Religion & Theology

Here are some places to start researching the meaning of Scripture passages.

For an introduction to the context of the exegesis passage:

• Begin with a Bible dictionary such as the Catholic Study Bible or Eerdmans Bible dictionary for background information, definitions, dates, and a bibliography of other sources. 
• There are copies on Reserve and in the Reference section of the library as well as some to check out.

For book-length commentaries:

• To find biblical commentaries on specific books of the Bible, do an advanced keyword search in the library catalog: [book title] bible commentaries.  For Example: Ruth bible commentaries
• Your results will include books about the Book of Ruth in the Bible and commentary series such as The Anchor Bible.
• Commentaries are located in the reference stacks under BS 491 to BS 491.3 and also in the main collection for items you can check out.

For articles and essays

• Go to the ATLA Religion Database.
• For articles on biblical passages, click on Scriptures in the blue bar at the top of the screen.
• If you are looking for a biblical passage with chapter and verse numbers, click on Expand to search within a chapter by verse.  By clicking on the relevant chapter number; it will also be entered into the Search box.