The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Edited by J. W. ROGERSON and JUDITH M. LIEU.

Abstract

The definition of ‘handbook’ in the standard Oxford dictionaries is ‘a small book or treatise, easy to hold conveniently in the hand’. This handsome new reference book from the Oxford University Press runs to nearly 900 pages, is two inches thick, weighs nearly four pounds, and is far from being ‘easy to hold in the hand’. Its professed aim is ‘to indicate to readers the current state of scholarship associated with the Bible’; given the immense range of disciplines which have been brought to bear on the biblical text, this could hardly have been achieved in a smaller format. It is nevertheless called a Handbook, and doubtless Oxford will need to revise its dictionary definition. But the scale of this ‘handbook’ is also significant for any evaluation of the importance of the Bible. As John Rogerson says in his Preface, ‘No comparable collection of texts has been subjected to such sustained critical examination and elucidation over such a long period of time’. This in itself is an indication of the continuing importance of the Bible as an object of study, and justifies the effort that has been put into this production.