A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
By Jonathan Ahlgren
Today we look at another resource from GlossaHouse. The Illustrated Biblical Text Series provides a unique and thrilling way to read and engage with the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible.
This particular volume covered in the video is for the Gospel of Mark yet Glossa house has several other editions including:
- Illustrated Joshua in Hebrew
- Illustrated Genesis in Hebrew
- Illustrated Ruth, Ester, and Jonah in Hebrew
- Illustrated Exodus in Hebrew
- Illustrated Daniel in Hebrew & Aramaic
- Illustrated Mark in Greek
- Illustrated John in Greek
- Illustrated Daniel in Greek
- Illustrated Mark in Latin
- More coming in 2021
And they are quickly growing the series to include more and more books.
If you pick up one of these illustrated texts you benefit from several things. First of all, you receive amazing illustrations of the Greek and Hebrew text. They are well made, clear, and enjoyable to look through. These beautiful illustrations are paired with the actual text they are depicting. The Gospel of Mark edition in the video, for example, includes every Greek verse from the gospel of Mark. If you pick up one of the Old Testament volumes, it will include every Hebrew verse from that book.
Narrated text will be included in a yellow box while discourse will be included in speech bubbles connected to the speaker of that text. Furthermore, at the bottom of each page they have included a fairly literal word-for-word translation of the text on the page. The English text at the bottom is small and decreet enough that if you don’t end up needing the text, you likely will not even think about it being there. The illustrations and the layout of the text will do a great job keeping readers engaged. The illustrations themselves often provide the context needed for you to read the text without needing any of the English help at the bottom of the page.
As is the case with many of GlossaHouse’s resources, if you are a student or want to be a student of the biblical languages, you should pick these up and try them out. While they may not be for everyone; I personally find them extremally enjoyable. This series does not quite have the same artistic feel that you might find in the Illustrated Hebrew Reader’s Editions, yet this series has volumes of quite massive books and will provide more options in terms of the books you will be able to find today and in the coming years.
Jonathan Ahlgren
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Assistant Editor and Administrative Editor for Books At a Glance
Buy the books
MARK: GLOSSAHOUSE ILLUSTRATED GREEK-ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT, by T. Michael W. Halcomb and Fredrick J. Long