"Reader's Digest Atlas of the Bible"

Original title: "Armchair Romp through the Holy Land"

Copyright © 2004 - 2007 by Jim Mahood. All rights reserved.

In graduate school and independently for more than 30 years, I've studied religions other than my own, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, and others. This quest led to teaching World Religions in a small college, but I never looked much at my own tradition of Christianity until I hit retirement age and heard the flutter of angel wings.

“Why,” you ask, “didn’t you just pick up a copy of the New Testament, or the entire Christian Bible, and read it straight through?” Well, over the years I tried several times to read the Bible but never made it all the way. The narrative jumps confusingly around. I’d get bogged down in “begats.” And there was just so much I didn’t understand. Then I found the Reader's Digest Atlas of the Bible.

Atlas benefited from the Digest's high editorial standards and from the editorial leadership of Joseph Gardner, as reliable, unbiased, and canny an editor as any I know. Readers of Atlas can be confident they’re getting an impartial retelling of what’s in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. And though an army of scholars helped create Atlas, it was written for the general reader in simple language clear as glass.

In addition to the text, I'm attracted to the book’s colorful graphics on almost every page. Atlas does not just roll out dozens of maps but also puts all those ancient names and places into context. Sure, it explains the geography, history, and stories of the Bible, but it also probes deeper and wider, telling readers where the ancients lived and traveled, what they thought and looked like, even what they ate and wore.

Whether your background is Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, Atlas shows you where the momentous events described in your holy books took place and under what conditions.

Take the story of Paul. I grew up in an Episcopal church (later, I converted to Roman Catholicism)where I heard something about Paul every Sunday but didn’t have a clue who Paul was or why the rector was obsessed with him. Paul turns out to be a major figure in that key interval between the death of Jesus and the establishment of Christianity as a distinct religion. Atlas explains who Paul was, provides maps of his travels, and shows readers in a picture essay a bit of what his world looked like.

Another way you can use this book is to help plan an exciting trip to the Middle East and the Holy Land. These days, that part of the world is a little too exciting for me. I prefer an armchair romp with Atlas as my guide.

Although the Digest published Atlas in 1981 and the book is now out of print, it is still widely available not only through online booksellers but also at public libraries where a copy is probably available to borrow right now, free of charge.