Richard N. Soulen

Every discipline has its own language. It might use English letters; many of the words might even be recognizably English terms; but the terminology will have specific meaning for those within that field or discipline.

And this kind of specific language absolutely exists in the world of Biblical interpretation, as anyone who has ever tried to dive into a more advanced commentary on a book of the Bible knows all too well.

The Soulens have revised and updated their Handbook of Biblical show more Criticism, 4th Edition (galley received as part of early review program, but full book read halfway through). The goal is to provide explanations of the main characters, schools, and terms within the world of Biblical criticism: the attempt to understand and interpret the Old and New Testaments.

It’s not designed to be a book read cover to cover; instead, it serves more like a dictionary. If one has the tolerance and patience for it, however, there can be benefits to reading it from beginning to end: I’ve come across the terms defined many times, and it was useful to see some of them fully explicated.

The authors come from a more conservative theological and interpretive background, and that will inform the perspective on the explanation of some of the schools of thought, yet they do seek a level of objectivity in describing even those ideas with which they might personally disagree.

This remains a useful resource for Bible students trying to figure out all those German terms and the transliterated Greek terms they find throughout Bible commentaries. show less

This is an encyclopedic reference book for students of Biblical studies, providing definitions and discussions of many of the terms you may hear or read. Here are some examples of topics, chosen at random:

Eisegesis

The Gospel of Thomas

The Jesus Seminar

The New Hermeneutic

The Synoptic Problem

You get the idea. The book is quite exhaustive now that it’s reached its fourth edition, and I use it for occasional reference, but I do once in a while feel frustrated by the emphasis of precision in show more definitions over simple explanations, particularly when the discussion is not accompanied by examples. In other words, it could sometimes be more user-friendly. Never-the-less, there is a lot of good information, presented quite compactly. show less

I don't agree with Soulen's view of inspiration. Nonetheless, he provides a brief, yet beneficial, account of the history of interpretation. Hans Frei contribution is interesting.

Every field of study has its own lingo. This is the book to get if you want to learn the lingo of biblical studies. Soulen provides an excellent resource that should be on hand for every person interested in being immersed into biblical studies.