This outstanding Bible dictionary combines sound, thorough scholarship with recent advances in philol ogy, geography, history of the ancient Near East, and Bible criticism.

Each article has been approached objectively, and every statement scrutinized with great care. While a conservative attitude in scholar ship has been preserved, the best authorities of our time have been consulted to make this dictionary up-to-date, comprehensive, and com pletely accurate. The editor has made an exhaustive study of scientific Biblical periodicals of many languages and of publications on Oriental research. The many Bibli cal and Semitic studies produced since World War I have been drawn upon in the preparation of the book and the editor himself has made ex tensive original contributions.

Treating over 4.500 words and phrases with complete definitions varying from a paragraph to several pages in length, the dictionary uses the diacritical marks and letters for phonetic transcriptions employed by Webster's New International Dic tionary of the English Language. A list of abbreviations and a guide to pronunciation are provided. In ad dition the appendix offers sixteen full-color maps drawn from The West minster Historical Atlas to the Bible, and specially prepared on the basis of modern research.

Printed on fine, thin paper for com pactness and ease of handling, this self-pronouncing dictionary is ac curate and authoritative in state ment and content and of outstanding constructive value for all students and readers of the Bible.