A book review of The Moody Bible Atlas by Barry J. Beitzel
Stars: ****
Moody Publishers (2025)
350 pages
Bible Atlas/Biblical Studies
Disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: The Bible is a Story. Do you know its setting? Everything in the Bible has meaning, including its geography. Discover new insights about the biblical and historical sites, culture, and landscapes. God chose a certain land in a particular place. Many Bible passages involve journeys, wars, or other events in unfamiliar places in ancient times. The geographical context is important to understanding these passages.
More than just maps, The Moody Bible Atlas reveals the geographical and historical context of the biblical story. Marvel at God’s provision by journeying with Israel in the wilderness. Size up their enemies by studying portraits of the Egyptians, Canaanites, Assyrians, and others. View maps and pictures of the places Jesus walked. See Paul’s evangelistic zeal by learning the scope of his missionary journeys. Updates reflect the latest advances in biblical scholarship, linguistics, and archeology. Award-winning maps, new research, and additional commentary make this updated work an indispensable resource for sermon preparation, lessons, and personal Bible study.
The Moody Bible Atlas
I’ve always wanted a bible atlas so I jumped at the opportunity to review this one. I think knowing where the stories take place is important. Looking at a regular atlas only shows you what the area looks like currently, not what it looked like then.
The Moody Bible Atlas has 119 full-colour maps of Canaan, the Mediterranean, the Near East, Sinai, Turkey and more. There are also over 100 colour photos of various locations and artifacts. Plus 800+ endnotes for in-depth study.
I wasn’t prepared for how much text was in this atlas. Perhaps that is normal for a Bible Atlas, I wouldn’t know. But this is for in-depth study of the geography of the areas in the Bible. I loved the colour photos the most, then the maps, then the text. Since there is so much text, the text size is fairly small. Even with that the book is pretty big and heavy. I found the smaller text hard to read but that might just be my age.
I think it’s important to point out that the book is bound so that it will sit open on the table. This is important because if you are studying the Bible along with the Atlas or even making notes, you will want the books to stay open. I personally dislike when books don’t stay open on their own. So this is a good thing.
While it’s a bit much for my needs, I can see this being a very good book for those who want to deep dive. The author clearly knows his Bible geography and was a good pick to write the book. It’s well made as well to not break down a few times after using it. Very good quality spine and pages.
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