Book Review: Oxford Bible Atlas

Curtis, Adrian, ed.
Oxford Bible Atlas, 4^th ed.
Oxford University Press, 2007.
x, 229 pages.

     There are at least two tools that every serious Bible reader should have—the first is a concordance, such as Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. With this, he or she can find passages on any Bible words, and follow the development of any subject from Genesis to Revelation.

        The second tool is a good Bible atlas, and the Oxford Bible Atlas may be the best. Many years ago, I bought the 1^st edition, published in 1962, and I would say that 50% of my (slight) knowledge of Bible geography is due to this one book. I recently upgraded to the 4^th edition and I’m still enjoying buyer’s delight! Everything I loved in the first edition is still there, but now I have high-quality, full-colour photos to supplement the maps and words.

        The new editor, Adrian Curtis, seems well qualified for the job, being identified as “Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible in the University of Manchester, where he has taught since 1970. He is also a Methodist lay preacher.”

        Curtis has divided the book into four main parts. First, The Setting— Maps are implied from the garden of Eden all through scripture to the New Jerusalem—and north isn’t necessarily at the top—and all of the Biblical maps were verbal not pictorial. We know well that Israel stretched “from Dan to Beersheba”, but Curtis indicates that the area was only “a little larger than Wales” or “about the area of Vermont.” For Canadians, we might add, “one-third the size of Nova Scotia.” Maps and photos (including satellite photos) depict the natural regions of Palestine: the Coastal Plains, the Western Hills, the Negeb, the Rift Valley, and the Eastern Hills. This section includes commentary on the seasons, rainfall, crops and both domestic and wild animals.

        Section two, The Hebrew Bible, works its way chronologically through the Old Testament, from the time of Abraham, the Exodus, the Judges, David and Solomon to the time of Alexander the Great. The maps and photos show good detail and the Bible-reader can almost put himself in Moses’ sandals, coming out of Egypt, or Hezekiah’s, as his workmen cut the tunnel from the Gihon Spring in Jerusalem.

        Section Three is The New Testament, starting with the kingdom of Herod, illustrating the ministry of Jesus, and the travels of the apostles. From the map of Galilee, I learned that when Jesus (living in Capernaum) said, “Go tell that fox…”, that fox (Herod Antipas) was only 15 kilometers away, in his capital of Tiberias; and this was the king who had already executed John the Baptist.

        The final section of the atlas, Archaeology in Bible Lands, reviews some of the details of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, with map locations and photos of some famous “digs”, such as Jericho, Beth Shan and Lachish. There are also interesting comments on the domestication of the camel, the eating of the pig, the history of written documents, and the story of the Rosetta Stone. One use of knowledge of the Iron Age is to banish one modern cult’s teaching that the American Indians are descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In fact, the Native Americans had no knowledge of iron, but the Jews most certainly did

        I recommend this atlas for several reasons: We need to know the relative positions of Bible towns and cities (e.g., a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho).  Knowledge of seasons and crops is useful (Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning). One final good use of the atlas is this—it allows us to place rulers and their kingdoms or empires in their place time-wise, as well as geographically. In other words, this book is another great well of information for the thirsty Christian.