Browning - Dictionary of the Bible

A Dictionary of the
Bible

This is a web-linked dictionary. There is a list of recommended web links in the appendix, on page , click on Web links in the Resources section and click straight through to the relevant websites.

W. R. F. Browning has been a Canon Residentiary of Blackburn Cathedral and of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford. He is now an honorary canon and an honorary priest in West Oxford. He was for thirteen years a lecturer in New Testament Studies at Cuddesdon College, Oxford, and at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. His books include Commentary on St. Lukes Gospel (1960; 6th edition 1981), Meet the New Testament (1965), The Anglican Synthesis (1965), and Handbook of the Ministry (1985).

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SECOND EDITION

Edited by W. R. F. BROWNING

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Oxford University Press 1996, 2004, 2009

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First published 1996
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback 1997
Reissued with new covers 2004
Second edition 2009

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ISBN 978-0-19-954398-4 (Pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-19-954399-1 (Hbk.)

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The invitation to compile this dictionary came to me from Angus Phillips of Oxford University Press and he gave me constant encouragement. I am also grateful to the Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, for permission to use the library.

For this revised and expanded edition numerous paragraphs have been added and improvements made to existing entries. By the kindness of the Principal of St Stephens House Oxford, I have used the college library; and reviewers, academic colleagues, and my wife have all made important suggestions, though for any errors in the text, and also for controversial opinions expressed, I alone am responsible. A heavy secretarial load has been borne by my daughter Hilary, and collaboration with OUP editors has, as ever, been supportively reassuring. Finally, I have been fortunate to have the expertise of my colleague Russell Dewhurst in West Oxford, to compile the page of Web Links.

W.R.F.B.

This is a dictionary of the books of the Christian Bible. Its aim is to expound the main ideas of the Bible and to give information about the principal people and places that readers encounter but it is neither a concordance nor an encyclopaedia. The authors standpoint is that of a grateful indebtedness to the achievements of biblical scholarship since the Enlightenment, together with an awareness of modern criticisms of it.

There are no entries for persons of whom little more than the mere name is recorded in the biblical text. On occasion, however, entries are allowed to stray beyond the biblical era, where a theme in the New Testament has become more familiar as significantly developed over the centuries.

The dictionary is intended for students whether at school or university, and for a more general public of those who may be reading or studying the Bible at home or alongside others in a group from their local church or community, as well as those who primarily enjoy it as splendid literature. It is assumed that these students will use the NRSV or some other modern translation of the Bible, and therefore references to the Authorized (King James) Version are less frequent. The nomenclature follows, generally, that of modern translations; for example, those books in the New Testament which come after the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles mostly consist of letters to communities and they are sometimes called letters in the dictionary, being occasional and personal rather than literary and considered, though the traditional epistles, still often heard in churches, is also used. This word perhaps reflects the fact that as well as similarities with other letters of the first century CE the theological content marks differences in style and purpose. Moreover, unlike letters of antiquity that have survived by chance (e.g. by being preserved in the sand) the New Testament letters were carefully safeguarded.