The Cultural Dictionary of Bible

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 bemused 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 tale 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

Bailey

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 ANDCHRISTIANS

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