The 10 Best Bible Dictionaries

For most readers who want one big reference on the shelf, the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary covers the ground well. Its 2015 revision holds more than 6,500 articles on people, places, customs and ideas, with color photos, maps and drawings of ancient sites on most spreads. The writing is clear without talking down. It comes from a Baptist-owned publisher, so entries on doctrine lean evangelical, and the hardcover is heavy enough to stay on a desk.

Built for serious study, the New Bible Dictionary trades pictures for substance. I. Howard Marshall, Alan Millard, J. I. Packer and Donald Wiseman edited it, and its dense, careful articles end with reading lists for anyone who wants to dig further. It reads like a seminary reference, not a coffee-table book, and it suits pastors and seminary students. The catch is age: this third edition dates from 1996, and its pages are mostly text.

Readers whose eyes tire on tiny print will appreciate the Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, set in an enlarged type with more than 500 color photos and maps. This edition holds over 7,000 entries, short outlines of every book of the Bible and cross-references to the major modern translations. F. F. Bruce and R. K. Harrison served as consulting editors. Many entries are brief, so someone chasing a hard question can run out of detail.

The New Unger's Bible Dictionary began with Merrill Unger in 1957 and has stayed in print ever since. R. K. Harrison, Howard Vos and Cyril Barber revised it with fresh archaeology, color photos, a map section and pronunciation guides that help when reading names aloud. It quotes the New American Standard Bible. Unger taught at Dallas Theological Seminary, and his conservative reading of prophecy shows in some entries, which suits some readers and not others.

Long, essay-style articles make the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary a good fit for readers who want the full background on a city, a king or a book of the Bible. Moisés Silva revised the work that J. D. Douglas and Merrill Tenney started, and the color photos, charts and maps run throughout. It works well for preparing a lesson or a paper. The 2011 text is getting older, and the big hardcover is awkward to carry.

Sunday school teachers and preachers will find plenty in the Tyndale Bible Dictionary, edited by Walter Elwell and Philip Comfort. More than a hundred scholars wrote its long articles, which range from an overview of the books of Kings to Roman coins, tied together by thousands of cross-references. Photos of ancient manuscripts are a welcome extra for anyone curious about how the Bible was copied. The 2008 edition hasn't been updated, so recent finds are missing.

Readers who want more than one tradition's view should look at the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. David Noel Freedman, who also led the multi-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited it, and its writers come from Jewish, Catholic and Protestant scholarship. Entries lean on history and current research rather than any one church's teaching, which helps in a mixed class or a college course. It's a paperback with few pictures, which makes its cost hard to justify for casual readers.

The Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary explains the Greek and Hebrew words behind an English verse without asking you to know either language. Look up a word such as grace or love, and it lists the original words translated that way, keyed to Strong's numbers for further study. W. E. Vine's New Testament work first appeared in 1940. It covers words only, not people or places, and it follows King James wording.

Written so late elementary students can follow it, The Student Bible Dictionary gives clear, short definitions of the people, places and ideas young readers meet in Scripture. Color photos, maps and charts break up the pages, and small symbols flag words that youth leaders say need extra explaining. It's also a gentle start for adults new to the Bible. With so few pages, hard topics get only a sentence or two.

Spanish-speaking readers get a full reference of their own in the Diccionario Bíblico Ilustrado Holman, with every entry written in Spanish. Names follow the spellings of the most used Spanish Bibles, including the Reina-Valera 1960 and the Nueva Versión Internacional, so look-ups match the page in front of you. More than 700 color photos and drawings and dozens of maps fill it out. The hardcover is too bulky for a church bag.