IVP Essential Reference Question

So, I've seen numerous times people on the forum talk about how indispensable the IVP Essential Reference collection is...but often the same people comment that it is difficult to explain how the IVP dictionaries are different from other dictionaries or why they are important. Would someone who owns the collection mind posting a sample article or two to demonstrate what makes this collection special? What article have you come across that really made you realize the value of the collection?

Thanks,

Ron

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Mark Barnes

Ron,

The IVP Essential Reference is terrific value for money - even before the recent sale. It consists of several different resources, which can be grouped like this:

The 'black' dictionaries (4 vols): These are both scholarly and comprehensive. They differ from other dictionaries in that they specialise in one part of the Bible, and in that they contain only a few entries (perhaps 200 per dictionary?). Each entry is essentially an essay on the topic, which is usually several pages long. The length and quality of these articles often can't be found in any other Logos dictionary (even Anchor). It's worth buying the collection for these volumes alone.
Bible Background Commentaries (2 vols): Useful, if brief. Good if you don't have another background commentary, but surpassed by the far larger Zondervan equivalent.
New Bible Dictionary: A standard, one-volume Bible Dictionary. Very similar to other offerings (Eerdmans, Tyndale, etc.), but in my opinion superior.
New Bible Commentary: Again, a standard one-volume commentary. Unlike many one-volume commentaries, it's written by specialists, not one author. It's evangelical in outlook, and not dumbed-down. In my opinion it's the best one-volume commentary available.
Hard Sayings of the Bible: Fairly useful book, giving comments (about a page or two) on difficult Bible verses.
Dictionary of Bible Imagery: Unique resource, giving medium-length articles on issues of Biblical Imagery. There's nothing else like it. I'll post an article below.
New Bible Atlas: Worth having, but fairly standard.
New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Dictionaries of Biblical Theology are rare, and this is much better than Elwell's. Particularly useful when combined with the Dictionary of Bible Imagery. In three parts: introductory essays, then essays on the theology of individual books, then articles on particular topics.
New Dictionary of Theology: A fairly standard theology dictionary, but again, substantially better than Elwell in my view.
Pocket Dictionaries (4 vols): As they sound, very brief articles. I find these surprising useful when I want a very pithy definition for the congregation, and the Greek dictionary is great if you ever forget what 'aphaeresis' or 'apodosis' means.

I tried to attach samples for you (on the same topic - angels/spiritual powers), so that you can see how the different dictionaries differ from one another. But it looks like printing is broken in 4.3 beta, so it didn't work. Sorry!

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238794#Comment_238794

Let me begin with the fact that the IVP Reference Collection is the resource I bought as a boxed product prior to starting with Logos at all (and much more expensive, and had to wait for several weeks due to shipment). Its individual resources receive high praise (look at Amazon comments) and as a set they seem to be unbeatable (well, if you should already have Portfolio, put this in relation - there is something like the law of diminishing returns with adding ever more resources to a large library).

I personally had "Hard Sayings" in paper on my book wishlist for some time, knew I wanted a recent theological dictionary (got twelve!) and a recent evangelical commentary (got three) and I like the writing of some of the contributors of this set, such a I. Howard Marshall, Scon McKnight, D.A.Carson. That drove my decision to buy it back then.

There is one additonal thing not mentioned by Mark above, which is really useful imho: the collection's resources are thoroughly crosslinked, so if you are in one book, there are references to the other ones that are conveniently available at mouse-over without doing a search for them. Here I opened a paragraph in DPL (Dictionary of Paul and his Letters) and the blue words are other IVP Reference entries, such as the entry saints from PDTT (Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms).

The one criticism I read in another thread is that Hard Sayings of the Bible is functionally a one-volume commentary, but Logos treats it only as a monograph.

Maybe there is or will be a page in the "book review" wiki where this thread and others can be combined to give a full-orb impression.

Hope this helps,

Mick

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238796#Comment_238796

Arrg, the forum software killed my screenshot - try an attachment:

Ron

Thanks for the information...I'm still trying to justify picking these up before the sale ends. I'm working on income taxes today, so we'll see how things stand when I'm finished [:p]

Charles Tondee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238797#Comment_238797

I will second and third whats already been mentioned. Probably the Best money I have spent outside a base Logos package. The "black" dictionaries are wonderful and though I just purchased I have already used them extensively in sermon preparation. I will agree with Mark's assessment they are more like essay's, not just simple definitions, which gives you a fuller understanding of a topic through word usages, concepts and definitions. I also love how they are devoted to a particular section of scripture. Ive been studying about "Joy" and its been wonderful to examine the different perspectives of Joy as if seeing it through 4 different lenses. Combined with Dict of Biblical Imagery, which gives a broader look at topics it is a wonderful package. The Price vs What you get (especially w/ the facebook sale) is phenomenal and I highly recommend it.

Charles Tondee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238902#Comment_238902

Sorry for my wall of text, My formatting is not working correctly with Chrome

Charles Tondee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238904#Comment_238904

Here is a snippet from Joy (forgot to remove highlighting) under the final summary

Randy Lane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238902#Comment_238902

The collection does not include the two Old Testament "black" dictionaries though. To get them costs more ($110 USD) than the collection itself did during the Facebook sale. Are those volumes any less worthy than the others? Are they not in the collection becasue perhaps they newer?

http://www.logos.com/product/4714/ivp-dictionary-of-the-old-testament-bundle

Randy Lane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238994#Comment_238994

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the most recent "black" dictionary, Tremper Longman III on "Wisdom, Poetry and Writings" is not even available in Logos, though it has been in print for almost three years now.

Charles Tondee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/239000#Comment_239000

After my experience with the NT Dictionaries, The OT editions are on my radar even though it is not complete. I haven't heard anything about the OT volumes but if they are even close to the Quality of the NT then I'm in. I will probably wait for a sale of some sort like Christmas, so many books i want so little money . [:)]

Mark, Might I add your post are always full of good info especially about books, I appreciate all the info you provide anytime its given. I have used your post about commentary series on the wiki - user book review extensively. Thanks again!

Kevin Becker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/239003#Comment_239003

Jeremy,

You might want to check out

http://wiki.logos.com/Resource_Review

Edwin Bowden

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/238902#Comment_238902

I will second and third whats already been mentioned. Probably the Best money I have spent outside a base Logos package. The "black" dictionaries are wonderful and though I just purchased I have already used them extensively in sermon preparation. I will agree with Mark's assessment they are more like essay's, not just simple definitions, which gives you a fuller understanding of a topic through word usages, concepts and definitions. I also love how they are devoted to a particular section of scripture. Ive been studying about "Joy" and its been wonderful to examine the different perspectives of Joy as if seeing it through 4 different lenses. Combined with Dict of Biblical Imagery, which gives a broader look at topics it is a wonderful package. The Price vs What you get (especially w/ the facebook sale) is phenomenal and I highly recommend it.

[Y][Y]

It was a no-brainer to add the OT volumes as they became available.

Ron

Well, I did it. My taxes came out a bit lower than I was expecting, so I picked up IVP and the ESV study notes. I will still have to pass on Tozer, Word, and NICOT/NICNT this time around [:(] ...but I think that with Tyndale, IVP, and ESV, I was able to get some good items from the sale [:)] Thanks Logos!