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Disclaimer: I edited this book. When Zondervan came to me and asked if I would edit this book, I was skeptical at first. I am not much for reinventing the wheel. But the longer I preached, and the longer I looked into what was currently available at the lay and pastoral level, the more I became convinced that the book was worth the effort.

John Piper says in one of his books that people "hang onto words." He is right. Words are very important to us. We spend much of our Bible study time thinking about them. And they are the vehicle (along with grammar) that God chose to reveal most of himself to us. This dictionary is designed to help the layperson and busy pastor get quickly to the meaning of a word as well as the basic idea conveyed by the word and associated words in general. The main part of the dictionary covers all the most important words in the Bible, which are arranged by English word order. There is also a short Greek and Hebrew dictionary that covers even more words with shorter definitions.

I am sure I am biased, but this is really a good book, it avoids many of the errors of similar books (like thinking the root parts of a word still reflect the word's meaning), isn't tied to just one translation, and gives you just the information you will need, in the majority of situations.

To see me talk about the book, you can go to YouTube (talk 1, talk 2).

This is one of the great undiscovered gems in publishing today. Verlyn is the main academic editor at Zondervan, and his task was to abridge the four volume New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology by Colin Brown. He did an exquisite job. This book will give you the correct meanings of words, in their biblical context. It will be more information than the casual reader will want, but just the right amount for the serious student and pastor. It also makes it easy to move from this abridgment to the same entry in the 4 volume set if you want to know more about a word. Your decision will be between this book and Bromiley's abridgment of Kittel.

Professor Bromiley translated the entire 10 volumes of Kittel, and so he was uniquely qualified to create this abridgment. This book is roughly equivalent to Verbrugge's abridgment and is really, really good. I lived on this text for years before Verbrugge's was available. It gives the serious student all he or she needs to find out what words mean, and avoids some of the errors that have been leveled against the ten volume set. It also makes it easy to move from this abridgment to the entry in the 10 volume set if you want to know more about a word. No student of the New Testament should be without this text or Verbrugge's. If price is a consideration, this book is more than double the price of Verbrugge's, but it is certainly not three times as good.

This series has long been a slightly shorter (while still being more information than most want) and more evangelically-friendly than Kittel's 10 volume. It covers the meaning of the Greek words beutifuly, and is geared more for the lay person and busy pastor than the Ph.D. student. It makes a good companion with Verbrugge's abridgement; you can read a abridged version of the word and, if you want more, move easily into this fuller series. If you love words and intend on doing serious work, this is a great set.

I have this set later in the list because I wanted to keep the Greek works together. If you want in-depth meanings of Hebrew words, this is the only place for you to go. End of discussion. Like it's Greek counterpart, the discussions are complete; but if you are looking for a little more than Mounce's Dictionary, this is the place to go.

TDNT (or simply, "Kittel"), has long been the standard for serious word studies. The entries are voluminous, at times exhausting. Written by first class German scholars (and translated into English), these books will give you the most detailed explanation of a word. If you are a serious layperson or pastor, there is usually more information than you could possibly use, and perhaps Bromiley's abridgement would be better. But if you are a serious student, especially a MDiv or Ph.D. student, you will want these.

But beware of a common charge leveled against the series. Just because a word had a specific meaning in 500 B.C. does not mean this is how Paul uses the word in the New Testament. Use the histroical data with great care. Also beware of the theological bias of many of the writers; they were not generally evangelical.

I was delighted to see that these three volumes have been translated. In my doctoral work I relied heavily on the commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles by Ceslas Spicq. I came to appreciate his expertise with words and their meanings in their original context. (He also is a conservative scholar, which was nice when it came to the Pastorals, but I digress.)

Spicq does not cover all the words in the New Testament; but those he does, he does so with eloquence and precision. Well worth the investment -- and you don't have to try and read them in French!