The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set: Old Testament is scheduled to be released in November. This five-volume
set provides textual and pictorial commentary on every book of the Old Testament. Edited by John H. Walton, the set is 3,000 pages long and includes more than 2,000 photographs. I have not yet seen it advertised, so I thought I’d mention it here. Amazon currently has the best price at $157 (list: $250). The New Testament set came out in 2002.
UPDATE (8/26): The Koinonia blog (Zondervan) has been running a series of excerpts from this series since January.
10 thoughts on “OT Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set”
Any recommendations on whether or not it's a good source?
David – I haven't seen it. The scholars who worked on it are highly respected. I would certainly be buying it if I wasn't receiving a free copy (for photo contribution). I don't think there is any source nearly this comprehensive. Think Archaeological Study Bible x 10.
Any word of an electronic edition? Paper gives nice photos, but so slow to find what you want 🙁
Tim – paper is so slow, eh? My, how we are spoiled! I don't know about electronic, but my guess is that if one is coming out, it will be at least a year behind the print edition.
sweet! if it's anything like its NT counterpart, i can't wait to see it. thanks for pointing this out.
mf
Any opinion on how the Zondervan series compares to the IVP background commentary series?
Really wish Zondervan would get with the program and start making their books available to Logos
Last question, is your 10 CD slide set no longer available through Kregel? BTW, it's great!
Living – the 2 IVP volumes are not very useful for research because they do not cite their sources. The Zondervan series is much lengthier (9 volumes to 2), more up-to-date, and extensively footnoted.
I too wish that Zondervan didn't insist on publishing its works only in its own format. I think that greatly hurts their sales.
My contract with Kregel expired earlier this year, but the Pictorial Library continues to be published by BiblePlaces.com. In addition to Kregel's CD format, it is also available as 2 DVDs. Thanks for the kind words.
I am a child of my time 😉
But I had forgotten, how easily we excise the memory of pain, that Zondervan would render this unusable by insisting on the same format as the unusable NIDOTTE 🙁
I am tempted to say a rude word 😉 And no longer tempted to buy this, unless I can face another print book 🙁
Old Testament Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set.
I just got mine three days ago.
Still waiting for my New Testament Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set.
Bought from http://www.christianbook.com/
I did upload spme pictures from the box set at Amazon.
by NilmaBostonRio
It will be available on Logos http://www.logos.com/products/prepub/details/5606 but costing an arm and a leg. How can they justify a higher prace than for dead trees. Even though I have photos in it I won't be buying a copy 🙁 at that price.