This article appeared in European Christian Boostore Journal in 1992
Reference works are important and Christian booksellers need to find room for their display and should know the range available. It is important to remember that in many cases the customer will be making a once in a lifetime purchase. No-one likes to waste money and no bookseller wants to lose customers. Therefore a little time and care, and some research if necessary, will pay its own rewards. I still remember being sold a study Bible as a teenager that I later discovered was not what I wanted at all. I did not hurry back to that shop!
What sort of person is the customer? Well educated? Of average intelligence? Is he a serious reader? What is his theological position? What versions of the Bible does he use most? Where exactly does he want help? How much does he want to spend? A bit of thought with such questions in mind will be worthwhile.
Concordances
The oldest known concordance was completed in Paris in 1252 using the work of Hugo of St Caro, the first Dominican cardinal. Assisted by an army of monks, he had completed a word index to the Vulgate in 1230. In 1536 Thomas Gybson produced the first English concordance of the New Testament and by 1550 there was a concordance for the whole Bible.
Three particular concordances have enjoyed immense popularity down to the present day. The oldest of these is that of Alexander Cruden (1699-1770). His Exhaustive Concordance to the Holy Scriptures first appeared in 1737 but has undergone constant revision since then. James Strong (1822-1894), an American Methodist professor, published his Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible in 1890. It truly is exhaustive including an appendix of 47 less important words such as 'a' or 'and'. It is sometimes supposed that Strong's work "drove him mad". In fact it is Cruden who suffered with bouts of apparent insanity. The other major concordance is the work of Robert Young (1822-1888). Like Cruden, Young was also a Scot involved in printing and bookselling. Young's Analytical Concordance of the Bible was first published in 179. Like Strong's, this concordance enables the English reader to get back to the words in their original languages.
All these use the KJV. This is not as widely used as it once was. Each new translation means the need for a new concordance. It is important to have the right concordance for the right version. The advent of the computer means compilation is not quite the Herculean task it once was and all the major new versions have their own concordances. The computer is also coming into its own in another way. A number of software packages are now available, mostly from the States providing all the benefits of the concordance plus much more. At present these are expensive but now doubt growing popularity will lead to lower prices.
Bible Atlases
As for Bible atlases, until recent years there was little of a distinctly evangelical stamp. In 1985, IVP and Lion combined to produce the New Bible Atlas and there arc now other similar works available from American publishers. Maps and articles in Bible dictionaries will be sufficient in most cases for the general reader. Nevertheless, a good Bible atlas may well be of use to some. One excellent and inexpensive little gem in this field is Simon Jenkins's Bible Mapbook, published by Lion.
Dictionaries & Handbooks
Then there are a host of other works such as the Bible dictionary, encyclopedia or handbook. These are reference works that give information about biblical terms, names, doctrines, history and culture. Some such books are prepared with the more academic in mind but others are written very much for the general reader.
The first Bible encyclopedia appeared as early as the 4th century. Translated into Latin by Jerome, Eusebius's Greek Onamasticon only survives in part, but it lists and remarks on towns and rivers mentioned in the Old Testament and Gospels. It was thus quite limited in scope. Augustine is found in one place longing for a much bigger work. We had to wait until the Reformation before such works became common.
The first Complete Christian Dictionary in English seems to have appeared in 1612 and was by a Thomas Wilson (1563-1622). The first truly great work, however, was the translation of the French of Augustin Calmet. A three volume work, publishing began in 1732 but was not completed until 1847! Meanwhile, in 1768, one of the most frequently reprinted works appeared for the first time. This was by John Brown (1722-1787) of Haddington.Because of increasingly accurate knowledge of Bible geography and culture a large number of such volumes have appeared since then. Increasingly, these have been the work of teams of scholars rather than individuals. They also cover more and more ground. We note the five volume Hastings Dictionary of the Bible started in 1905, but revised and reissued, Unger's Revised Bible Dictionary and the IVP New Bible Dictionary.
Although non-technical and pictorial works had appeared before, in 1973 there was a major leap forward with the publication of the Lion Handbook to the Bible. This was followed, in 1978, by a supplementary Encyclopedia of the Bible covering more traditional Bible dictionary material. Similar books continue to appear.
It is important to note the dissatisfaction with some of these works amongst very conservative readers. Peter Jeffery is one author seeking to remedy that. The popularity of American authors such as Henry Halley or Robert Gromacki, no doubt for similar reasons, ought not to be overlooked either.
