Imagine watching a play, but not being able to see anything about the stage. You could see and hear the characters, but that's all. No scenery, no props, no backdrop. Surely your understanding and enjoyment of the production would be greatly handicapped.
The land of the Bible is the stage on which the story is set. And the more clearly we see the stage, the better we will understand the story. This page, along with its links, is meant to offer a glimpse of that sacred stage.
The land of the Bible is the stage on which the story is set. And the more clearly we see the stage, the better we will understand the story. This page, along with its links, is meant to offer a glimpse of that sacred stage.
The big picture
While a map of the entire biblical story might stretch all the way from modern day Spain to modern day Iran, the center of the biblical world is indisputably the special territory shown on the map to the right.
Four bodies of water mark the boundaries of this holy land. Its western border is the Mediterranean Sea. And, on the east, there is the Jordan River Valley, with the Sea of Galilee in the north, the Dead Sea in the south, and the Jordan River flowing through the one to the other. Throughout Scripture and subsequent history, that narrow strip of land has been known by a variety of names. In the days of the patriarchs, it was Canaan. For Moses, Joshua, and their contemporaries, it was the Promised Land. During the era of the judges and the united monarchy, it was Israel, but during the divided monarchy, it was separated into Judah and Israel. In the New Testament, three regions comprise the north-south strip: Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. And for many people dating back to the time between the Old and New Testaments, the term Palestine has been applied to the land. Whatever name we call it, that land is the stage for our story. And the pictures, information, and links provided below are designed to introduce us to that very special land. |
BibleWorks™ Copyright © 1992-2011 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. BibleWorks was programmed by Michael S. Bushell, Michael D. Tan, and Glenn L. Weaver. All rights reserved. Map datasets Copyright © 2005 BibleWorks, LLC: source of underlying data for some of the images was the Global Land Cover Facility, http://www.landcover.org.
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The photos of Jericho, Masada, and Megiddo found on this page are compliments of BiblePlaces.com.