Atlas Of The Bible : an Illustrated Guide To The Holy Land

264 Pages·1985·67.87 MB·English

by  Joseph Lawrence

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Reader's Digest
More than 300 specially commis-
sioned maps and illustrations, color
photographs, reproductions of
works of art and artifacts of ancient
civilizations, full-spread reconstruc-
tions of biblical cities and build-
ings plus a 32-page gazetteer of
900 place-namesfound in the Bible.
Theworld'smostenduringworkoffaithand
wisdom, theBiblealsotells the storvofgreat
people moving through a land starkly, awe-
somely beautiful. Abraham travels from "Ur
of the Chaldeans" down to the land of
Canaan; David flees the wrath ofSaul in the
Wilderness of Judea; Jesus gathers his
"fishers of men" on the shores of the Sea of
Galilee. To provide a deeper understanding
of the Bible's immortal stories, Reader's Di-
gesthas soughttoplace them in theirproper
geographical and historical context. The
result, AtlasoftheBible, isa unique reference
workanda fascinatingreadingexperience.
No other Bible atlas so realistically depicts
the landscape of the Bible world; no other
Bible atlas contains such a wealth of maps
andillustrations.
Atthecoreofanyatlasare the maps. Atlas
ofthe Bible has dozens of these, many repro-
duced at the generous scale of one inch to
—
eight miles the largest full-color maps ever
?^en in a Bible atlas. These large-scale pro-
jectionswerecreated specificallyforthisvol-
umeby Reader'sDigestandarebased on the
definitive, up-to-date reliefofthe Holv Land
as compiled by Survey of Israel, the carto-
graphic branch of Israel's Ministry of Labor.
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An
Guide
Illustrated
to the
Holy Land
The Reader's Digest Association,Inc.
Pleasantville, New York Montreal
•
—
Atlas of the Bible
Editor: Joseph L. Gardner Tahned tedhiotuogrhstfaurleadseseisptlayncgeraotfefPurloff.orHatrhreygeTnheormoauss
Art Editor: Richard J. Berenson Frank at every stage of preparation of this volume.
Associate Editor: Kaari Ward Professor Frank researched the maps and wrote
Art Associate: Evelyn S. Bauer most of the accompanying texts that appear in the
RPiecsteuarrechReEsdeiatrocrhse:r:MoMnaircgaarBeotrMraotwmhaenw,s Mary Jane Hodges a"thHnaidtstbcoeroigmcipanilsleAotdnlatpshaegoef"G2Ba0izb9le.itcWtaeleerTailomsfeostw,hi"eshpBaitbgoleesthWa5o0nr-kl20dt8h,e"
Copy Editor: Zahava Feldman Board of Consultants, who reviewed selected
Project Secretaries: Mary A. Bradner, Ann Purdy portions ofthe volume.
Principal Adviser and Editorial Consultant
Harry Thomas Frank
Danforth Professor ofReligion
Chairman, Department ofReligion, Oberlin College
Board of Consultants
Denis Baly Rev. Stephen Hartdegen Nahum M. Sarna
J.
Department ofReligion Department ofEducation Department ofNear Eastern
Kenyon College United States Catholic Conference and Judaic Studies
Brandeis University
Edward F. Campbell, Jr. Laton E. Holmgren
McCormick Theological General Secretary (Ret.) Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum
Seminary American Bible Society National Director
Interreligious Affairs
David Noel Freedman George MacRae American Jewish Committee
Department ofNear Eastern The Divinity School
Studies Harvard University
University ofMichigan
The Scriptural quotations in this publication are from the
Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1946, 1952, and
© 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
ofthe Churches ofChrist in the U.S.A. and used by permission.
The credits that appear on pages 244-245 are hereby
made a part ofthis copyright page.
Copyright © 1981 The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
Copyright © 1981 The Reader's Digest Association (Canada) Ltd.
Copyright © 1981 Reader's Digest Association FarEast Ltd.
Philippine Copyright 1981 Reader's Digest Association Far East Ltd.
All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited.
The Library ofCongress has cataloged this work as follows:
Reader's digest atlas of the Bible: an illustrated guide to the Holy
Land/ [editor, Joseph L. Gardner; principal adviserand
editorial consultant, Harry Thomas Frank].
Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Association, c 1981.
256p.: ill. (somecol.);29cm.
Covertitle: AtlasoftheBible
Bibliography: p. 244.
Includesindex.
ISBN0-89577-097-0
—
1. Bible HistoryofBiblical eve—nts. 2. Bible—History —
ofconte—mporaryevents. 3. Jews History to70A.D. 4. Bible Geography.
5. Bible Antiquities. I. Gardner,Joseph Lawrence, 1933-.
II. Frank, HarryThomas. III. Title: AtlasoftheBible.
BS635.2.R4 220.9'1—dcl9 80-53426
AACR2 MARC
Reader's Digestand the Pegasus colophon are registered trademarks
ofThe Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
Printed in the United Statesof America
Third Printing, August 1985
—
About Book
This
—
The narrow land bridge between Asia and Africa historic Palestine,
—
today a region divided between Israel and its Arab neighbors is
among the most important geographic areas on earth. A link between
the earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, it became the
highway for conquering armies, a pawn in the power struggle waged
for centuries, even millennia, by the great empires that rose and fell in
the Near East. And today it is almost daily in newspaper headlines as
rival nations assert their claims to the area.
The true significance of this ancient land, of course, lies outside any
geographical or political considerations. For this is the Holy Land
