Why should you take the time to learn more about the culture and land of the biblical world? The answer is simple: doing so will revolutionize what you see when reading your Bible. The Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, now available for PocketBible, offers a fascinating and inspiring portal to the biblical world.

As the Holy Spirit led the inspired authors of the Bible to write, He also led them to fill the pages of the Bible with vibrant images drawn from the culture, natural history, and landscape around them. Using such vivid imagery as looms, donkeys, water cisterns, grapes, sackcloth, and shepherds makes what they say both more beautiful and more memorable. These images stimulate our imagination, animate our interest, and make the abstract clearer.

Today we live in a world of smartphones, grocery stores and airplanes, and these illustrations are unlikely to relate to our everyday life. As students of the Bible, we need someone to explain both the meaning and significance of the imagery found in the biblical text which is exactly what the Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery does.

Entries explain images that correspond to a cultural artifact from the biblical world (such as arrow or sandal), a component of natural history (such as fox or fig tree), a named place (such as Mount Sinai or Nazareth), or a component of the Promised Land’s physical geography (such as mountain or wilderness). Each entry contains a description of the element or image, examples of how the image is used in the biblical text, and appropriate black and white photographs and maps that further illustrate the ideas presented.

Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery sells for $23.99 and can be used with PocketBible for iOS, Android, Windows PC and Windows Mobile. It is also available for use with MyBible for Palm OS.