Bible Research
Charles Conroy [www.cjconroy.net]



Selected Links of Particular Interest
for Old Testament / Hebrew Bible Research


What follows is a short listing of sites that offer important resources for bibliographical work in biblical research, especially OT studies. Only freely accessible sites useful for academic biblical research are included. Other sorts of biblical pages (commercial, devotional, and so on), even if excellent for their own purposes, are not mentioned here.

Please note also that a good number of bibliography pages in the present site include a section on "Online Resources", giving links for specific topics.

When this page is printed, the full URL (internet address) of the various external webpages will appear automatically in the printed version.

The collection of links is divided into four sections as follows:

I.    General bibliographical resources for biblical studies and related areas

BILDI (Innsbruck, Austria)
Bibelwissenschaftliche Literaturdokumentation Innsbruck (Documentation for Biblical Literature Innsbruck)
Complete listing of relevant articles in the area of biblical and biblical-archaeological studies in many journals since 1985 (and gradual extension to preceding years); also papers in collective works and a good number of books. In more recent years BILDI collaborated with Tübingen University Library, Germany (especially for lists of new books), and with the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome (especially for data about book-reviews from its invaluable Elenchus of Biblica, now regrettably terminated).
NEW 2019-02   As of February 2019 BILDI has migrated to the Index Theologicus (IxTheo: see below). All BILDI data are now to be found in IxTheo; see the new homepage for IxTheo / Bibelwissenschaften.

Index Theologicus (IxTheo) (Tübingen, Germany)
The "Index Theologicus" is a comprehensive international bibliography for theology and religious studies based in Tübingen, a new version of which went online in 2017. From February 2019 IxTheo also includes all the data of the Innsbruck service BILDI (see above). In the new IxTheo it is now possible to search not only for articles in journals, Festschriften, and congress volumes, but also for monographs, databases and relevant Internet links. One can also search for specific Biblical passages; see the specialized homepage for IxTheo / Bibelwissenschaften. Users can choose the interface language: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, or Chinese.

KeiBi online / Die Keilschrift-Bibliographie im Netz (Tübingen, Germany)
The Keilschrift-Bibliographie is the standard bibliographical resource for Akkadian and Sumerian studies. Published since 1940 in the journal Orientalia (Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome), the bibliography also became available online in 2012 as a searchable database on a page of the Tübingen University Library site. For technical reasons the former online version of KeiBi from 2012 had to be shut down in 2023. Based on the data of the latest version and as a prototype of a planned more comprehensive project called Online Cuneiform Bibliography (OCB) that evaluates additional sources, there is now a new version KeiBi (neu). One can choose between interfaces in German and English. The last two issues of the printed edition will always be excluded from the database.

Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
The Orion Center's On-Line Dead Sea Scrolls Bibliography posts books, articles and reviews related to the Dead Sea Scrolls from 1995 to the present. The Current Bibliography webpage (here) displays the new entries week by week for the previous six months. The Full Bibliography can be searched here.

RAMBI (Jerusalem, Israel)
Index of Articles on Jewish Studies = רשימת מאמרים במדעי היהדות
This service began in 1966 under the auspices of the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem. It lists articles in journals and in collective works (but not books by individual authors), written in Modern Hebrew, Yiddish, and the main European languages (including Russian).
The bibliographical service can be accessed in two ways:
a) Go to the homepage
b) Or go directly to the new Merhav-Rambi search-page for articles on Biblical and Jewish Studies.

II.    Specialist area bibliographies in biblical studies and related areas

Deuteronomy
AnaBiDeut is an extensive online analytical bibliography on Deuteronomy and related material, assembled over many years by Georg Braulik OSB and Norbert Lohfink SJ. Users can choose between a German or an English interface. A sophisticated search-engine facilitates access to the database.

Psalms
Beat Weber, well known for his own work on the Psalms, has put online a rich bibliography of studies on the Psalms and the Psalter that have been published since 1990, "BiblioPss1990ff". Frequently updated, the bibliography in pdf-format can be viewed and freely downloaded here.

Sirach
a) A thirteen-page annotated bibliography on Ben Sira, dated 2024, has been published by Jeremy Corley in pdf-format.
b) A large collection of older titles by Franz Böhmisch can be accessed here.

III.    Catalogues of some major libraries

Ecole biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem
The very useful catalogue of the Library of the Ecole Biblique is online since summer 2008; not only books but also journal articles and chapters in multi-author volumes are indexed. One can choose between a French and an English interface. In addition see here for much information about this historic and prestigious school.

