Libraries

Today's hours:

See all library hours »

Ask a Librarian
FAQ

E-Resources for the Bible and Qur'an

This guide focuses on resources online for the study of the Bible and the Qur'an.

Handbooks, Commentaries, Reference Works, and Books

Publisher-based Series

New Cambridge Bible Commentary series
Fairly in-depth examinations of all aspects of the biblical text. No special knowledge of biblical languages is necessary. This is a newer commentary series, and so far the coverage consists of the following books: Genesis, Exodus, Judges and Ruth, Psalms, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, James and Jude, Revelation.

Cambridge Companions Online
Very handy guides that contains essays relevant to the topic. Click on the link above and search the companions fulltext. Some of the titles include:

Princeton's Lives of Great Religious Books series: This series focuses on how people used a specific religious text after it was written. Volumes cover texts from various religious traditions, including ancients texts such as Genesis, Exodus, Job, Revelation, I Ching, and more modern texts like Bonhoeffer's "Letters and Papers from Prison," and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. Most of the titles are available on JSTOR.

Study Bibles:

Study Bibles are good sources of basic information about the texts and their contexts. They usually include maps, charts, essays about the biblical world, and brief critical notes.

Jewish Study Bible, Tanakh Edition
English-language edition with great essays and other study material. Vassar has access to 3 copies of this book. You can read it online and download only what you need.
Jewish Annotated New Testament
An excellent study Bible with commentary, critical notes, and extended essays written by Jewish scholars of the New Testament and Early Christianity.

Reference Books:

reference books provide basic introductions to a topic. Good reference books also include lists of books and articles for further reading.

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender
Publication Date: 2014
From the introduction: "Extending the work of 19th and 20th century feminist scholarship and more recent queer studies, the Encyclopedia seeks to advance the scholarly conversation by systematically exploring the ways in which gender is constructed in the diverse texts, cultures, and readers that constitute 'the world of the Bible'. This comprehensive reference work reflects the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the field and traces both historical and modern conceptions of gender and sexuality in the Bible."
Encyclopaedia Judaica
Publication Date: 2007
Contains lengthy articles written by scholars in the field on all aspects of Judaism and Jewish biblical texts. We have the 1st edition in print in Reference BM50 .E5 1972.
Encyclopaedia of Islam
We have both the 2nd and 3rd editions of this important reference work. The article on the Qur'an appears here: al- Ḳurʾān. Careful searching will result in other articles of interest.

Gospel Parallels
Tables that lay out which canonical gospels contain the same pericopes (small, coherent units of text, usually a parable, story, or set of sayings). Based upon the printed text: Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum, by Kurt Aland, 13th edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1985)

Finding Ebooks at Vassar

Ebooks can be complicated to locate. Please review the directions on our Finding Ebooks at Vassar page. Please don't hesitate to email Deb Bucher or researchhelp@vassar.edu when you have questions. A few starting places:

JSTOR
- In Advanced Search mode, narrow results to BOOKS.
Cambridge University Press
- Search the library catalog in advanced mode and select Publisher: Cambridge / Location: Internet
ACLS Humanities
- Collection of over 5,400 seminal books in the humanities and related social sciences. These titles are presented in collaboration with more than 120 publishers and Michigan Publishing. Books in the Humanities EBook (HEB) collection have been recommended and reviewed by scholars and constituent learned societies of the American Council of Learned Societies.
ProQuest Ebook Central
- Searchable platform of books from multiple academic publishers. Chapters and books can be downloaded for offline reading and printing.

Journal Articles

ATLA Religion Index
Very useful for biblical studies, but it does heavily favor Christian publications. ATLA is an acronym for the American Theological Library Association, an association of seminary librarians and libraries.
Bibliography of Asian Studies
Very good for religion in Asian countries. It's possible to limit by language and geographic area.

Discover
Discover attempts to bring together all the online content that the library has access to. It can be really helpful for interdisciplinary and recent topics. Results are voluminous, so plan to use the facets on the left to narrow your search.

Index of Articles on Jewish Studies (RAMBI)
Index of articles on Jewish studies and Eretz Israel
JSTOR
PLEASE NOTE: if you want articles published in the most recent 3-5 years, use another database. JSTOR is an archive of previously published articles, not a database of recent articles.
Project MUSE
Covers literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, etc. Contains current full text scholarly journals which cover these fields and a significant collection of recent scholarly books.