birthplace of both Judaism and Christianity, sacred also to the follow-
ers of Muhammad. To a devout reader of the Bible, it is as familiar as
his own neighborhood. He has stood with Abraham at the oak of
Moreh and heard the Lord promise, "To your descendants I will give
this land."* With Moses he has climbed Mount Nebo, to be shown "a
good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing
forth in valleys and hills ." He has marched with Joshua as he
. .
"defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the
lowland and the slopes ." He has followed Jesus along the shores of
. .
the Sea of Galilee as he gathered his "fishers of men" and accompa-
nied him on his last, fateful journey to Jerusalem. With Paul he has set
out for that blinding encounter on the road to Damascus.
As these few examples attest, the Bible is a book of movement,
grand and glorious events enacted against the backdrop of a land
starkly, awesomely beautiful and taking the reader from "Ur of the
Chaldeans" down to Egypt and across the northern rim of the Medi-
terranean to Greece and Italy. To provide a deeper understanding of Assyrian archer and shield-bearer,
the Bible's immortal stories, Reader's Digest has sought to place them page 14
in their proper geographical and historical context. The result, atlas
of the bible, is a unique reference work and a fascinating reading
experience.
There are other atlases of the Bible, most of them prepared by
scholars for use by other scholars. They provide needed and valuable
information and have earned their places on library reference shelves
or in bibliographies such as the one on page 244. The present work,
however, was prepared with the general reader in mind. It is a book
based on the best contemporary scholarship and with the able assis-
tance of the scholars and theologians listed opposite. Yet the constant
goal of the editors has been to make the volume as clear and precise
as it is accurate and up-to-date, atlas of the bible serves to explain,
elucidate, and expand on what is already in the Bible but may not
always be immediately comprehensible. It is designed to be read from
cover to cover or to be consulted on specific points, as a companion
to the Bible.
At the core of any atlas are the maps, and atlas of the bible has
dozens of these. But before the reader comes to the maps, he is given
an extended introduction to the Bible world, a collection of special
features that serves as an illustrated guide to the Holy Land.
The ancient peoples of Mesopotamia and Egypt left numerous pic-
torial records of how they dressed; a modern artist has based his me-
ticulous portraits of biblical folk on these sources. Here are members
'Chapter and verse of biblical citations aregiven on page 245.
of a Semitic clan in the time of the Patriarchs, a Canaanite chari-
fe% oteer, a Philistine warrior, a Pharisee at prayer, a Roman legion-
- - naire, a peasant family at the time of Jesus, and others. As readers
of the Bible well know, both Old and New Testaments are rich
with references to fauna and flora. Modern artists here bring to
life the animals and plants of biblical times in full-color illustra-
tions. A table of weights and measures clarifies biblical refer-
ences; a selection of ancient coins is reproduced alongside.
The Bible, as the pages of this book amply demonstrate, can
serve as a valid and revealing history book—quite apart from its
Isaiah scroll and jars in which timeless, unparalleled value as a work of faith and wisdom. The
sscormolelsowfertehefoufnadm,epdageDe2a7d Sea Bible also has a fascinating history of its own: how it came to be
set down originally in Hebrew and Greek; when and how it was
first translated into English; what are the poetic qualities of the
King James Version and the scholarly merits of the Revised Stan-
dard Version. Photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and early
manuscript and printed Bibles accompany this four-page feature.
Because of its great strategic value and unique religious signifi-
cance, the Holy Land is one of the most precisely mapped areas in
the world today. It has also fascinated cartographers through the
ages, as revealed in a portfolio of rare and unusual antique maps.
Unlike Egypt, with its pyramids and other monuments of the
Pharaohs, the Holy Land has few great material remains of its
—
illustrious past. What it does have, however, are tells the
mounded-up, layered remains of ancient cities, towns, and fortifi-
cations, each built atop the ruins of its immediate predecessor.
Probing these tells, archaeologists are painstakingly uncovering
—
the past and in the process finding confirmation of many Bible
stories. A picture feature is devoted to one such archaeological
dig, Tell el-Hesi.
The people of biblical times regarded their strange and myste-
rious land with awe. Within an area the size of New Jersey, there
are sharp contrasts: the tumbled hills of its forbidding wilderness
areas, below-sea-level lakes, fertile valleys and plains, the life-
giving Jordan River, arid desert wastes, snowcapped Mount Her-
mon. Modern geology has an explanation for the formation of the
Jerusalem at the center ofthe world in land; four pages of present-day views of the Holy Land follow
a 13th-century wheel-pattern map, this special feature.
page 31
Concluding this extended introduction are four pages of
— —
maps at a generous scale of one inch to eight miles that show
The Great
Rift Valley
on a
global
perspective,
page 39
An architect-surveyor plotting an excavation at Tell el-Hesi, page 36