Pamela McQuade

As might be expected from the Title, this reference book functions like a biblical concordance for the rest of us. There are 1001 terms, expressions and ideas which the author believes has some connection to the scripture. Most of these are simple words for which the link is fairly obvious because you can find the [translated] word in most copies of the Holy Bible; however, to this list the author has added words and inferences that may be supported in the text, but for which there is no direct translation. For these and other less well known terms, the author provides a brief explanation (I wish there were more of these to be honest). Examples:

* Alms: Alms were gifts to the poor, an essential part of society in an age without public welfare. Generous giving was expected of believers.
* Dating: There was no such thing as dating in the biblical era. Marriages were often arranged, and the partners were expected to be virgins when they married.

The PDF (and I presume the physical book) layout is well done. The Kindle version is not nearly as clean, but remains serviceable (although it is missing a usable TOC for better navigation by alpha). The few illustrations provided were nice and on point to the topic in-which they appeared (which was not the case in a similar book I recently reviewed). Over all, this is a solid reference book for the casual bible study. What is missing for students looking for a more in-depth treatment of the Bible was any reference to translation (and subsequently to the source terms) what inevitably loses some of the nuance found in the original source material.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#HowtoFindItinYourBible #NetGalley… (mere)