Sources for Understanding the Bible
- Religion OnlineA collection of many online books and articles. To find articles on biblical books choose categories, Bible, New Testament (or Bible commentary). Be aware that this site has articles of different types, both those for scholarly study and those for faith communities.
- Bible OdysseyA collection of articles, videos, and images on the Bible.
The Oxford Companion to the Bible~[134]~: [E-Book]~[136]~: 1993Additional copies (for in-library use only) available in the Main Reading Room, call number REF BS440 .M434 1993.
Sources for Historical Context
Try searching for books using a very basic keyword search. Books tend to be on broad topics, so the terms you search with should be broad, too! Once you've found a few books that look interesting to you, you can use clues from the books to help you find other books. For example....
- Call Numbers. Books on similar subjects are in similar areas of the library. For example, if you search for books about Paul, you would see pretty quickly that many are at the call number BS2505. This means you can easily go to that section of the library and look through the books in person!
- Vocabulary. Check the records in the library catalog for vocabulary in the tables of contents, titles, descriptions or other information that you might use for future searches.
- Subjects. Every book in our catalog is marked with at least 1 "tag" that tells you what the book is mostly about, and links together other books on that same topic. You can click on the tags to find a list of all other books using that tag. For example, if you click on the tag --Paul, > the Apostle, Saint. -- you would find all of our books marked as being about Paul.
- Oxford Classical Dictionary Online ~[392]~
Continually-updated dictionary of the history, archaeology and culture of the classical world.
- Diotima: Women in the Ancient WorldA resource for studying women in the ancient world, including translations, bibliographies, syllabi and more.
- Worlds of Late AntiquityA variety of pages and sources linked here for the study of Late Antiquity.
- Roman Women: Following the Clues (BBC History)"Women - were they any different in Roman times from how they are today? Sort truth from fiction to decide if things have changed since women were first depicted as loving or resentful wives, daughters, servants and workers."
The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization~[134]~: [E-Book]~[136]~: 1998Also available in the Main Reading Room (in-library use only), call number DE5 .O94 1998.
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome~[134]~: [Ebook]~[136]~: 2013A general overview of the Roman world which includes chapters on households, domestic architecture, neighborhoods and suburbs, and the impact of Christianity.
Ancient Rome: From Romulus to Justinian ~[172]~ ~[134]~: [Ebook]~[136]~: 2012An accessible overview of Roman history and society.
- The Basics of Christian HistoryA BBC program website offering an easy introduction to Christianity in the Roman period.
- From Jesus to ChristA collection of articles and audio clips from the PBS Frontline documentary of the same title, addressing the development of Christianity in the first four centuries.
- Christian Catacombs in Rome (Callixtus)A guide to the Callixtus catacombs.
