<div><p><b>2000 Catholic Press Association Award Winner!</b></p><p></p><p>Interpreting the Bible respectfully is a cross-cultural enterprise. For those who seek to understand the Bible as a document from the ancient Mediterranean world and communicate it to people in other cultures,<i>The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible</i> is an ideal tool.</p><p>Scripture expert John Pilch gives the modern Bible reader an appreciation for the world in which each book of the Bible originated and an in-depth look at the Mediterranean personalities who populate the pages of the Bible. With more than 100 distinctive, Middle-Eastern notions, from Abba&quot; to &quot;Work,&quot; this collection provides a cultural system of shared interpretations of persons, things, and events relating to the Mediterranean region.</p><p>By applying a social-scientific approach to interpreting the Bible, Pilch shows how a multi-cultural understanding, enriched with the discoveries and insights taken from contemporary anthropological studies, can bemused to examine the distinctive, Middle Eastern cultural world of the Bible.</p><p>Since each article discusses a variety of persons, things, and events under its title, the alphabetized tale of contents presents a comprehensive list of these subjects for ready reference. Uppercase entries identify complete articles; lowercase entries list some of the related topics treated in the articles. A bibliography is provided at the end of each major article. A list of basic resources at the end of the volume presents a selection of dictionaries, atlases, and similar books for supplemental information on each topic.</p><p>Preachers, readers, RCIA participants and students alike will appreciate the index to the Sunday Lectionary readings for the full three-year cycle that is provided and its citation of the words defined in the dictionary that appear in the given readings. Includes illustrations of appropriate entries.</p><p>Entries include:<br>ABBA<br>Agriculture<br>Alternate Reality<br>ANGER<br>Animals<br>Antonia Fortress<br>Bailey<br>Beard<br>Bread<br>Blindness<br>Boat<br>Burial<br>Carpenter<br>Caves<br>Centurion<br>Christians<br>CLOTHES<br>COINS<br>Corban<br>COSMETICS AND JEWELRY<br>Culture<br>DANCE<br>DEATH<br>DECEPTION AND LYING<br>DRINKING AND EATING<br>Earrings<br>Eating<br>Emotions<br>Evil Eye<br>Eyes<br>Fishing<br>FORGIVENESS<br>Fortresses<br>Frankincense<br>Goats<br>Good Shepherd<br>HAIR<br>Hands<br>HEALING<br>Heaven<br>HOLY MAN<br>Honey<br>Honor and Shame<br>HOUSE<br>HUMOR<br>Individualism<br>Insider/Outsider<br>Israelite<br>Jewelry<br>JEWS ANDCHRISTIANS<br>John the Baptist<br>Judeans<br>Laughter<br>Life<br>Literary Forms<br>Lying<br>MILITARY<br>Milk<br>MUSIC<br>Mother<br>Nazirite<br>NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION<br>Oath<br>Oil<br>Perfume<br>Peter's House<br>Poor<br>PRAYER<br>Puns<br>Rabbi<br>Revenge<br>Roads<br>Salt<br>Satan<br>Sea<br>SECRECY<br>Shalom<br>Shame<br>SHEEP AND GOATS<br>SICKNESS<br>Sign<br>Sin<br>Singing<br>SKY<br>SMELLS AND TASTES<br>Sorghum<br>Space<br>SPIRITS<br>Stonemason<br>SYMBOLISM<br>Tastes<br>Teeth<br>Tents<br>Translation<br>TRAVEL<br>Vengeance<br>Water<br>WEATHER<br>Wheat<br>Wine<br>Wool<br>WORK<br></p><p>J. Pilch, PhD, teaches Scripture at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He is the author of<i>The Cultural World of Jesus Sunday by Sunday: Cycles A, B, C, </i>and the leaflet<i>Selecting a Bible Translation, </i>published by The Liturgical Press. Other The Liturgical Press publications include his commentary on Galatians and Romans in the<i>Collegeville Bible Commentary</i> series, and articles in <i>The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology,</i>and <i>The Bible Today.</i></p>&quot;</div>