Dictionary of Biblical Imagery

Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, Tremper Longman III

InterVarsity Press, May 11, 2010 - Religion - 1058 pages

Christianity Today Book of the Year

Explore the Rich Visual Language of the Bible

Every reader of the Bible has encountered the powerful, comforting and sometimes puzzling imagery of Scripture. These concrete pictures like milk and honey, mountains and valleys, and covenants and feasts have hidden force and have struck sharp and lasting impressions on our minds. Their imprint has etched itself on the language and grammar of Christian faith and Western culture.

Why then do traditional Bible dictionaries and reference works offer so little help to explorers of the Bible's galaxy of verbal pictures? They excel in describing the climate, borders and location of Galilee or Sinai. But they often overlook to the artistic expressions and musical meanings that echo from within the world of the biblical text.

The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery is the first contemporary reference work dedicated to exploring the images, symbols, motifs, metaphors and literary patterns found in the Bible. Moreover, it examines the Bible's universal archetypes, including the plot motifs and character types that recur throughout life, literature, and the Bible.

This unique dictionary explores many ways in which the Word of God is dressed in clothes of everyday life by:

• tracing the trail of images from Eden to the New Jerusalem.
• capturing the plotted patterns of biblical narrative.
• surveying the imaged texture of each book of the Bible.

This volume is an inviting, enlightening, and indispensable companion to the reading, study, contemplation, and enjoyment of the Bible.

Contents

• Dictionary Articles: 1
• Scripture Index: 982
• Subject Index: 1024
• Praise for Dictionary of Biblical Imagery: 1059
• About the Editors: 1060
• The IVP Bible Dictionary Series: 1062
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press: 1063
• Academic Textbook Selector: 1064

About the author

James Wilhoit is Scripture Press Professor of Christian Education at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered, coeditor of the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (IVP Academic) and coauthor, with Leland Ryken, of Effective Bible Teaching.

Tremper Longman III (PhD, Yale University) is Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is also visiting professor of Old Testament at Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and adjunct of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. He lectures regularly at Regent College in Vancouver and the Canadian Theological Seminary in Calgary.Longman is the author or coauthor of over twenty books, including How to Read Genesis, How to Read the Psalms, How to Read Proverbs, Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation, Old Testament Essentials and coeditor of A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible. He and Dan Allender have coauthored Bold Love, Cry of the Soul, Intimate Allies, The Intimate Mystery and the Intimate Marriage Bible studies.

Leland Ryken (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of more than one hundred published articles and essays, and he has written, edited or contributed to more than twenty-five books.His books include The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation (Crossway), The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing (Shaw), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (InterVarsity Press), The Discerning Reader: Christian Perspectives on Literature and Theory (Baker) and A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible (Zondervan).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
• Editors: Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, Tremper Longman III
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press, 2010
• ISBN: 0830867333, 9780830867332
• Length: 1058 pages
• Subjects: Reference / Dictionaries; Religion / Biblical Reference / Dictionaries & Encyclopedias; Religion / Biblical Studies / Exegesis & Hermeneutics