Resources

Walking the Bible Lands DVD, Vol. 1

with Dr. Wayne Stiles

10 of the most breathtaking and life-changing videos from Walking the Bible Lands. Deepen your understanding of the Bible by seeing where it happened.

When you experience this new DVD, you will journey into the Bible Lands and deeper into your love for God and His Word...

  • Tour the Bible Lands - 10 high-definition virtual tours from Biblical sites in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, Turkey, and Rome (NTSC format)

  • Get the Big Picture - Learn about and apply insights from the lands of the Bible without having to travel overseas (or even leave your couch)

  • Share with Others - View the videos with your family and friends conveniently from your television.

Waiting on God: What to Do When God Does Nothing

by Wayne Stiles


We have all experienced a disconnect between God’s promises to us and our everyday reality. We wait, without understanding why. We want to know God’s plan so that we can trust it – but God so often hides his plan so that we will trust him. What can we do in the meantime as we are waiting for an answer, a change, or a miracle?


With deep compassion, Wayne Stiles helps listeners understand why God makes them wait. Unpacking the Old Testament story of Joseph, Wayne shows listeners how to find comfort and opportunity in the time between God’s promises and his answers, revealing the perspective-altering truth that sometimes when we think we are waiting on God, he is actually waiting on us.


Anyone who has felt a disconnect between God’s promises and their reality, who doesn’t know what God wants them to do next, or who struggles with the brokenness of their world will find in this book a trustworthy guide to finding peace while waiting on God.


Get your autographed copy or the Kindle edition on Amazon


You can also listen to a sample below from the unabridged audiobook.

Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus

by Wayne Stiles


In this book you will in the steps of Jesus through Bethlehem, Samaria, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Galilee—and beyond.


As you experience the Holy Land through the sights, sounds, and tastes of this personal travelogue, you’ll not only discover more about these sacred places, but you’ll also see how they influenced the lessons Jesus taught His earliest listeners.


What’s more, you will discover what Jesus has for you.

Get your autographed copy or the Kindle edition on Amazon


As a member of Walking the Bible Lands, this audiobook is yours FREE as a bonus.

Going Places with God

by Wayne Stiles


These 90 devotional readings, each based on a specific place in the lands of the Bible, invite you to embark on your own spiritual journey with God. Daily scripture, practical quotes, photographs, maps, and a daily prayer will help you apply the truths of each devotional to your daily journey of faith.


Through visiting these places in the pages of Going Places with God, you will grow to understand how God is leading you to the places of His choosing.


After going places with God, you’ll never be the same!

Get your autographed copy or the Kindle edition on Amazon


As a member of Walking the Bible Lands, this audiobook is yours FREE as a bonus.

Top 10 Places in Jesus' Life

by Wayne Stiles


The places of Jesus’ life mattered to Him.


In Nazareth, Christ reached out to those He grew up with. Along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the Lord taught the multitudes. In Capernaum, He spent time with twelve disciples. In Jerusalem, Jesus ultimately gave His life for the whole world.


This e-book will take you to all these places—and more.

But more importantly, you'll discover why they matter in your life.

Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology

If you like archaeology, you’ll like this book: the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, by Randall Price.


It has 400 pages of color photos of sites, archaeological finds, charts, and maps. It walks you through each part of the Bible and connects it to what’s been found to date in archaeology. This resource goes book by book through the Scriptures and highlights the significant finds and why they are key.


I bought a copy and I’m enjoying reading it. It’s the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology.

Was Christ Born at Bethlehem?

Get Ramsay's book on Amazon (Kindle, softcover, hardback), or download a free PDF version below.

 

William Mitchell Ramsay was a nineteenth-century archaeologist and began his career with the assumption that the book of Acts contained careless, geographical errors written by someone ignorant of Asia Minor (which is Anatolia or modern-day Turkey). Most liberal scholars assumed Acts was written in the second century, and so Ramsay believed no one could write accurately about places where the events had occurred a hundred years earlier. So he set out to disprove the Bible, but after Ramsay traveled throughout Asia Minor, he completely changed his position. Why? He found the geography that Luke presented in Acts accurate in every detail.


Ramsay said it this way:

“You may press the words of Luke in a degree far beyond any other historian’s, and they stand the keenest scrutiny.” —William Ramsay


This book builds off of Ramsay’s work. It’s called Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? The subtitle is: A Study on the Credibility of St. Luke. It’s not devotional on the surface; it’s more facts-based, but Ramsay does a fine job defending that our Savior was in fact born where the Bible says He was.


