Subject guides: Divinity: Biblical Studies

Welcome to the Divinity subject guide - your guide to using the library resources, services and facilities for your subject.

Finding books for Biblical Studies

Library of Congress classification for most Biblical Studies topics is BS. However you will find useful material at other classmarks, such as PA for lexicons and PJ for dictionaries.

Excellent current and historic collections for Biblical Studies can be accessed at New College Library
Some historic and current print collections for Biblical Studies can also be accessed at the Main Library.

Books for Biblical Studies

Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic Biblical Studies books. These include

The Historical Jesus by Helen Bond
ISBN: 0567033163
The Apocryphal Gospels by Paul Foster
ISBN: 0199236941
The Cambridge companion to biblical wisdom literature by edited by Katharine J Dell and Suzanna R. Millar
ISBN: 9781108483162
The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Timothy H. Lim (Editor); John J. Collins
ISBN: 0199207232
Geschichte und Gebet by Anja Klein
ISBN: 3161532414
Christ among the Messiahs by Matthew V. Novenson
ISBN: 0190274093
Revelation, Literature, and Community in Late Antiquity by Philippa Townsend, Moulie Vidas
ISBN: 3161506448

Heritage Collections

The Heritage Collections teams preserve, provide access to and interpret the heritage collections looked after by the University.

The Heritage Collections teams preserve, provide access to and interpret the heritage collections looked after by the University. The Centre for Research Collections (CRC) is the main space for anyone using the University of Edinburgh's heritage collections, including rare books and manuscripts, University of Edinburgh archives, personal and institutional archives, Lothian Health Services Archives, University of Edinburgh PhD theses, art collection, musical instrument collection and more.

The CRC is found on the 6th floor, Main Library.

Heritage Collections

Databases for Biblical Studies

Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online
The Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity focuses on the history of early Christian texts, authors, ideas. The BEEC aims to provide a critical review of the methods used in Early Christian Studies and to update the historiography.
Critical Editions of the New Testament Online
Digital collection of the principal critical editions of the New Testament including lists of variant readings and collections of manuscript transcriptions and collations from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century. A number of the most useful editions of the ancient versions and of ancillary materials have been included.
Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Biblical Texts
Presents a complete Hebrew transcription and English translation of the Biblical texts, together with high-resolution images (scalable).
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Access is available for all biblical fragments, including photos of the fragments, texts derived from the fragments in Masoretic order (bible books), English translation from the texts on the fragments and full Hebrew Scripture.
Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Non-Biblical texts
Presents a complete Hebrew transcription and English translation of the Non-Biblical texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, together with high-resolution images
Encyclopedia of the Bible and its reception
EBR offers a comprehensive and in-depth rendering of the current state of knowledge on the origins and development of the Bible in its different canonic forms in Judaism and Christianity. At the same time, EBR also documents the history of the Bible's reception in the Christian churches and the Jewish Diaspora; in Islam, in other religious traditions and current religious movements, Western and non-Western alike, as well as in literature, art, music, and film
Flavius Josephus Online
This is the first comprehensive literary-historical online commentary on the works of Flavius Josephus in English including the Greek text by Niese from the late 19th century. About 65% of the project is complete, consisting of Life, and Against Apion, book 2 of the Judean War, and books 1-11 and 15 of the Judean Antiquities.
Textual History of the Bible Online
The Textual History of the Bible Online (THBO) is a cross-searchable platform with all available information regarding the textual history, textual character, translation techniques, manuscripts, and the importance of each textual witness for each book of the Hebrew Bible.
More Biblical Studies databases

Journals for Biblical Studies

Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic Biblical Studies Studies journals. These include:

Journal of Biblical Literature
Call Number: Per J
Journal for the Study of Paul and his Letters
Call Number: Per J
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Call Number: Per J
Journal for the Study of the New Testament
Call Number: Per J

Heritage Collections at New College Library

New College Library holds an exceptional collection of rare and early Bibles, including Geneva, King James, Cranmer and other versions.

The collections range from Babylonian Talmuds, to polyglot Bibles and an extensive collection of early Greek testaments.

New College Library also holds recent facsimile editions of codexes such as the Codex Vaticanus.

The Paterson Bible Collection contains early Bibles in languages from all over the world, and particularly from Northern Europe where Paterson was a missionary.

