Age cannot wither, and all that.

At the time this set was published, it was the best Bible dictionary available, and the fifth, supplemental, volume just made it better. That is perhaps no longer true, now that works such as the Anchor Bible Dictionary have been published -- but it is still a great work.

There are several types of articles in this compendium. Perhaps the most common are the biographical. Want to know who Ahimelech was? There is an entry. (Several, in fact, since there were several Ahimelechs.) The articles give the origin of the person's name (e.g. Ahimelech is assembled from the parts Ahi- and melech, "brother" and "king," so "My brother is king"). Then comes a short biography. And a list of references, which are usually complete for people who aren't mentioned too many times.

There are also historical and chronological entries, containing the best archaeological information available at the time of writing. And then there are broad entries -- topics such as "Christianity" or "Theology" or "Textual Criticism." These have to be somewhat limited to keep the publication within reasonable grounds, but they will often serve as a good starting point that will let the reader seek more detailed information.

The only caution about this set is that it is based on all sources, not just the Bible, so it often disagrees with those who believe in inerrancy. As long as you're willing to deal with all the data, this can be an incredibly useful reference, even today. ( )