There are several versions available on Amazon—even a $0.99 Kindle book. I’ve provided the link for you on the Web page for this audio devotional. And in the Web page sidebar, you can also download a FREE PDF version, courtesy of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Psalm 23 - Photo Companion and Commentary

This recommended resource is brand new, and it provides us some wonderful biblical, geographical, and devotional insights into Psalm 23. We usually read Psalm 23 at funerals, but David wrote it for everyday life. 

The DVD is from the Photo Companion to the Bible. It’s part of a collection for the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands and it focuses specifically on one psalm. The authors have provided some commentary along with photographs, both modern and old—old photographs that date back to some 100 years ago—in the context of Israel. It goes through Psalm 23 verse by verse explaining the historical and the cultural background as well as some biblical insight with more than 100 photographs. 


The DVD has a PowerPoint with it where you can scroll through and take some of the photographs and use them in teaching or personal devotions. There’s also a link where you can download the files digitally.

There is also a hardcopy with about half as many pictures but very similar text and content in a book called Psalm 23: A Photo Commentary


Both resources contain beautiful photographs and trustworthy commentary. So, if you would like some further insight into this wonderful, beloved psalm—Psalm 23—about the Lord being our Shepherd and we are His sheep, I really encourage you to get this.

Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

No matter how hard we try, when we read the Bible, we can’t visualize on our own what the Bible land looks like. It’s one of the reasons I do this ministry—Walking the Bible Lands—so that you can see what the land of the Bible looks like. But sometimes, when you don’t have access to video or you’d rather look at photographs, there are none better than Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.


Pictorial Library of Bible Lands is a set of DVDs that contains literally thousands of great pictures of the Holy Land. If there is one resource that I would recommend as far as photography—getting pictures of the Holy Land—it would be this one. There are quite a few and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one that’s better. The photographs were taken by a professor who lived in Israel for more than ten years. He went around, traveling to all these places that the Bible mentions in the Holy Land, and getting some great photographs.


This incredible resource has more than 1,500 photos of Jerusalem, 1,500 photos of Judah and the Dead Sea, and 2,300 photos of Galilee and Samaria, as well as photos from Turkey, Greece, Italy, Jordan, and Egypt. All together, Pictorial Library of Bible Lands has more than 17,000 high-definition photographs from nine countries.


The folks at Pictorial Library of Bible Lands are very generously offering a discount for Walking the Bible Lands members of 30% off any volume or 35% off any collection. Just use the links in this post to receive this discount.

Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible

This recommended resource is called the Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible. This is basically the essence of two other atlases by Dr. Carl Rasmussen—great man, great theologian, great scholar, and an expert in Holy Land studies. He taught in Israel for years at Jerusalem University, and he’s a wonderful man. His original volume, The NIV Atlas of the Bible, is one of the earliest atlases that I read when my wife and I went through our initial class before we went to Israel, almost 18 years ago. This atlas was recently updated to the Zondervan Atlas of the Bible—which is excellent, and if you want a great atlas that gives you the full picture of Bible Lands, that atlas will do it.


But I’m recommending Carl’s smaller volume—it’s called Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible. Like its name suggests, this gives you the essentials. It boils down the best, including maps and photographs and charts and puts them all together in a readable form. Plus it only costs about $15 on Amazon—as compared to $25 for the larger atlas. You can pick up a copy on Amazon at this link.


The atlas is divided into a couple of parts. The first part is Geographical, which highlights a general introduction to the Middle East, as well a specific introduction to various countries that represent Bible Lands, like Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Mesopotamia.


Part 2 focuses on the Historical Section. This basically walks you through the Bible both chronologically and geographically, and it shows you how the land fits into the historical books of Scripture, as well as explaining that confusing time between the Old and New Testaments.


In your library, I believe you need more than one atlas for your personal study, and one of the ones that you need is a very basic “meat and potatoes” Bible atlas. I’ve not seen a better one that gives a conciseness of content than the Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible. It’s a great resource, also, as a place to begin if you’ve never used an atlas before or you’re looking for a great gift for somebody who’s just starting in their study of Bible Lands.

Jerusalem: The Temple Mount

This recommended resource is a wonderful little volume called Jerusalem: The Temple Mount. It’s by Leen and Kathleen Ritmeyer. The Ritmeyers are the foremost experts on the archaeology of the Temple Mount. They’ve studied and excavated the site for decades. Frankly, I’m amazed at all they’ve put into this little volume. Full-color pages full of drawings, photos, and archaeological, architectural images that show, with real precision, the placement of the first and second Temples and how they relate to the modern Dome of the Rock.


