expensive over all, the quality and quantity of scholarship they make available makes it worthy investment. I have bought this DOT Pentateuch and the DOT Historical Books in the last couple of years and hope to get them all eventually.

Even though I emphasise that this is a series of dictionaries, each individual volume still represents a complete and comprehensive unit. A vast array of topics are covered, usually in fairly significant (but digestible) detail. One of the first, for instance, is `Agriculture' (p21) which spans the next five pages. This article is clearly subdivided into four sections (`Crops' is further subdivided): Geography, Livestock, Crops and Theology (which serves as a conclusion). Here the writer, D. W. Baker, emphasises that agriculture and agricultural imagery are used in the Pentateuch to illustrate how strongly the Israelites linked the creation and sustaining of the natural world directly to Yahweh. He ends noting that the Song of Moses (especially Deut. 32:13-14) focuses on the `literal fruits of faithfulness'.

(Compare the `Agriculture and Animal Husbandry' article in my DOT Historical Books review on Amazon.)

The uniformly clear and comfortable reading format and overall aesthetic layout also make them a single reference work. There is a continuity of articles too - at least in the absence of repetition. For instance, of the two volumes I own, the entry for `Angel of the Lord' (directing you to `Theophany', from the Greek for `god' and `to appear') only appears in the Pentateuch volume. It's easy to see this as an error of omission if you only own the Historical Books volume, but I imagine each volume would be larger and even more expensive if articles were duplicated. (Perhaps the omission of `Spirit' or `Holy Spirit', etc. from both volumes would be covered in the Wisdom or (potential) Prophetic Books volumes?)

The only real criticism I have is that digital media would be more convenient in many cases. While I have always preferred books as opposed to disks (and vinyl as opposed to CDs), still the digital media so much cheaper and easier to use. I have owned IVP's Essential Reference Collection for years but could never have afforded all the superb New Testament reference books which it contains. I hope that IVP will have an Essential Collection for the Old Testament too, one day.

In the mean time, this is a hugely expensive series but worth every penny, which I think of as an investment, not an expense. I suppose you could say, `you get what you pay for' and paying for this title - or series - gets you supreme quality: highly recommended.