Easton's Bible Dictionary generally refers to the Illustrate Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, by Matthew George Easton M.A., D.D. (1823-1894), published (three years after Easton's death) in 1897 by Thomas Nelson. Because of its age, it is now a public domain resource. Despite its name, many of the entries in Easton's are encyclopedic in nature, though there are also short, dictionary-like entries. It contains nearly 4,000 entries.