Jerusalem: The Temple Mount gives a brief history of the Temple Mount, a virtual walk-around of the walls of the Temple Mount. It takes you through the tunnel and then it takes you up onto the Temple Mount itself and explains the history, the locations.


I think this is the best small book on the Temple Mount that I’ve ever seen. The Ritmeyers have a much larger volume on the Temple Mount—it’s very full—called The Quest. But it’s pretty scholarly, it’s pretty huge and a bit overwhelming. If you want just a good quick read that will give you a lot of good information, then I know you’ll learn a lot from this little 150-page volume. You can pick up a copy on Amazon at this link.

The Historical Geography of the Holy Land

This recommended resource is The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, by George Adam Smith. It is a classic in the field of biblical geography. I love this book, because it has rich descriptions of the Bible lands. It was written more than a century ago, but don’t let that fool you. Back more than a hundred years ago, we didn’t have digital cameras—we didn’t have cameras that did a great job of taking pictures, and so Smith relied on words to paint a picture of what he saw. It’s very well written. It contains rich descriptions and George Adam Smith has written these words, which are the next best thing to pictures.


He covers all of Israel in his descriptions, including also the land east of the Jordan River, which is today modern Jordan. Smith was a Hebrew scholar, so he brings out the richness of the language as he writes about the lands of the Bible.


I remember one time going to have dinner at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. As we were making our way there, I noticed a street named George Adam Smith. I was kind of surprised by that, but I love it, because he is rightfully a legend in the field of biblical geography. The Historical Geography of the Holy Land is still a classic among books about the geography of the Holy Land and it’s still in print. You can get a paperback on Amazon, but you can also get the Kindle version—right now it’s only about seven dollars.


It’s a great book, very detailed. It’s meant to be savored, enjoyed just a bit at a time, not to sit down and read in one sitting. It’s a reference book with a great index—topic, site, Scripture index—that you’ll use your whole life.

NIV Archaeological Study Bible

This recommended resource is one that I highly recommend—and I can recommend it because I’ve gone through every single page of The NIV Archaeological Study Bible. I got this Bible some years back and it took me TWO YEARS to read it—it was basically what I used for my daily Bible reading. It took me two years (instead of one year—I normally read through the Bible each year) because I purposed to read ALL of the content—and the content is great. I used the physical Bible, but they also have a Kindle edition, if you’d prefer to read it digitally.


The Archaeological Study Bible—obviously, by its title you realize it’s not just a study Bible, but it focuses on archaeology as an emphasis. It’s got some great insights in it—not just archaeologically but geographically. Just looking at some of the features, it’s got more than 8,000 study notes—and I’ll tell you, that’s a lot of them. They highlight archaeological, historical, cultural, and even geographical things. About 500 articles covering topics from ancient texts to biblical reliability. A lot of photographs—in fact, I even saw a picture of me in one of those photographs. I was really surprised to see that. It has detailed book introductions, basic, at-a-glance timelines and outlines, citations, quotes, and even other features typical to study Bibles, like a concordance and cross-references and all that. Not only that, every page is color—it’s not just a few pages, but every single page is full-color.


I think you’ll enjoy The Archaeological Study Bible, either for yourself or for a gift.

Bible and Spade Magazine

This recommended resource is a magazine that I want to recommend to you, called Bible and Spade. It’s an archaeology magazine, but it’s non-technical, scholarly, and conservative. In other words, it supports the inerrancy of Scripture—it reads the Word of God as the Word of God and applies biblical truth to archaeology. There are other biblical archaeology magazines—Biblical Archaeology Review is the most popular one—but the magazine itself does not necessarily support biblical inerrancy. In fact, sometimes the writers will try to refute it, which is pretty frustrating.


But Bible and Spade is different. It’s a quarterly publication that does a great job of connecting the archaeology of the land of Israel and the biblical lands to the Word of God. And so, I commend it to you. You can order it at this link.


Here's a link here for a sample edition. You can also download a sample edition below. 


Bible and Spade. If you want a good take on archaeology from a conservative and biblical perspective, this is a magazine that I recommend that you get. I have subscribed to it; I enjoy it and I really believe that you will as well.


It’s not the Hollywood quality of Biblical Archaeology Review, but because it connects the Bible, it believes in the Bible as inerrant, and it connects the Bible with archeology from a biblical perspective and a godly perspective, it is worth it.