JISC Library Hub Discover (formerly COPAC)
Combined catalogue for over 200 UK research and university libraries and special collections, including the British Library, various Cambridge and Oxford libraries, and the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Outside the UK, the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, is included too.
Currently (13 April 2025) the JISC Library Hub Discover contains 53,997,893 records created from 162,400,728 records contributed by 204 institutions. New library catalogues are still being added. The homepage gives access to various search possibilities. (Historically "JISC" stood for "Joint Information Systems Committee".)

Library of Congress, Washington DC
The largest library in the world (homepage), with millions of books and other information resources in its holdings. The catalogue homepage offers various types of searches.

Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome
One of the largest specialized libraries for biblical studies in the world with good holdings in Ancient Near Eastern studies too. The new (2023) Dalet catalogue gives combined access to the libraries of the Pontifical Biblical Institue and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome. One can go first to the library homepage or go directly to the catalogue search. One can choose between an Italian and an English interface.

Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome
Large holdings (currently over 650,000 volumes with some 4000 new acquisitions yearly) in theology (including biblical studies), philosophy and other disciplines of particular ecclesiastical relevance. Further information is available through the library homepage. One can go directly to the catalogue search, where one can choose between an Italian and an English interface.
The Parsifal portal gives access to many other Roman ecclesiastical libraries in the URBE network, as well as the Gregorian library. Here too Italian and English interfaces are available.

Tübingen University Library
One of the most important German university libraries in the area of biblical studies and theology, since it is a nationally designated library centre for specialization in the areas of "Religionswissenschaft, Theologie, und Alter Orient". General information is available through the library homepage. One can also go directly to the search page. Besides the German interface, an English interface can be chosen for the catalogues too.
See above for the very useful "Index Theologicus" bibliographical service from Tübingen.

IV.    Other sites of particular interest

Ancient World Online (AWOL)
Taking advantage of the tools of social media, AWOL: The Ancient World Online provides notice and comment on open access scholarly material relating to the ancient world.

Bible Odyssey
An encyclopedia of material relating to the study of the Bible, under the auspices of the Society of Biblical Literature. The well-designed site aims at bridging the gap between scholarly study of the Bible and the general public. The peer-reviewed articles come from many scholarly contributors, and there is considerable multimedia material as well. Planning for the site began in 2008 and it went online in July 2014. It is an ongoing project.

Biblindex
This "Index of Biblical Quotations in Early Christian Literature" is based on data from the Biblia Patristica volumes (now out of print) and unpublished archives. At present it makes available a corpus of almost 400,000 references; further considerable expansion is forthcoming. One can choose between a French and an English search interface.

Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft / German Bible Society
Available in German and in English, this portal gives free online access to the text of the scholarly Bible editions published by the German Bible Society: BHS, LXX (Rahlfs/Hanhart), NA28, UBS GNT5, Vulgate (Weber/Gryson). The textual apparatus, however, is not included. Some German and English Bible translations are available too. One can also access WiBiLex (see below) through the same portal.

Old Testament Basic Bibliography
Compiled by Jean Louis Ska S.J., professor for many years in the Pontifical Biblical Institute, this extensive and very useful book list is available in English and in Italian.

Ortsangaben der Bible (odb)
A large database in continual development, edited by Professors Jan Christian Gertz and Erasmus Gaß; at present many of the place-names in Genesis are available. From the homepage: "Ziel ist es, zu allen biblischen Ortsangaben möglichst umfangreiche philologische, historische, archäologische, bibliographische und kartographische Informationen bereitzustellen."

Religious Studies Web Guide
An extensive directory of online resources, including bibliographies, in the field of Religious Studies, compiled by Cheryl Adams (Library of Congress, Washington DC) and Saundra Lipton (Library of the University of Calgary, Canada).

Semitic Languages and Biblical Studies
A large and growing collection of bibliographical files (in pdf-format) by Viktor Golinets (Lehrstuhl für Hebräische Sprachwissenschaft at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg). Presently (April 2025) the Biblical section contains bibliographies on all the books of the Torah and the Former Prophets, together with a few of the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, and Zephaniah) and the Ketuvim (Psalms and Proverbs), as well as general topics such as text-criticism, versions, canon, and others.

Tools for Studying the Hebrew Bible
This site, created by Marc Brettler and collaborators, aims to teach students how to use a set of specialized tools for the study of the Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible.

WiBiLex: Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet
WiBiLex, a project of the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (German Bible Society), was initiated in 2007 by Klaus Koenen. It is a high-quality open-access Bible lexicon or encyclopedia written by well-known mainstream German biblical scholars. Currently (April 2025) the main editors for the OT part are Professors Michaela Bauks and Michael Pietsch, while Professor Stefan Alkier is the main editor for the NT part. Well over half of the planned 3000 (plus) articles are already available.