The Lion Handbook to the Bible

'An absolute essential purchase for anyone keen to deepen their love and understanding of the Bible'.

Church of England Newspaper

With over three million copies sold, and translated into over 30 languages, this comprehensive handbook has an unrivalled reputation as the most readable, reliable and colourful guide to the world's bestselling book - its content, the lives and times of the people who wrote it, and its relevance today.

Here you will find:

* a highly informative section-by-section guide to all the books of the Bible, with explanatory notes on key words and concepts

* over 150 articles by world experts on important matters of content, background and interpretation

* over 700 colour photographs and illustrations, vividly portraying the world of the Bible and how it changed through the ages - from the time of the patriarchs through to Jesus and the early church

* over 20 timelines, charts and diagrams enabling you to gain an overview of the people and events that made biblical history

* over 70 maps, enabling you to locate the major towns, cities, regions, countries and empires mentioned in the Bible, and see how they changed over time

* a comprehensive rapid factfinder, providing concise information, page references and Bible verses for all the topics and teachings covered in the Handbook

For this 6th edition the Handbook has been completely reset and redesigned in a larger format, making the text and graphics even easier to read and introducing over 100(?) exciting new photographs that help to enrich your appreciation of the text.

In addition there are nine new special articles for readers looking for insight into topics such as the origins of evil, the first churches, slaves and slavery, and aspects of biblical prayer.

In short, the best book to have next to your Bible just got even better!

About the Author

Pat Alexander is co-founder and former editorial director of Lion Publishing. She is also the compiler and author of many books ranging from the best-selling Lion Handbook to the Bible to The Lion First Bible. Pat lives in Oxford where she is actively involved in local church and community life.

Philip Law is Publishing Director for SPCK and Lion Books. His previous books include The One Hour Bible (SPCK, 2018), A Time to Pray: 365 classic prayers to help you through the year (Lion, 2002) and The SPCK Book of Christian Prayer (SPCK/Crossroad, 1995/ 2009). He is also a contributor to the 6th edition of The Lion Handbook to the Bible (Lion, 2025).