Biblical World, The: An Illustrated Atlas

by Jean-Pierre Isbouts

Casting the tumultuous history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam against the rich canvas of the Near East, The Biblical World reveals how three great religions emerged from the same cradle. Author Jean-Pierre Isbouts employs a non-denominational perspective and a wide range of sources—from ancient hieroglyphic texts to the latest scientific findings—to place Bible stories in the framework of history. Chronologically arranged chapters detail battles, conquests, tribal migrations, natural calamities, and more, supporting the stories with intriguing archaeological evidence. To locate sites and events, National Geographic cartographers have created fifty all-new maps of stunning quality. Hundreds of photographs and artifacts add visual excitement. Quick-read timelines link events across cultures while illustrated sidebars focus on what life was like during each era: family roles, farming, trade, dress, childbirth, burial customs, and other aspects of daily existence.

The story traces the evolution of Judaism from Abraham to the Unified Kingdom of Israel... chronicles the emergence of Christianity in the context of Greco-Roman civilization... and identifies the unique circumstances that prepared for the rise of Islam. The multi-dimensional approach weighs similarities and differences among the three faiths and follows developments in nearby lands. With a foreword from bestselling author Bruce Chilton and text reviewed by distinguished advisers, The Biblical World offers a carefully researched, balanced view of history and religious tradition. For its scope, beauty, and relevance in today's world, this unparalleled atlas is destined to become a classic.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Reference

368 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2007

About the author

Jean-Pierre Isbouts was born in 1954. He is a humanities scholar and graduate professor in the doctoral programs at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He has published widely on the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, including the bestseller Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas; Young Jesus: Restoring the "Lost Years" of a Social Activist and Religious Dissident; From Moses to Muhammed; The Shared Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and The Mysteries of Jesus. An award-winning filmmaker, Isbouts has also produced Charlton Heston's Voyage Through the Bible, The Quest for Peace, and Young Jesus.

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to have a lot of negative things to say about this book, so I'd like to begin by saying that I did not think that this book was a terrible book.  It's well illustrated, and in general it takes biblical history seriously, and isn't a total waste of time to read.  Now that I've said the good things about this book, I would like to spend the rest of the time talking about this book's rather serious problems.  At least a few of the problems can be explained by the fact that this volume was published by National Geographic [1], which has a reputation for making pretty bad visualization, which is definitely the case here.  Ironically, despite being an illustrated atlas by the National Geographic Society, the best parts of the book have little to do with geography, either being thoughtful pictures or occasionally worthwhile text.  That is not to say that either of these were stellar or amazing, it's just that they were better than the geographical part of this book, which was a bit subpar, unfortunately.  When you are the National Geographic and your maps are this subpar, you need to re-think your reason for being, I suppose.

At around 350 pages, this book is definitely bloated with text, and it is divided into ten chapters and an epilogue.  The book begins with a look at the biblical world before Abraham (1).  After that there is a discussion of the journey of Abraham, where the author spends too much time trying to give credit to the views of minimalists and Muslims (2).  Then there is a look at Joseph in Egypt (3) as well as the Exodus (4) and the settlement/conquest of the promised land (5).  The author takes a look at the Kingdom of David and Solomon (6), taking an overly doubting view of the Davidic kingdom.  There is then a discussion of the divided kingdom period (7), the exile and restoration of Judah after Babylonian captivity (8).  There is then a move to the look at the world of Jesus (9) as well as early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism (10).  The book then ends with a discussion about three faiths in the holy land, which gives the author a chance to talk about Islam again, to the edification of no one who wants to know about biblical geography, but allows for some politically correct pandering.

Let us take a bit of time to examine how this book fails.  For one, the book fails on its face as an atlas because the book has about as many maps as the usual supplement at the end of the most contemporary Bibles.  Where the book succeeds is in its photography and less so in its text, and in this case the advantage is that there are plenty of opportunities to travel to biblical scenes to photograph them.  When it comes to looking at maps as ways to provide insight into the course of history, or when it comes to presenting a worthwhile perspective of biblical history, this book tends to fall short.  One wonders the purpose for this book existing, and the more questions one asks, the less one likes.  The author's minimizing of David's monarchy fails in the grounds of the Tel Dan inscription and more recent digs that have looked at the Millo of Jerusalem.  The author's pandering to bogus Muslim interpretations as if they wished to be considered alongside biblical interpretations comes off as failed political correctness.  Finally, the author picks some really bad experts like Cline and Ehrman to promote as sources of biblical history, which demonstrates why the author fails to provide a good look at the biblical world.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

• There is some good geographical and interesting historical information presented, as well as a lot of good selections of art throughout the book.

• I expected there to be more maps, as this is an atlas after all, but the maps are sparse compared to the large amount of text.

• Oddly, I sometimes felt that the author was trying to delegitimize the Bible... yet other times I felt he was building a strong case for its historical accuracy and authenticity.

• Sometimes Jewish interpretation was presented, sometimes Protestant, and sometimes Muslim, but the whole work was lacking in Catholic interpretation. I think one reason so many bad theologies were presented, and the book had a weird feel, is because the board of advisors was made up of people from a mix of religions with varying Biblical interpretations. The author would have done well to include a Catholic scholar on his board of advisors to at least give the Catholic interpretation an opportunity to be presented.

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

The maps and images are acceptable. Not stunning, but ok enough. Unfortunately they are sparsely distracted for an “Atlas” that badly needed a better editorial hand. The author, a dilettante who works at a marginal university and is not a Biblical or Religious Studies scholar, tries too hard to seem enlightened by whatever the current mainstream culture (e.g. a corporate organization like Nat Geo) would find acceptable. As a result their overly interpretive text is all over the place, and overly speculative. There are passages which are fine, but it always seems to veer off in the direction of the authors authority, which to what I could tell they have quite little as a scholar of the subject or as any kind of minister. I suppose if you want a corporate humanist mishmash of faith interpretation in whatever year this came out, with no references whatsoever… this would fit the bill. As it is, I got tired of the text less than a third of the way through. There were also many mistakes and unsubstantiated claims about the Bible text. I got tired of having to waste my time writing corrective notes in the margin to someone who should be offering more knowledge than I have on the subject. I flipped through to see the pictures and while the glossy quality is to what one expects of Nat Geo, it doesn’t highly add to my understanding of the Bible. It certainly doesn’t justify how heavy and unwieldy it is as an “atlas” with more ill conceived text than maps and images. I would give this one a pass.

[Gerry Cragun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ordered after watching author's 'History and Archeology of the Bible' on Great Courses Plus. Have been using it as a reference text.

[Stephen Byron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book it shows the trails taken in detail and the illustrations are in great detail but what can one expect when expect when a book is endorsed by national geographic? All I can say is this is one great book and WOW!!!!