A Harmony of the Gospels

This recommended resource is one I’ve found helpful when trying to figure out where certain events occurred in the life of Jesus. The book is called A Harmony of the Gospels: New American Standard Edition.It’s by Robert L. Thomas and Stanley Gundry. There’s also an NIV edition.


If you’ve seen “harmonies” before, you know they take all four gospels and print them side by side in columns so that you can compare how each gospel portrays an event. It’s a great way to read the life of Jesus in chronological order. But this particular edition earns its way into our resource for this month because of one feature that it has that’s really helpful.


The editors add before each section not only a title for the section but also a geographic reference where the event occurred. For example, if you’re reading in your Bible in Matthew 19:14 where Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me.” You may think, Where was Jesus when He said that? So you look in the index in the back for that verse, and you find the page number in the harmony where it says that Jesus was in Perea—on the east side of the Jordan River. So now you know.


In addition to being a reliable harmony, this book gives you about a dozen essays at the end. It gives you a timeline for the life, ministry, and Passion of Jesus—and even a couple of simple maps. It’s a resource I think you will find helpful, and you’ll find yourself referring to it often. You can get your copy on Amazon here.

Nature, Desert and Shepherd, Tree and Shrub in Our Biblical Heritage

I was first made aware of these fascinating volumes back in the year 2000 when Cathy and I first went to Israel. Part of our tour went to a place called Neot Kedumim, which is a biblical garden that portrays the plants of the Bible—trees and various things that the Bible mentions with regards to the botany.


The resource I want to recommend is actually three resources by a man named Nogah Hareuveni. He is a researcher, an educator, and he holds a masters degree from Hebrew University in botany and Judaic studies. He developed a field survival course for soldiers. After Israel became a state in the 1947-48 war, he introduced into the Israel Defense Force field survival techniques—and how to live off the land.


So the man knows the land really well and he’s written several books. They’re not from a Christian perspective—they’re from a Jewish perspective. They tie in with the Bible, though, which is pretty fascinating. In fact, I’ll read from the inside of the flyleaf about Neot Kedumim. It says it was “built, literally, with the Bible in one hand and a spade in the other. The staff has transformed 625 barren acres into a network of pastoral landscapes, representing regions of ancient Israel and themes of the Bible.”


We’ve been to Neot Kedumim, and it’s really fascinating to see so many of the biblical plants that are mentioned in Scripture. These three volumes focus on different aspects of the land of the Bible. Again, it’s not from a Christian perspective, but all truth is God’s truth. These insights that give us more knowledge about the land give us more knowledge about the Bible. 

One of the volumes is called, Nature in Our Biblical Heritage. On the inside, the contents talk about what is meant by “the land of milk and honey.” The volume also discusses hills and valleys, and the “seven varieties” mentioned in Scripture. Then it talks about the pilgrimages and all the feasts and other festive days—and how those connect to the land.

Another volume is called Desert and Shepherd in Our Biblical Heritage.


This book goes through Psalm 23 and the rich words David used in that psalm to connect the land to the heart of the shepherd and ultimately to us as believers.

The final volume is called Tree and Shrub in Our Biblical Heritage. All three of these volumes by the same author, translated by Helen Frenkley, connect the land of the Bible to the Bible. Again, it doesn’t focus on the Lord, so much, but it does give us tremendous insight into the Hebrew way of thinking and what it was like to live in the land.


You can get any of these on Amazon. I’d suggest starting with just one and then if you like it, you can get the other two. I’ve enjoyed them. They’ll give you a good insight into the land and hopefully also give you good insight into the Scriptures.

Wilderness Wanderings: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life

This recommended resource is a great book that ties back in to Israel’s wilderness wanderings after their exodus from Egypt—which we looked at in the video on the Wilderness of Zin.


The book is called, Wilderness Wanderings: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life. It’s by Bill Lawrence. This is a great book that looks at those times of wilderness in our lives and makes a great tie to the wanderings of the Hebrews.


Here are a couple of great quotes from the book:


"Think of how quickly God could have taken Israel into the Promised Land if they would have trusted Him. They would have gotten there in two years, not forty years. Here’s what we must realize: God gets us out of the wilderness as quickly as He can, but never before we are ready to move forward. That may be why some of us never find fruitfulness.


When we finally emerge from the wilderness and look back at our zigzag line, we realize that it was the most direct route God could take in our lives— in fact, the only route He could take us."


