New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring the Unity Diversity of Scripture

by Brian S. Rosner (Editor), T. Desmond Alexander (Editor), Graeme Goldsworthy (Editor)

The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology will quickly establish itself as an essential building block of every library of basic biblical reference books. Building on its companion volumes, the New Bible Dictionary and New Bible Commentary, this work takes readers to a higher vantage point where they can view the thematic terrain of the Bible in its canonical wholeness. In addition, it fills the interpretive space between those volumes and the New Dictionary of Theology. At the heart of this work is an A-to-Z encyclopedia of over 200 key biblical-theological themes such as atonement, creation, eschatology, Israel, Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God, redemption, suffering, wisdom and worship. Students and communicators of the Bible will be well served by articles exploring the theology of each biblical book. And for those interested in the wider discipline of biblical theology, major articles explore foundational issues such as the history of biblical theology, the challenges raised against biblical theology, and the unity and diversity of Scripture. Over 120 contributors drawn from the front ranks of biblical scholarship in the English-speaking world make the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology a work of distinction and a benchmark of evangelical biblical theology at the turn of the twenty-first century. Bibliographies round out all articles, directing readers to research trails leading out of the Dictionary and into crucial studies on every subject. Cross-references throughout send readers through the varied maze of reading pathways, maximizing the usefulness of this volume. Comprehensive, authoritative and easily accessible, the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology is certain to establish itself as an essential resource for students of the Bible and theology.

Genres: Theology, Reference, Christian, Biblical Studies, Nonfiction, Dictionaries, Christianity

886 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2000

Reviews

[Bob Hayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource. I've read about 1/3 of it, and you really could read the whole thing. Part 1 includes helpful introductions and articles about Biblical Theology. Part 2 gives a Biblical Theology overview of the Bible, book by book. Part 3, is the dictionary, it covers various topics and themes: highlighting how the Biblical literature develops and treats those topics. Very, very helpful, even as Biblical Theology is. D.A. Carson contributes, and everything is top notch. You'll learn so much more about the Bible, and things will make more sense to you as you view the whole of what the Bible said on the topic. Highly Recommended.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Read the first section for course work. Vanhoozer's essay, "Exegesis & Hermeneutics," stands out.

[Jackson Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful reference book.

[Nolan Bechtold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seminary

[Taylor Reavely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a reference book worth keeping!

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful compendium of short and concise articles on the people, places, things, and concepts of the Bible.

[Seth Mcdevitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually wish there were more articles. My only gripe with this resource is that I think they cut it a little short.

[Micah Sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The real irony of this book is there is no consensus on a definition of Biblical Theology among the contributors. I wish we would have seen a heavier hand from the editors who, like Alexander, are stars of the field. One possible problem may be the books publication date: 2000. This was in the early days of what has been called the Biblical Theology Renaissance. The majority of the articles misunderstand Biblical Theology to be a Theology that (as Childs puts it) accord with Scripture rather than one found in Scripture. This means these articles are Systematics (fine in their own right but not BT) at best and a vaguely organized series of observations at worst. This sharply contrasts with some excellent articles (alone making the test worth having and looking at) which do truly robust BT in either the Redemptive-Historical or the Canonical methodologies. This Biblical Theology describes the theology of the author(s) while also giving great care to means of presentation, not simply the reducible, “timeless” content.

The first section of this book, the Introduction, attempts to clarify this issue but has mixed success. Several articles essentially attempt to define and describe Biblical Theology. This is where the strength and weakness of a book with so many contributors is apparent. Many of the articles are still helpful and are based upon a proper understanding of Biblical Theology. 4/5 stars.

The second section of the book, Biblical Corpora and Books, is where the weakness of the definition issue becomes more pronounced. Nearly all of the articles are written from the basis of a definition for Biblical Theology which essentially does Systematics with only a single book rather than place this text in the Canon or the Redemptive-Historical narrative. While interesting, this is not the heights to which these articles could live up to. Some articles do slightly better by offering a theological introduction, discussing interpretive issues along side literary and canonical concerns. These articles are worthwhile but still fall short of all the richness that a Biblical Theological discussion could have offered. A very few of them adhere to the proper definition and are excellent: Genesis to Kings, Genesis, Ecclesiastes, Ezekiel, Romans, the Pastoral Epistles, and Revelation. These articles contrawise highlight the literary aspects of their respective texts and their place in the canon while also showing how they develop Biblical Theological themes in relation to other texts. Sadly, the list of exemplary articles is so short. 3/5 stars.

