t, one should use the original Hebrew version of Isaiah. One serious difficulty still remains, however, when there are several significantly different Hebrew versions of certain books, as is the case with Isaiah. There is not only the "Masoretic text" (medieval Jewish text), but several different Hebrew versions were discovered in the 20th century among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Summary Chart - to avoid confusion between so many different editions and versions and sections of "The Bible":
|Hebrew Bible||HB, or TaNaK||mostly Hebrew originals;
some later parts in Aramaic
|Hebrew-speaking Ancient Israel
(between ca. 1300 and 300 BCE)
|Septuagint||LXX||mostly Greek translations of HB books;
some additional books written in Greek
Greek-speaking Jewish Diaspora
|46 to 53 books||no|
|Old Testament||OT||originally Hebrew, Aramaic, & Greek;
later Latin and all other translations
|Christian name for Jewish Scriptures
(Cath & Orth use LXX; Prots use HB)
|39 to 53 books||no|
|New Testament||NT||all originally Greek (some Aramaic sources?);
later Latin and all other translations
|Greek-speaking early Christians
(Eastern Roman Empire; 1st century CE)
|Vulgate||Vulg.||Latin translations from the various originals||
Latin-speaking Western Christianity
|OT & NT||yes|
Study Bible - an edition which prints not only the biblical text itself (as in a "Reader's Bible"), but also extensive "editorial material," including introductions, footnotes, cross-references, and appendices with maps, charts, time-lines, etc.
Bible Atlas - a book containing lots of maps and diagrams, and often also pictures and helpful discussions of biblical geography; good ones include the Harpers Bible Atlas and the Macmillan Atlas of the Bible.
Bible Commentary - a book of modern scholars' explanations of biblical texts, arranged in biblical order (book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse); it usually includes notes on items necessary for understanding the text (historical, geographical, linguistic, etc.), and a scholar's interpretation of its meaning (theological, rhetorical, and/or narrative); good one-volume commentaries covering the whole OT and NT include the New Jerome Biblical Commentary and the Harpers Bible Commentary; multi-volume commentary series go into much more depth on each biblical book.
Bible Dictionary - contains articles on most biblical names, places, images, themes, and other words in alphabetical order; the best ones currently available are the Anchor Bible Dictionary (ABD; 6 vols.; 1992), the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (IDB: 4 vols. 1962; and IDBS: a "Supplement" vol. 1969), and the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (1996).
Lexicon - a dictionary explaining the meaning of ancient Hebrew or Greek words, and usually also providing some references for where and how they are used in ancient literature.
Concordance - a book listing all the passages in the Bible (OT and NT) in which a particular word is used; be careful when using English concordances, since a particular Hebrew or Greek word might be translated with various different English words; so always also look up related words and synonyms!
Parallel Bible - an edition which prints several English translations (often 4, 6, or 8 different ones! - and sometimes also the original Greek or Hebrew text) in parallel columns on the same pages so you can compare them easily; the texts follow the biblical order from Genesis to Revelation (or Matthew to Revelation if it covers only the NT).
Gospel Synopsis - a book which prints similar pericopes from the Gospels (either the Synoptics only, or possibly all four Gospels) in parallel columns on the same pages for easy comparison; it uses only one English translation (and/or Greek texts). Our Synopsis of the Four Gospels, edited by K. Aland, is based on the RSV (Revised Standard Version). Pericopes are arranged roughly from the beginning of Matt to the end of John, but since pericopes are in different orders in the Synoptics, and most of John's material is not in the Synoptics at all, many pericopes have to be printed out of biblical order or pri