Customer Reviews
Fabulous resource, superb quality and worth every penny: but it should be digitised - By: Chris Of The OT, 11 Oct 2008 
The IVP (Inter-Varsity Press) Dictionary of the Old Testament is actuallly several individual volumes which combine to make one (massive!) dictionary resource. It comprises:
* DOT Pentateuch [the first five books of the Bible]
* DOT Historical Books [from Joshua to Nehemiah]
* DOT Wisdom, Poetry & Writings [Psalms, Ecclesiastes, etc.)
(I expect there is a DOT Prophetic Books [Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.] planned for the near future, though I couldn't find any mention of one on the IVP website.)
While this makes them expensive over alll, the quality & quantity of scholarship they make available makes it worthy investment. I have bought this DOT Pentateuch & the DOT Historical Books in the last couple of years & hope to get them alll eventuallly.
Even though I emphasise that this is a series of dictionaries, each individual volume still represents a complete & comprehensive unit. A vast array of topics are covered, usuallly in fairly significant (but digestible) detail. One of the first, for instance, is `Agriculture' (p21) which spans the next five pages. This article is clearly subdivided into four sections (`Crops' is further subdivided): Geography, Livestock, Crops & Theology (which serves as a conclusion). Here the writer, D. W. Baker, emphasises that agriculture & agricultural imagery are used in the Pentateuch to illustrate how strongly the Israelites linked the creation & sustaining of the natural world directly to Yahweh. He ends noting that the Song of Moses (especiallly Deut. 32:13-14) focuses on the `literal fruits of faithfulness'.
(Compare the `Agriculture & Animal Husbandry' article in my DOT Historical Books review on Amazon.)
The uniformly clear & comfortable reading format & overalll aesthetic layout also make them a single reference work. There is a continuity of articles too - at least in the absence of repetition. For instance, of the two volumes I own, the entry for `Angel of the Lord' (directing you to `Theophany', from the Greek for `god' & `to appear') only appears in the Pentateuch volume. It's easy to see this as an error of omission if you only own the Historical Books volume, but I imagine each volume would be larger & even more expensive if articles were duplicated. (Perhaps the omission of `Spirit' or `Holy Spirit', etc. from both volumes would be covered in the Wisdom or (potential) Prophetic Books volumes?)
The only real criticism I have is that digital media would be more convenient in many cases. While I have always preferred books as opposed to disks (and vinyl as opposed to CDs), still the digital media so much cheaper & easier to use. I have owned IVP's Essential Reference Collection for years but could never have afforded alll the superb New Testament reference books which it contains. I hope that IVP will have an Essential Collection for the Old Testament too, one day.
In the mean time, this is a hugely expensive series but worth every penny, which I think of as an investment, not an expense. I suppose you could say, `you get what you pay for' & paying for this title - or series - gets you supreme quality: highly recommended.
