Dictionary of Bible Themes

Taking Bible Study to a New Level

Do you want to know your Bible better? This innovative dictionary of the Bible will guide you through its central themes, such as God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, sin and salvation, the church,  suffering, hope, and eternal life. You will gain a full and fresh appreciation of the richness of the Bible.

This unique and comprehensive topical dictionary covers over 2,400 themes, giving explanations, key Bible references, and cross-references to related themes.

A New Approach to Learning the Scriptures

The approach adopted in this work differs significantly from a more lexical approach found in some older reference works.  A thematic approach is based on related ideas; a lexical approach is based on individual words.  The difference between them can easily be appreciated by considering the theme of “assurance”.  A word-based approach would be limited to identifying biblical passages in which words such as “assure” or “assurance” appear.  A thematic approach, however, goes far beyond this and explores all the basic elements of the theme.  It identifies its basic ideas, its presuppositions and its consequences, in order that the theme in all its fullness can be unfolded to the reader.  Thus the material that deals with assurance covers the grounds of assurance (e.g., the knowledge of God, the certainty of his word, the work of the Holy Spirit), the nature of assurance (of a relationship with God, of salvation, of eternal life and a future hope) and the relationship between assurance and the life of faith.  An extensive system of indexing and cross-referencing allows the dynamic relationship of the many biblical themes to be understood and further explored.