“Reader’s Digest Atlas of the Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the Holy Land”, edited by Joseph Lawrence Gardner, Harry Thomas Frank and Zahava Feldman

256 pages, Readers Digest, ISBN-13: 978-0895770974

This Reader’s Digest Atlas of the Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the Holy Land is aimed squarely at the general reader and is intended to explain and illuminate the geography and history of the Holy Land and the Middle East the text is, all things considered, rather engaging and is enhanced by beautiful illustrations, plenty of photographs and, of course, many maps of Israel, the Middle East and the Mediterranean Area. The introduction provides a set of special features that serves as an illustrated guide, including chapters on the people, animals and plants of the Bible, weights, measures and currencies, and the history of the Bible, and concludes with a pair of double-page spread maps of the land from north to south, Biblical Sites in the Holy Land. The main body of the book, entitled Historical Atlas of Biblical Times, opens with a series of NASA satellite photographs and then follows the historical narrative with a wealth of maps, photographs and illustrations. The chapter entitled The Holy Land in Maps contains ancient maps and illustrations, Digging up the Past has photographs of excavations, Land Of The Bible provides topographical maps, while Views of the Holy Land contains breathtaking photographs of the whole of the region. Some of the other chapters to be found in the book include: World Of The Patriarchs, Abraham In The Land Of Canaan, Isaac, Jacob And Joseph, The Exodus, Struggles Of The Judges, David The King, Solomon’s Empire, David And Solomon’s Jerusalem, Divided Monarchy, The Prophet Elijah, The Fall Of Israel, Exile In Babylonia, Alexander The Great, Ptolemies Versus Seleucids, Maccabees, The Coming Of The Romans, Herod The Great, Birth Of Jesus, Jesus In Galilee, Early Spread Of The Gospel, Paul’s Missionary Journeys, The Spread Of Christianity, and others. The third part is a reference tool, Gazetteer of the Bible World that lists about 900 place names with biblical citations and cross-references to the aforementioned maps. This masterpiece of a book concludes with a chronology of bible times, a select bibliography, a key to biblical quotations used in the volume, picture credits and an index.