The Cultural Dictionary of the 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

J. Pilch, PhD, teaches Scripture at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. 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.""