“Time flies when you’re having fun.” This aphorism fits the surprising revelation in my email today that “twenty years ago this month, BiblePlaces.com was born.” This reminder drew me back to 1999 and my first trip to the Holy Land. Todd was one of my teachers. I recall the not uncommon experience of first-timers of trying to drink from a fire hydrant of biblical, historical, and archaeological knowledge. I also remember trying to take judicious photos with my 35mm and economize the nearly thirty rolls of film that I had brought! When I got back home, I realized that I had taken some reasonably good photos and others where I lamented that I had wasted precious film and then to add insult to injury, paid to have it processed.
It was around that time that Todd began selling his photo collections divided into geographic regions. As a seminary student on a budget I wrestled with which collections I needed most and could afford. As I recall, I purchased two or three and was delighted when they arrived in the mail. Such a helpful resource packed on round plastic discs. These photos have served me well in the church and in the classroom. It is said that a British accent automatically makes one sound smarter. I’m not sure about that, but I am confident that using these photo collections over the years have made me a more effective communicator of the Bible.
I have purchased other collections of photos from places like Zondervan, Fortress, and the Biblical Archaeological Society, but none of these have eclipsed the bang-for-the-buck of Todd’s collections. I have also learned how to take better pictures over the years (for some advice see here, here, and here) and digital photography has helped. But I still find the BiblePlaces typically has already done it better than I have.
So if you have never considered BiblePlaces before, I would encourage you to not let another twenty years go by. You can check out the offerings here, sign up for the free newsletter here, and get a free presentation on the Sea of Galilee here. You really have no excuse not to check it out.
Taylor Turkington offers six questions to ask for properly assessing Bible study materials here.
Matthew Harman talks about them here.
The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member.
Alice Ogden Bellis, Proverbs
Reviewed by Timothy J. Sandoval
Samuel L. Bray and John F. Hobbins, Genesis 1–11: A New Old Translation for Readers, Scholars, and Translators
Reviewed by Robert Gnuse
Louise A. Gosbell, “The Poor, the Crippled, the Blind, and the Lame”: Physical and Sensory Disability in the Gospels of the New Testament
Reviewed by Kenneth D. Litwak
James R. Harrison and L. L. Welborn, eds., The First Urban Churches 4: Roman Philippi
Reviewed by Isaac Blois
Stefan M. Maul, The Art of Divination in the Ancient Near East: Reading the Signs of Heaven and Earth
Reviewed by Gerhard Karner
Gary D. Pratico and Miles V. Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew: Grammar
Reviewed by Joseph Lam
Adele Reinhartz, ed., The Gospel of John and Jewish-Christian Relations
Reviewed by Evan Hershman
Paul C. J. Riley, The Lord of the Gospel of John: Narrative Theory, Textual Criticism, and the Semantics of Kyrios
Reviewed by Joshua J. Coutts
Matthew Scott, The Hermeneutics of Christological Psalmody in Paul: An Intertextual Enquiry
Reviewed by Gregory M. Barnhill
Daniel B. Sharp, Papyrus Bodmer III: An Early Coptic Version of the Gospel of John and Genesis 1–4:2
Reviewed by Anne Boud’hors
J. Brian Tucker, Reading Romans after Supersessionism: The Continuation of Jewish Covenantal Identity
Reviewed by Maria Karyakina
Andreas Wagner, God’s Body: The Anthropomorphic God in the Old Testament
Reviewed by S. Tamar Kamionkowski
Nancy Guthrie talks to David Murray about teaching Hosea here.
You can listen to J. Nicholas Reid talk about teaching Nahum here.
Ian Paul has a good interview here of Gerald Bray concerning his recent commentary on the Pastoral Epistles.
