2000 Catholic Press Association Award Winner!
Interpreting the Bible respectfully is a cross-cultural enterprise. For those who seek to understand the Bible as a document from the ancient Mediterranean world and communicate it to people in other cultures, The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible is an ideal tool.
Scripture expert John Pilch gives the modern Bible reader an appreciation for the world in which each book of the Bible originated and an in-depth look at the Mediterranean personalities who populate the pages of the Bible. With more than 100 distinctive, Middle-Eastern notions, from "Abba" to "Work," this collection provides a cultural system of shared interpretations of persons, things, and events relating to the Mediterranean region.
By applying a social-scientific approach to interpreting the Bible, Pilch shows how a multi-cultural understanding, enriched with the discoveries and insights taken from contemporary anthropological studies, can be used to examine the distinctive, Middle Eastern cultural world of the Bible.
Since each article discusses a variety of persons, things, and events under its title, the alphabetized table of contents presents a comprehensive list of these subjects for ready reference. Uppercase entries identify complete articles; lowercase entries list some of the related topics treated in the articles. A bibliography is provided at the end of each major article. A list of basic resources at the end of the volume presents a selection of dictionaries, atlases, and similar books for supplemental information on each topic.
Preachers, readers, RCIA participants and students alike will appreciate the index to the Sunday Lectionary readings for the full three-year cycle that is provided and its citation of the words defined in the dictionary that appear in the given readings. Includes illustrations of appropriate entries.
Entries include:
| ABBA Agriculture Alternate Reality ANGER Animals Antonia Fortress Barley Beard Bread Blindness Boat Burial Carpenter Caves Centurion Christians CLOTHES COINS Corban COSMETICS AND JEWELRY Culture DANCE DEATH DECEPTION AND LYING DRINKING AND EATING Earrings Eating Emotions Evil Eye Eyes Fishing FORGIVENESS Fortresses Frankincense Goats Good Shepherd HAIR Hands HEALING Heaven HOLY MAN Honey Honor and Shame HOUSE HUMOR Individualism Insider/Outsider Israelite Jewelry JEWS AND CHRISTIANS John the Baptist | Judeans Laughter Life Literary Forms Lying MILITARY Milk MUSIC Mother Nazirite NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION Oath Oil Perfume Peter's House Poor PRAYER Puns Rabbi Revenge Roads Salt Satan Sea SECRECY Shalom Shame SHEEP AND GOATS SICKNESS Sign Sin Singing SKY SMELLS AND TASTES Sorghum Space SPIRITS Stonemason SYMBOLISM Tastes Teeth Tents Translation TRAVEL Vengeance Water WEATHER Wheat Wine Wool WORK |
J. Pilch, Ph.D., teaches Scripture at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Cultural World of Jesus Sunday by Sunday: Cycles A, B, C, and the leaflet Selecting a Bible Translation, published by The Liturgical Press. Other The Liturgical Press publications include his commentary on Galatians and Romans in the Collegeville Bible Commentary series, and articles in The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology, and The Bible Today.
"Pilch is at his very best. He does not merely rehearse historical objects or relationships, but situates them in their proper cultural context. From ‘Abba' to ‘Work,' Pilch relentlessly creates a broad social map on which to locate the items discussed and to appreciate them as part of a whole. In the Dictionary Pilch has chosen important topics for comment, written a crisp, clear and cogent interpretation of them, and informed readers of their significance. The contents are easy to follow, rich in depth, and terse in length. In short, this book would make an excellent adjunct commentary for classroom use; I certainly intend to use it as such."| - | Jerome H. Neyrey, Notre Dame University |
"Dr. Pilch has created a delightful, inviting essay for each entry that combines a marvelous selection of texts from the Bible with just enough information to be satisfying and enlightening. His ability to compare contemporary experience with biblical experience is quite remarkable."
| - | Mary Margaret Pazdan, O.P., Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, Missouri |
"John J. Pilch has been in the forefront of those scholars who enable ordinary Bible readers to acquire the cultural sensitivity required to make these historical documents come alive. For many years now, he has drawn up scenarios required by readers to imagine what is being presented or talked about in various passages of the Bible. This book is a collection providing access to some of the most significant reading scenarios that will stimulate a meaningful encounter with the world of the Bible and our ancestors in faith."
| - | Bruce J. Malina, Professor of Biblical Studies, Creighton University |
"Who would believe that a dictionary could be hard to put down! The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible is a book to be read from cover to cover and one that will be used again and again."
| - | Mary Connor, O.S.C., Poor Clare Nuns, Greenville, South Carolina |
"In his scholarly A Cultural Dictionary of the Bible John Pilch gives us an entire book of windows into the life of the ancient world of Jesus and the prophets. The view is marvelously informational. A companion book for every inquisitive reader of the Bible, an idea book for preachers and a guidebook for the teachers."
| - | Edward M. Hays |
"If every priest and deacon would just read this one book during the next year, what a difference it would make in the quality of what we hear on Sunday morning, and of how we live the rest of the week."
| - | Don C. Benjamin, Kino Institute of Theology |
"Dr. John Pilch has provided an excellent resource for all persons in ministry as well as those who simply enjoy reading the Scriptures."
| - | Eleanor A. Krupa, Associate Director, Archdiocesan Catechetical Center, San Antonio, Texas |
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