Biblical Geography
The land: its ridges, valleys, roads and rainfall, and how they shaped the story.
Scripture first
Deuteronomy 11:11-12 · Psalm 125:2
The land Israel was going to possess drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land the Lord cares for. Geography is not scenery in Scripture. It is the ground of promise, obedience and dependence.
What this shelf holds
- The physical setting: the coastal plain, the hill country, the rift valley, the desert to the south and the trade roads that ran through all of it.
- Why a city stood where it stood, and why armies always came the same way.
How to use it
- Place the passage before you interpret it. Uphill to Jerusalem, down to Jericho, out into wilderness: the narrative assumes you know.
- Where a site is disputed, say it is disputed.
What this cannot settle
Ancient place names moved and were reused. Confident identification of a small site is often a proposal built on a similar sounding modern name.
Search biblical geography
This searches only what sits on this shelf: its reference works and its entries. Leave the field empty to see everything it holds.
Atlas · Public domain
Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy LandSeeing the movement of a narrative on the ground.
Shelf
Biblical GeographyThe land: its ridges, valleys, roads and rainfall, and how they shaped the story.
Dictionary · Public domain
Easton's Bible DictionaryA quick, sober orientation to a word or name before you go back to the passage.
Place
MountainThe high places where God meets people, and where the story turns.
Geography · Public domain
The Historical Geography of the Holy LandUnderstanding why battles, roads and cities sat where they did.
Place
The TempleThe house where God's presence dwelt, and what replaced it
Place
WildernessThe empty country where God repeatedly does His deepest work.
Reference works
Each of these is named so you can open it and check us. Each carries what it is good for and what it cannot decide.
Every entry below is labelled with the kind of evidence it is, so a lexicon is never mistaken for the text and a commentary is never mistaken for a conclusion Scripture has drawn.
The Historical Geography of the Holy Land
The land itself: its ridges, passes, rainfall and roads, and how they shaped the history.
Use forUnderstanding why battles, roads and cities sat where they did.
CautionSome site identifications have since been corrected by excavation.
Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land
Period maps of the land, the kingdoms, the campaigns and the New Testament journeys.
Use forSeeing the movement of a narrative on the ground.
CautionBoundaries on any map of the ancient world are reconstructions, drawn more firmly than the evidence allows.
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Short entries on nearly every name, place, object and term in the English Bible.
Use forA quick, sober orientation to a word or name before you go back to the passage.
CautionWritten for readers of a century ago. Its geography and dating have been overtaken in places by later excavation, and its theological asides are Reformed and nineteenth century, not neutral.
Entries on this shelf
Audela's own entries for this kind of study. Each one is taught from the passages that use it and links into the chapter studies, topics and questions that go furthest with it.
- Mountain
The high places where God meets people, and where the story turns.
- The Temple
The house where God's presence dwelt, and what replaced it
- Wilderness
The empty country where God repeatedly does His deepest work.
Back to Scripture
- Biblical Geography library
Nations, cities, rivers and journeys, Scripture first
- Atlas of the Biblical World
Places and routes on a schematic map
- Places in Scripture
Each place taught from the passages set there
- Interconnection Map
How places, people and chapters join across the library
The order of authority
Scripture · Biblical cross references · Original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek · Historical, cultural, geographical and archaeological background · Trusted biblical reference works · Explanation and application
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