Probably the most obvious question to ask about a reader’s edition is “What vocabulary do you provide?” After all, that is the basic function of this kind of book—to supply the reader with guidance on the form and meaning of difficult vocabulary.

So obviously that’s what we did.

But how did we define “difficult vocabulary” for Septuaginta? It was actually a pretty tricky issue to address. Let me explain.

You spend time learning massive amounts of paradigms ad nauseum, learned the definitions of words that look the same (at least you did for the quiz), and you’ve even learned some syntax to boot. But now you’ve completed the course, and in order to keep going on, you have to read the thing. Where does one start reading Hebrew? 

Some students are motivated enough to pick up their BHS and their lexicon, but not everyone is so motivated. After passing Crucible I and II, you take your summer vacation “break,” but you almost never look back. How do you begin reading Hebrew again? The poetry and the prophets can require hours of searching through a lexicon for the appropriate words for only a mere few verses. I have a good feel for the weak roots because of my professor, Peter Gentry, but hollow roots are still a pain.

The Biblia…

The landscape of specialized biblical and theological dictionaries seems to experience continual growth year-by-year. These dictionaries generally boast more focused and detailed attention on content and tend to provide a more unique product as an end goal. The level of usefulness of these types of dictionaries can vary greatly depending on the academic or personal interest of the reader, as well as the specializations of the contributing roster. Still, because of the distinctive qualities of such works the price-point is generally out of reach for most consumers. The intersection of such usefulness and availability is tellingly rare in this distinctive reference genre, and thus when it is clearly observed attention should be widely merited.

Originally published as four paperback volumes, TheDictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity edited by Edwin M. Yamauchi and Marvin R. Wilson has now arrived as a single-volume resource lodged in a beautiful…