Recently, David deSilva recommended that I obtain the Lexham Geographic Commentaries for the research on my total rewrite and expansion of The Untold Story of the New Testament Church.
There are two volumes in the set.
Lexham Geographic Commentary on Acts Through Revelation
Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels
Both are edited by Barry J. Beitzel.
I’m monumentally impressed with these volumes.
They provide all the current data and research on the geography of each city and village mentioned in the New Testament. Including populations, outstanding features, and more.
Each volume is not only well written and readable, but they contain superb photos.
The scope of the content that these commentaries cover is breathtaking.
Serious students of the New Testament will find them enormously useful.
Here’s a description from the publisher:
Many familiar Gospel narratives are filled with geographic details that people gloss over because of their distance from the Holy Land. Yet climate, landscape, natural resources, and other features of geography leave a lasting mark on the societies and cultures that have developed within them.
In a world of dirt roads and dry riverbeds, where shepherds watch their flocks in the hills and fishermen mend their nets by the sea, Jesus taught from hill and plain, using the surrounding landscape as the backdrop for his teaching. Jesus’ parables and illustrations are often brimming with geographic clues, but the significance of these distinctive details is often lost.
The Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels puts readers in the sandals of the disciples as they travel throughout Israel with Jesus, explaining the significance of geography for mining the riches of the biblical text.
The Lexham Geographic Commentary on Acts through Revelation puts readers in the sandals of the Apostles as they travel throughout the Mediterranean, explaining the geographical setting for the spread of Christianity in the first century.
Geography is a central concern throughout the writings of Paul and the Apostles, but the full significance of its geographical context is easily overlooked without a familiarity with the places, the types of transportation, the relative distances, and the travel conditions around the ancient Mediterranean. Luke’s account mentions places from all over the known world, and Paul’s missionary travels covered an estimated 15,000 miles by land and sea.
The Lexham Geographic Commentary gives you insight into the importance of all of these locations—both culturally and spatially—and provides a deeper understanding of the spread of early Christianity.
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