Book: Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy

“Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne

This is really a reference work and is not necessarily something you would sit down and read for enjoyment or devotionally.  But I believe that any student of the Bible would do well to include this in their library.

If you do a search for books on bible prophecy you will find a large number of listings, i.e. Google Books (58,400), Amazon (20,877), Christianbook (454), and Barnes and Noble (478).  Each of them tend to focus on a particular school of thought with regard to prophecy and its application.  Payne’s approach, on the other hand, is not to promote a particular view of prophecy over another, i.e. dispensational, premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, etc.  Instead his approach is guided by the following quote from Mickelson.

Read nothing into prophecy that is not there.  It is just as dangerous to put more on the map than God put there as it is to remove any part of that which he did unfold.

Payne expounds on the principles he used to categorize and outline all the predictive verses of every book of the bible in the first 140+ pages.  He provides a summary of those principles at the end of this first section.

He then presents his findings going through each book and presenting the verses which contain predictive material, beginning with the first mention and listing others from the book, and presents the fulfillment of them following his guidelines, citing the scripture, period, and year if possible, when it was fulfilled.  As he progresses through the books, when a previously mentioned topic comes up, he refers back to the first mention of it in the bible to note the progressive nature of bible prophecy.

He also includes some summaries, appendices and indexes which could prove helpful in doing research on a particular topic or reference.


Table of Contents

Preface
Preliminaries

  • How to Use This Encyclopedia
  • Definitions of Terms Relating to Prediction, as Employed in This Study
  • Key Dates in Biblical Chronology
  • Periods of Prophetic Fulfillment, as Used in This Study
  • Abbreviations
  • Guide to Pronunciation of the Biblical Languages

Introduction: The Interpretation of Biblical Prediction

  1. The Nature of Prediction
    1. The Prophetic Movement in Israel
    2. The Status of Prediction Within Prophecy
    3. Predictive Forms
  2. The Identification of Predictions
    1. Limitations on Oracles
    2. Limitations on Predictive Figures
    3. Limitations on Predictive Symbols
    4. Limitations on Types
  3. The Identification of Fulfillment
    1. The Necessity of Fulfillment
    2. Methodology for Ascertaining Fulfillment
    3. Periods of Fulfillment
    4. Single Fulfillment
    5. Limitations in the Comprehension of Fulfillments

A Summary of Basic Principles for the Interpretation of Prophecy
The Biblical Predictions

  • The Old Testament
  • The New Testament

Summaries

  1. The Biblical Predictions in the Order of Their Fulfillments
  2. Prophecies Concerning the Foreign Nations More Prominent in Scripture
  3. Prophecies with Personal References to Christ
  4. Biblical Types

Statistical Appendix

  • Statistics by Biblical Books
  • Major Groups of Prophecies Incorporated from One Biblical Book into Another
  • Statistics by Period of Fulfillment
  • Statistics of Particular Interest

Bibliography
Indexes

  1. The Biblical Predictions
  2. Selected Passages Not Properly Predictive
  3. Subjects
  4. Biblical Word and Phrases (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek)
  5. Passages Discussed in the Introduction, with Scattered References to Other Significant Discussions;

Payne, J. Barton. Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy: The Complete Guide to Scriptural Predictions and Their Fulfillment. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1973. Print. [Amazon] [Barnes and Noble] [Alibris]


I’ve included a couple of charts below that I compiled from the book for my own use.


EBP Periods Of Bible Prophecy
EBP Periods Of Bible Prophecy
EBP_PeriodsOfBibleProphecy.pdf
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EBP Timeliine
EBP Timeliine
EBP_Timeliine.pdf
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890 Downloads
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