Part 3 again contained many excellent articles but not enough! These good articles are Abraham, Church, City/Citizenship, Covenant, Election, Elijah, Elisha, Enoch, Exile ⭐️, Exodus ⭐️, Grumbling, Jerusalem, Man and Woman, Marriage, Mystery, People of God, Regeneration, Sarah, Seed, Signs and Wonders, Solomon, Theophany, Violence ⭐️, Warfare, Wilderness, and World. So many of the articles, even if they are doing real BT fail in the scope of their surveys. Often nothing is mentioned of Gen 1-3, the narrative antecedent of almost all BT themes, nor do many of them carry the story on through to its climax in Revelation. Despite articles in section 1 that warn against the word study fallacy many articles persist in only analyzing direct lexical links instead of pursuing broader literary, contextual, and typological links.

Some articles provided the next best thing: a systematic theology that is clearly worked out of quality Biblical Theology: Evil, Exaltation, Faith/Faithfulness, Harvest, Life, Prophecy/Prophets, Salvation, Suffering, Time, and Worship.

Some articles were interesting, but I’m not sure if I agreed with everything presented: Creation (an ecological understanding, enlightening, but perhaps too extreme), David (canonically organized but too unimaginative and reliant on critical scholarship), Death and Resurrection (thought provoking, but topical rather than Historical-Redemptive or Canonical, and far too prone to the erroneous idea popular in critical scholarship, which is also entirely unimaginative and displays a complete ineptitude at actually reading texts properly, that the OT has little concept of an afterlife/resurrection, at least until 2nd Temple era), Serpent (interesting cultural background but then only Systematics), Sin (again a quality lexical study, the Systematics),

I would be hard pressed to recommend any other articles in part 3, here are a few I especially would recommend against: God, Image of God, Jesus Christ, Love, Mary, Moses, Mountain, Water, and Word.
Part 3 3/5 stars.

[John Paul Arceno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read 25 articles as of the moment. This is very helpful especially for ministers and seminary students.

Focuses on Biblical theology, thematic, and theological lenses.

[Courtney Cutshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful overview/breakdown of Biblical books - good resource for further thematic study. I only read Part Two of work.

[Joonas Laajanen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pt. 1 only. Valuable.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not finish this book and probably never will. It was very much a dictionary :) Useful, but boring.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This "dictionary" was not quite what I expected. It is comprised of 3 major sections. Section one is a collection of articles written on various topics related to the study and use of Biblical Theology. Section Two is a collection of articles written on each of the books of the Bible. And, Section 3 is a collection of articles that deal with particular "themes" in Scripture. Section 3 is the most "dictionary-like," but since the whole book is dedicated to Biblical Theology as a discipline, it bears it's name appropriately.

This book definitely qualifies as a reference book, but one worthy to have if you are a pastor or are active in Bible teaching. Biblical Theology as a discipline was new to me coming to Trinity and I find that it is a critical approach to accurate understanding of God's word.

[Cbarrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a helpful resource. I am including because of the introductory chapters that are worth the price of the book. Here are the highlights:
"Biblical Theology" by B.S. Rosner
"Exegesis and Hermeneutics" by Kevin Vanhoozer
"The Unity and Diversity in Scripture" by Craig Blomberg
"New Testament Use of the Old Testament" by Craig Evans
"Relationship of Old Testament and New Testament" by Graeme Goldsworthy
"Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology" by D. A. Carson
These introductory essays are helpful and insightful.

[Daniel Alvers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wide angle book that is very straight forward and good for overviews. It also provides direction for further study if needed. I liked it better then other dictionaries I have read. I had to read selected articles for OT II class.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not read the entire dictionary. I was required to read the introductory articles in the first 104 pages. They are spectacular. I read a few of the essays on books of the bible and other topics and they are also top notch.

[Andy]

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[Sylvan Finger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the books that were available to me to help understand my biblical theology and exegesis class this was the most helpful. This guy is a bible guru. I'd love to do bible studies with this guy.