I love that! It’s a book you’ll really benefit from. I know I have. It’s called, Wilderness Wanderings: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life, by Bill Lawrence.

The Photo Companion to the Bible

This recommended resource is one you’ll really enjoy. I recommend you pick up a copy of The Photo Companion to the Bible. For years I have enjoyed using the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands for personal study, as well as for most photos of Bible lands on my blog. They are literally the best, which is why I recommended them in a previous month. Only recently have I seen a collection that takes the magnificent photos from this collection to the next level.


The same producers have just released the The Photo Companion to the Bible with the Gospels as their first collection—and a brand new volume on Ruth. After looking through it at key places in the gospels where I had questions about a location, I found those questions answered, explained, and illustrated in fascinating detail! (I’ve included a video below so you can see what I mean.)

 

The Photo Companion to the Bible provides digital photographs through PowerPoint presentations (I view them in Keynote on the Mac). They illustrate the Gospels verse by verse. In fact, every chapter is illustrated with between 40–230 photographs.


Here are a few of the features:  

  • Completely digital download for instant access (with option to get the DVD too)

  • New aerial photographs of Galilee and Jerusalem

  • Detailed markings of routes that Jesus traveled  

  • Comments explaining image selection and background  

  • Free lifetime updates

  • Generous copyright permissions  

  • Satisfaction guaranteed


As a Bible teacher, this collection has become an indispensable resource to me. I wouldn’t consider a serious study of the Gospels without first referring to this collection. The Photo Companion to the Bible. I’m impressed, to say the least, so much so that I urge you get this resource.  

The Satellite Bible Atlas

There are a lot of great Bible atlases available, and I have a bunch of them, but I’ll tell you, the one that I have used in my personal Bible reading and my Bible study is called the Satellite Bible Atlas.It’s a relatively new atlas by a friend of mine, a guy that’s lived in Israel for about 25 plus years, named Bill Schlegel. He works there as an associate professor at the Master’s College Israel Bible Extension (sometimes it’s called IBEX). It’s a wonderful atlas that puts together, in great detail, a lot of the satellite imagery that comes from outer space. It’s precision photography of the Bible lands. Every one of these maps also has a commentary that really draws you into the text. It talks about the geographical significance of the Bible, the history, and it really just comes to life.


I’m using this as I read through the Old Testament. Right now I’m in 2 Samuel and I’m looking at the map that talks about David’s census and Solomon’s reign. So this atlas goes through and shows you where pretty much each one of these events in the Bible occurred and you’re able to follow it. There’s some general summary; obviously, you can’t go through every single detail. But I’ll tell you what, you’re going to get a lot of geographical insight from the text with this atlas. I’ve got a link for the atlas on the show notes (and here) and you can easily pick that up on Amazon.


But I tell you, one of the things I really love about this atlas, more than anything, is the fact that when you buy it you also get the digital files and the digital maps that you can look at on your computer. And that’s great, because you can use it in presentations and things like that. I use it on my blog all the time.

30 Days in the Land of the Psalms

Many Christians read the Psalms every day but miss the fullness of their message. Why? The psalmists were poets, weaving images from the lands around them into the lines of Holy Scripture. Without a picture of what the Judean Wilderness looks like, or Masada, or the Mount of Olives, we read the words but miss so much of the message.


Dr. Charlie Dyer is one of the most gifted expositors of the Holy Land I’ve ever read. As you read 30 Days in the Land of the Psalms, you will picture the places of the poets.


This book will help you do more than merely read the Psalms.

You’ll see them.

Christian History & Biography - Issue 97: The Holy Land

This recommended resource comes from the magazine Christian History & Biography—published by Christianity Today. This particular edition is 10 years old, but its content is just as relevant as the day it came off the presses. Why?  It has great content on the Holy Land.


Download the entire PDF of the magazine's content below. 


It has some great articles on the Holy Land. For example, some interesting facts about Christianity in the Holy Land. A graphic portrayal of Jesus’ statement that “not one stone would be left upon another.” How the Emperor Constantine had a huge impact on the sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. One article traces the footsteps of Christ from the eyes of a 4th-century pilgrim. Another section focuses on the amazing monasteries that were inhabited by monks and nuns in the Holy Land. Pretty interesting. Also what was Israel like after the temple was destroyed? There’s even a history and biography timeline and map of Israel during the Byzantine period.