To arrange to consult New College Special Collections and archives, please email: HeritageCollections@ed.ac.uk

Reference books for Biblical Studies

Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic Biblical Studies reference books, or browse the shelves in the New College Library Hall. These include:

Brill's New Pauly by Christine Walde; Brigitte Egger
ISBN: 9004142223
Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception by Hans-Josef Klauck
ISBN: 3110313286
Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible by David Noel Freedman
Call Number: Ref. BS440 Eer.
ISBN: 0802824005
The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld
Call Number: Ref. BS491.2 New.
ISBN: 0687333652
Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament by G. Johannes Botterweck
Call Number: Ref. BS440 Bot.
ISBN: 0802823459
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament by Gerhard Kittel (Editor); Gerhard Friedrich (Editor); Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Translator)
Call Number: Ref. BS2312 The.
ISBN: 0802822452

Digital text collections

Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL)
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The BTL Online database provides electronic access to all editions of Latin texts published in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana, ranging from antiquity and late antiquity to medieval and neo-Latin texts. The two databases of Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) and Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL) are linked by a common user interface, so that the Thesaurus and the Latin texts of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana can be accessed through one panel, which allows various and differentiated searches.
Library of Latin Texts Online
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The Library of Latin Texts - Series A (formerly known as the Cetedoc Library of Christian Latin Texts) contains texts taken from the Corpus Christianorum series. These include the Vulgate and the Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, the complete corpus of decrees from the ecumenical Church councils from Nicaea to Vatican II and many Latin versions (ancient, medieval or modern) of works by Aristotle, Averroes, Avicenna, Dionysius the Areopagite, Flavius Josephus, Irenaeus of Lyon, Maximus the Confessor, Origen, Plato and Porphyrus. Each text draws on additional intensive research work undertaken by the Centre 'Traditio Litterarum Occidentalium'.

The complementary Library of Latin Texts - Series B database gathers other Latin texts of all genres and all periods including chronicles, medieval saints' lives and travel narratives, legal texts, and theological, philosophical and scientific treatises from the early modern period, drawn from existing scholarly editions.
Past Masters
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The Past Master Series encompasses the largest collection of full-text electronic editions in philosophy in the world, in both the original language and in English translation. Combined with powerful web-based search and reference tools, the Past Masters series provides scholars with significantly-enhanced and highly-flexible access to the classic texts. Includes Aristotle (Complete Works) and Plato (Collected Dialogues).
Patrologiae Graecae
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Electronic version of Migne's Patrologiae Graecae contains more than 160 volumes of Greek material (with Latin translations) relevant to the study of the history of the Christian Church from its beginnings through the Council of Florence in 1439.

The electronic version has been created using the first edition of Patrologiae Graecae.
Patrologia Latina
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Electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. Comprising the original Latin texts of the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216, the database also includes the prefatory material, critical apparatus, and Migne's column numbers.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae First time users will be asked to register. Subsequent access requires both the University network access and the login you created. The register/login link is located at the top right corner of the TLG website.
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The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) is based at the University of California, Irvine. Founded in 1972 the TLG has already collected and digitized most literary texts written in Greek from Homer to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453. Its goal is to create a comprehensive digital library of Greek literature from antiquity to the present.

Note: Users may not under any circumstances download, print, make copies of and/or distribute TLG materials.

Note: If you are using a PC which has SPIonic, choose this font from the drop down list in section B and click on 'Enter'. (The SPIonic font has been installed on all computing service PCs in open access computing labs).
Thesaurus Linguae Latinae
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The Thesaurus linguae Latinae is not only the largest Latin dictionary in the world, but also the first to cover all the Latin texts from the classical period up to about 600 A.D. 31 academies, and scholarly societies from 23 countries support the work of the Bayerische Akademie (Thesaurusburo Munchen). The two databases of Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) and Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL) are linked by a common user interface, so that the Thesaurus and the Latin texts of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana can be accessed through one panel, which allows various and differentiated searches.
Translated Texts for Historians E-Library
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Translated Texts for Historians book series makes available historical sources from 300-800 AD translated into English, in many cases for the first time. The geographic range covers Syria, Arabia, Armenia, Georgia and Egypt in the East; North Africa; major cities of the Roman Empire (Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople); and Spain, Gaul, Italy, Britain and Ireland in the West.

Types of writing include histories, chronicles, letters, annals, formularies, compendia, political speeches, military and theological handbooks, poems, documentary sources, records of church councils, biblical and theological commentaries, sermons, church histories, Christian treatises, Christian and pagan panegyric and polemic, Neoplatonic texts, Lives of saints, bishops and popes.

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