Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters

by Donald K. McKim

Publisher:

IVP

, 2007

Overview

From Abelard to Zwingli, the history of Christian biblical interpretation has been shaped by great thinkers who delved deeply into the structure and meaning of Christianity's sacred texts. With over two hundred in-depth articles, the Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters introduces readers to the principal players in that history: their historical and intellectual contexts, their primary works, their interpretive principles and their broader historical significance. In addition, six major essays offer an overview of the history of biblical interpretation from the second century to the present.

This one-volume reference by Donald K. McKim, a significantly revised and vastly expanded edition of IVP Academic's Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters, will serve as an invaluable tool for any serious student of the Bible and the history of biblical interpretation.

Key Features

• Over two hundred comprehensive articles
• Excellent overview of key historical theologians
• Includes six contextual essays

Contents

Top Highlights

“Aristotle’s dialectic already assumed that truth is to be sought through dialogue.” (Page 982)

“That Pauline theology began to flourish in the intellectual history of the Christian churches is in no small measure due to Irenaeus.” (Page 4)

“Athanasius’s use of the Bible is atypical for an Alexandrian in that he did not compose a biblical commentary as such. Rightly acclaimed as someone steeped in Scripture, he abstained from exegesis proper and ignored the Alexandrian orchestration of allegorism. His reading of the Bible was less conditioned by a preconceived system of philosophical ideas about the human self, as in Origen, than linked with his practical experience of faith and church.” (Page 6)

“Diodore of Tarsus (d. 390) was the most distinctive theoretician of the Antiochene school of exegesis.” (Page 11)

“but it is the merit of Irenaeus to have first addressed Paul as a true theologian.” (Page 4)

Praise for the Print Edition

This is an instructive, thought-provoking, generous-minded, reliable, absorbing, illuminating and imaginative work, often elegant, entertaining, incisive and provocative. It covers a remarkable galaxy of names, and it is written by people from a wide range of backgrounds, many of them world experts on their subject. Why did no one think of writing it before?

—John Goldingay, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary

Anyone interested in the history of interpretation—which today should include all of us—will profit from and appreciate this substantive volume, whose articles, unlike those in so many handbooks and dictionaries, are consistently of high quality. This revised edition, with its many new entries, is an advance beyond its excellent predecessor, and the generous and updated bibliographies will be of great assistance to those wishing to pursue further research.

—Dale C. Allison Jr., Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Dictionary of Biblical Interpreters
• Author: Donald K. McKim
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press,
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 1,134

About Donald K. McKim

Donald K. McKim is executive editor for theology and reference at Westminster John Knox Press. He is the author and editor of a number of books including the Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith, The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin, Calvin and the Bible and The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms.