Skip to Main Content

Exegesis Resources: Home

Welcome to the Exegesis Research Resources Guide

As you are working on research for your School of Divinity courses, reach out if I can help you in any way!  Please feel free to drop me an email and we can discuss your questions, or you can book a time for an in-person or Zoom meeting on my calendar.  I will also be holding drop-in office hours in DRS114, Wednesdays 11a-12:30p.

The resources on the following pages are useful biblical and religious studies resources accessible via the ZSR Library.  If you need help finding resources for another discipline, such as entrepreneurship, environmental studies, or sociology, you can find other resource guides here.  If you are working on an exegesis paper, take a look at the guide created specifically for doing exegesis work.

And last, but not least, remember to cite your sources!  The Turabian style guide can help you with formatting citations for the sources you find.

Stay healthy and well!
Kaeley McMahan
mcmahak@wfu.edu

Two Tech Tips:

  1. Download and use VPN: If you keep VPN running in the background while you access campus resources (ebooks, databases, etc...) it makes it look like you are on campus, so many of the authentication issues you might otherwise have will go away.
  2. ProQuest Ebook Central: If you get this error message, don't fear!  Just do as it says and reload the page and it will take you to your book:

Exegesis Guides

Virtual Biblical Studies & Commentary Series Section

The resources listed here replicate as much as possible what is in the Biblical Studies & Commentary Series Section of the Reference Department, based on ebook availability. 

Biblical Studies Reference
In addition to these sources, see the online collections box on the Reference tab for access to hundreds of encyclopedias, handbooks, and other reference sources, especially Oxford Handbooks Online and Oxford Reference Online.

The Seminary Student Writes
Anchor Bible Dictionary (limited searching via the Hathi Trust)
New Interpreter's Bible (limited searching via the Hathi Trust: volumes 1, 4, 7, 9 and volumes 2-3, and 5-12)
Women's Bible Commentary (one volume commentary)
Oxford Bible Atlas, 4th ed.
Intervarsity Press Dictionary Series:

Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets
Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
Dictionary of New Testament Background
Dictionary of Paul and His Letters

Oxford Dictionaries & Encyclopedias:

Oxford Companion to the Bible
Oxford Dictionary of the Bible
Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East
Oxford History of the Biblical World
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology

Eerdman's Dictionary of the Bible
The SBL Handbook of Style

Commentary Series

These are direct links to what is currently available for each series, keeping in mind that, (1) even in print, a series may not include a volume for each biblical book and (2) not every series we have in print has ebook availability.

 
Visual Commentary on Scripture (This online resource, from King's College London, "...is a virtual exhibition comprising a biblical passage, three art works, and their associated commentaries.")
 
Searching for Commentaries in the Library Catalog
You may also want to search in the library catalog for other commentaries that are not part of these series.  To do this, go to the library catalog and enter the name of the biblical book you are searching for and the word "commentar*".
 
 
On the results page, limit to Available online under Availability.
 
Research tip: Our catalog includes many digitized editions of sermons, commentaries, and letters from the 16th to 19th centuries.  You may want to limit by publication date range if your particular search is overwhelmed with results from these primary source collections.
 
 

Subject Guide

Profile Photo
Kaeley McMahan
she/her/hers
Contact:
ZSR 457-C
(336) 758-4661