Jerusalem: Biblical Archaeology

This recommended resource is a tourist map called: Jerusalem Biblical Archaeology. It is about a 3x2’ colored map front and back. It gives you a biblical archaeology of Jerusalem. If you were to go to Jerusalem today and have this map with you, you could look at the various archaeological sites around the city. One side of this large map shows all of Jerusalem, and it gives you a variety of different eras. We’ve got the Old Testament; the Second Temple during the time of Jesus; the Hasmoneans; the New Testament and the Roman Era; the Byzantine era during the time of Constantine, the Crusaders, the Middle Ages, the Islamic period, and then a number of different sites that extend over different archaeological periods.


It has colored photographs all up and down the side—some pretty neat pictures. But the great benefit of the map is seeing all the various archaeological sites superimposed over an actual scale map of Jerusalem. The side that has all of the various sites of the city is huge! The the other side shows the Old City, what interests us as Christians who love the Word of God. The maps also has some features at the bottom that focus on various aspects of Jerusalem, like a whole section of Kidron Valley, a whole section on Mount Zion, the City of David, and the various water aqueducts. It’s amazing when you go to Jerusalem; you’ll be driving along the road and all of a sudden you will see this water aqueduct beside the road—from the days from the Roman times. This feature shows the various aqueducts. It’s pretty neat. Another section shows Ein Karem, traditionally the birthplace of John the Baptist.  All around the map it surrounded by photographs of different archeological finds.


I urge you to click this link on Amazon and just look at the map. If you have any interest in archaeology at all, or you would like to see the various archaeological finds in Jerusalem, this is a handy map. You would not even need to travel to Jerusalem to benefit from the map. Just having it and spreading it out on the table—and spending an hour just poring over the details of it—would be something that you would really enjoy.

National Geographic: Atlas of the Bible - Exploring the Holy Lands

As we think about Bible lands and the Bible, I want to point you to National Geographic: Atlas of the Bible. The entire issue is devoted to a sweeping overview of the biblical story, with a narrative that doesn't do damage to the biblical text—thankfully. 


The images include scenes from biblical places and archaeological finds, along with 17 different maps that highlight key events and movements in God’s divine drama. 


I recommend you pick up this magazine. I think you’ll enjoy it, and it will give you some information you may not already have—in a quality way only National Geographic can do.

Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels

This recommended resource is one I am really excited to tell you about. This was recently recommended to me, and I bought this book. It is called Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels, and it says it is a commentary. Honestly, it is just a series of articles that go through and talk about various aspects of geography in the gospels, and it is fantastic!


There are 48 different chapters, and it deals with various issues, geographic issues, and solutions. It points to the land, archeology, theology and biblical words in the text. It shows us how we can connect the Bible and it’s lands to our life.


Let me read a couple of the titles of each of these chapters, “The birthplace of Jesus and the journey of his first visitors”, chapter 4 is “The makeup of Nazareth at the time of Jesus”, another chapter, “Locating the baptism of Jesus”, another “Jesus’s ministry at Cana and Galilee”, another, “On the brile of the hill of Nazareth”, “Over and over where did the possessed pig’s drown”, “Ancient harbors and the Sea of Galilee”, “The Geography of forgiveness” — that sounds  like a great title. “The geographical significance of the transfiguration.”


So I hope that you see that this book, The Lexham Geographic Commentary is a book that is near and dear to the hearts of those of us who love the lands of the Bible. This is a big book. It is almost 600 pages so this is not something that you are going to work through in a couple of weeks. This is something to keep at your desk as you are reading through the gospels and maybe just review a chapter at a time to make your way through this. That is how I am doing it, and I am really enjoying this book.


Another great thing is that it is edited by Barry J. Beitzel, who is a trusted scholar. All of the contributors to this great volume are people you can trust so you are not going to be reading something where you are going to scratch your head and say you’re really not sure if it is accurate. These are individuals who are handpicked and trusted. This makes this volume very trustworthy and applicable. So I highly recommend it to you, as I think you will enjoy it, and I hope that you will pick up a copy. It will make a great gift for the holidays if you are trying to think of something to give somebody who loves the bible lands; because honestly, we’re kinda hard to buy for.

100 Off-the-Beaten-Path Sites in Israel

I wrote this book for the Israel Ministry of Tourism to explore some “off-the-beaten-path sites.” You can download this PDF E-book below. 


The book gives a brief explanation of seldom-seen sites and how they connect to biblical studies. 


NOTE: I explain how to use the hyperlinks in this e-book in the Bonus Video, How to Use Google Street View to Tour Israel