St. Olaf Libraries | Religion Department | St. Olaf College
Reference | Books | Journal Articles| ILL | Citation Guides
English Translations of the Bible
A standard scholarly translation is:
·
The New Revised Standard Version
[RR BS191 .A1 1989 .N49]
A source that contains four other parallel translations is:
· The Complete Parallel Bible: Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
[RR BS125 .B5 1993]
The four translations are printed side-by-side, allowing you to scan all simultaneously.
Other translations can be found in the reference room under the call number BS125.
Concordances
A concordance is simply a list of words in the Bible. A concordance will, for example, note every place the term “sin” appears throughout a given translation. Note: Make sure the concordance you consult matches the translation you are using. A standard concordance is:
· The NRSV Concordance Unabridged: Including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. John Kohlenberger. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991.
[RR BS425 .K645 1991]
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias contain articles on biblical events, geographical places, people, and theological and philosophical concepts. Articles in the larger dictionaries conclude with long bibliographies.
· Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. David Noel Freedman, ed.-in-chief. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000.
[RR BS440 .E44 2000]
·
The HarperCollins’ Bible Dictionary. Paul J. Achtemeier, gen. ed. San Francisco,
HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.
[RR BS440 .M237
1996]
·
A Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. R.J. Coggins & J. L. Houlden,
eds. Philadelphia: Trinity Press, 1990.
[RR BS440 .D494
1990]
·
Encyclopedia of Bible Life. Madeleine S. & J. Lane Miller. New York: Harper & Rowe, 1978.
[RR BS440 .M64 1978]
·
Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Watson E. Mills, gen. ed. Macon, GA: Mercer U. Press, 1990.
[RR BS440 .M429 1992]
· Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. David Noel Freedman, ed. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
[RR BS440 .A54 1992]
The ABD is one of the two standard multi-volume Bible dictionaries. It contains articles on the history, religion, and culture of the entire near eastern world. It emphasizes social scientific approaches to Biblical research.
·
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. 5 vols. New York: Abingdon, 1962. [RR BS440
.I7}
Contains articles on almost every biblical topic. See supplementary volumes. The copy of the IDB in the reference room has asterisks (*) next to articles in the main set (v.1-4), indicating that these articles have been updated in the supplement.
A commentary is a work devoted to explicating a Biblical book. Commentaries usually consist of two parts: 1) an overview of a biblical book, and 2) a passage-by-passage examination of that book.
· New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary Twelve Volumes. Nashville: Abingdon, 1994-present.
[RR BS491.2
.N484 1994]
· New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Ed. By Raymond E. Brown. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.
[RR BS491.2 .J4
1990]
Hebrew Scriptures
Commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures are inter-filed in the reference room by book of the Bible in the following call number range: BS125-BS1663.
·
Old Testament Message. [Reference Room; extra copies in
stacks] An introductory, basic
series.
· Old Testament Library. [Reference Room; extra copies in stacks] Somewhat more advanced.
· Anchor Bible. [Special section in stacks BS192.2 .A1 1964] Perhaps the most dense and scholarly of the commentary sets.
· Hermeneia. [Stacks] Another dense, scholarly work. Authors are from many different confessions.
· JPS Torah Commentary. [Stacks] Jewish scholarship
· Interpretation. [Stacks] Commentaries intended for clergy. Somewhat more basic than the other series.
New Testament
Commentaries on the New Testament are inter-filed by book of the Bible in the following call number range: BS2575-BS3805
· New Testament Message. [Reference Room; extra copies in stacks]. An introductory, basic series.
· Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament. [Reference Room; extra copies in stacks]
· Sacra Pagina. [Reference Room] Catholic scholarship
· Anchor Bible. [Special section in stacks: BS192.2 .A1 1964] Perhaps the most dense and scholarly of the commentary sets.
· Hermaneia. [Stacks] Another dense, scholarly work. Authors are from many different confessions.
· Interpretation. [Stacks] Commentaries intended for clergy. Somewhat more basic than the other series.
Other commentaries can be found by doing a keyword search in BRIDGE. For example, if you want commentaries on the book of Galatians or Job, you would select “KEYWORD” search, and type:
GALATIANS COMMENTARIES
JOB COMMENTARIES
Gospel synopses print a gospel passage side-by-side with its parallel passages in other gospels. A basic synopsis of the gospel in English is:
Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels
with Alternative Readings from the Manuscripts and Noncanonical Parallels. 5th ed. Edited by Burton H. Throckmorton. Nashville: Nelson, 1992. [RR
BS2560 .T48 1992
You will find a number of other gospel synopses in the stacks under the call number BS2560.
BRIDGE is the joint online catalog for St. Olaf and Carleton. You may search for works about a biblical book or by topics within the Bible. For works about a biblical book, do a SUBJECT search in the following format:
Bible N.T. Mark
Bible O.T. Job
For works on biblical topics consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings under “Bible,” and do a subject search using these terms. Example: “slavery in the Bible.”
Since the St. Olaf catalog does not index articles within journals, we must use privately produced indexes. The primary index to religion journals is:
An electronic index to
articles, essays, and book reviews in religion journals and books of collected
essays. You may search for
material by scripture citation or by subject.
Once you have a citation for an article, run a title search in BRIDGE by the title of the journal (not the article). Our catalog will tell you whether we own the journal, and, if so, which issues we own.
If you don’t find the journal in BRIDGE, order a copy through Interlibrary Loan. Use the ILL link within ATLAS.
Any item not owned by St. Olaf may be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) provided you allow enough time. Order materials from Carleton directly through BRIDGE.
Created by Bryn Geffert/Updated by Ken Johnson
Rolvaag Library 305
E-mail: johnsonk@stolaf.edu
Page last updated 24 September 2004