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Bible: Then and Now

by Jenny Roberts, Chartwell Books, © 2001,
144 pages, (hardcover), ISBN-13: 978-0-7858-1445-0
Although this book is out of print, used copies are available on Amazon and probably other booksellers.

While this is not a recent book or a book on apologetics, it helps us understand the geographic world of Jesus' day and what those same places look like today. Since our theme this quarter is “Knowing God Through His Word,” understanding more of the land in biblical times can help us relate to the biblical events.

The book has modern pictures of 14 ancient cities as they are today. Facing each image on transparencies is an artistic work of what the city would have looked like during biblical times. You can lay the transparency on top of the modern picture to see what is left today and what was there when the biblical events took place. The book describes each city's history with numerous photographs of the major archaeological discoveries.

The biblical locations depicted in the book are: Babylon, Athens, Hebron, Bethlehem, Damascus, Ephesus, Nineveh, Cyprus, Jericho, Caesarea, Tyre, Joppa, Capernaum, and Jerusalem. Placing the transparencies over the modern-day photos gives an idea of how much (or little) has changed in thousands of years. The book also contains information about the River Jordan, mountains of the Old Testament, the Persian Empire, Egypt, and other locations.

I found this to be a fascinating book for learning Bible history. It provides an understanding of how what you see now reflects what happened in the past and the setting in which it occurred.