Customer Reviews

Holman Book of Biblical Charts, Maps, and Reconstructions

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a teacher of the Word of God, I love using charts that help the visual student see what I am talking about. And in this chart book, which is completely done in color (visually very appealing), both the Old and New Testaments are covered, including maps and reconstructions of historically significant times and places. I am planning to lead a trip to the Holy Land this summer, and I'll probably have this book with me when we tour the places reconstructed here. The wire spine is appreciated because it makes it easier to turn the pages and lay the pages flat when making overheads. All in all this book is a "quality" production, and I can only say "well done!"

I highly recommend this book ... with a few disclaimers.

First of all, (contrary to one reviewer) it does not blatantly follow an evolutionary timeline. It does list Archeaological Periods, but neither sanctions them nor disputes them. Such a chart can be a helpful reference when dealing with material that does not take the genealogies in Genesis as literal and/or unbroken. The timelines do not assume a date for Creation of 4004 BC--before Abraham they simply fudge. They also give an early and a late dating system concerning the Exodus. However, none of this clearly advocates "evolution time lines". If you want Ussher's dates, they are not hard to find. This book does not, however, give them.

The strength of this book is in its charts and full color illustrations ("reconstructions"). These can be very helpful in sorting through the complexities of the Bible.

It has a spiral binding which works well in a small class or small group setting. The ideal audience would be a lay level set of adults, but it has use for teens as well as a more academic reader.

I found at least one mistake in the chart of Paul's Lists of Spiritual Gifts. Admittedly, some of the charts are simplistic. Also, you should not expect super high quality maps. They are decent.

So why the five star rating? I believe this is a valuable tool for better understanding the Bible. Overall it is well done. And I am unaware of anything better out there. For the price you can't go wrong.

**Note: It looks like there may be a new version coming out soon.**

I purchased a copy of this several years ago and have used it almost on a weekly basis! Not often do you add something to your library that is of such value that you'll refer to it in your studies but also you'll copy it's pages as handouts in your Bible study classes and Sunday School! Many facts, figures and charts are in one handy place which saves you time in research. I highly recommend you get a copy now and you'll wonder why you've been without one as long as you have!

This collection of charts, maps, and reconstructions is a pleasant surprise. The editors have used attractive color, clear contrast, and readable format to provide useful information to Bible students at an amazingly affordable price. This is a good value.

George A. Goolde, Professor, Bible and Theology

A MUST REFERENCE FOR LAYMEN AND CLERGY.

21 MAPS OF NEW, OLD AND CONTEMPORARY INTERST.

BEUTIFULY AND LOGICALLY LAYED OUT. NO VERBAGE, GO DIRECTLY TO THE CHART, MAP OR ARTIST RENDITION OF OVER 20 BIBLICAL FOCAL POINTS; THE TEMPLE, JERUSALEM, ARC OF THE COVENENT ... MANY MORE.

THE HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS, MIRACELS & PARABELS OF JESUS, IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. KINGS, NUMBERING SYSTEMS, NAMES OF GOD, RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD; OVER 50 CONDENSED, COLORFULLY DESIGNED CHARTS AND GRAPHS OF OLD AND NEW TESTIMENT INFORMATION.

ASSOCIATE PASTOR, churchs.com

The `Holman Book of Biblical Charts, Maps, and Reconstructions' and the `Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps & Timelines' are very similar compilations of an enormous collection of just what their titles state, charts, maps, timelines, and archaeological reconstructions of Bible era buildings. Aside from the titles, the two books have several other things in common. First, both are bound with a wire spine, which allows each and every page to lie perfectly flat on a photocopier bed. Having tried to copy maps from a quarto sized book where pages were sewn into signatures, I can assure you this is an enormous advantage if you plan to use the pages to construct handouts or slides for a Bible study course. I have also photocopied slides from both books onto transparencies, and the effort was totally painless, with great results, after a little testing to be sure the page was positioned correctly. And, of course, this is exactly the purpose for which these books were published. Both are issued by publishing houses who specialize in material for Bible study classes, especially for classes oriented to young adults. And, I acquired both books to provide just that material, except for an adult Bible study class.
My first interest with the books was to obtain good maps of Palestine in the time of the New Testament, the travels of the Apostles, AND, maps of both the Roman Empire at the time of Augustus and the extent of Alexander the Great's conquests, since this is highly relevant to the spread of Greek language and learning just before the time of Jesus. For the purpose of these maps, I assure you as a map afficionato from way back that the Holman maps are far superior to the Rose maps. Holman has both the Roman and Alexandrean maps I wanted, and the more familiar maps of the Holy Land and the travels of the Apostles are much more clearly done, with far better details. They simply look like high quality maps, while the Rose maps have a `dumbed down' look to them. The only problem I found with the Holman maps was that Antioch was missing from the map of the Roman Empire, odd because Antioch was the third largest city after Rome and one other city. The only plus with the Rose maps is that they give maps of the modern Middle East to contrast with the ancient world. I also like Holman's `reconstruction' pictures, especially those of the temple in Jerusalem.
Regarding all other material, I give a slight edge to Rose, especially for the excellent large charts of historical timelines. One thing you must know about the Rose book is that virtually all the material in this book is also available in several other forms, as posters or classroom style maps. I point this out because if you have the means to transfer the pages to either transparencies or graphical computer files you can then project with an overhead projector, you have no need to buy the other material.
For a young audience, most of the materials in both books are good outlines for study, especially as supplements to standard curricula. For adults, where the interest is more scholarly, one is likely to find the material a bit light, but this initial impression may be misleading. There is a lot of `fluff', such as the 100 Well-Known Old Testament Events' in Rose. One may think this is useful for finding stuff, but I looked for the reference to the story where Solomon was confronted with two mothers in a dispute over custody of a child, and I couldn't find it. On the other hand, the summaries in both books of the books of the Bible are very useful in selecting material for a course of study. If one wishes, for example, to study one of the prophets, which one or which ones are best? Both books also have a lot of interesting material on the world's denominations, both Christian and otherwise.
If funds permit, you will probably want both, as each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. And, both publishers fully permit copying for educational purposes, which is what these books are all about.

Truely what others here have said is correct. The charts, references, timelines, etc... in this book are wonderful. I can get alot of use out of this book. My big problem with this book, and the same goes for all Holman books in my library, is their incessant use of the word Palestine instead of Israel. It troubles me that the land of Israel, it's importance, it's prophetical re-establishment, etc... has been ignored by the publishers of this & all Holman books I have seen. It is as if they make a point to ignore that Israel is a nation, is a people ! Palestine is incorrect & unscholarly. Sure, it was called Palestine for a period of time when the Romans took over & gave it the name Palestine to assert their dominance, but before that it was called Israel and today it is Israel.

Several of the older ladies at the church liked this so much that they had me order them a copy. This book is extremely helpful in putting some of the concepts we read about, into clearly understood illustrations.

Bennett

I was hoping for more from this supplemental resource. The maps are good but not great, and the timeline chart is very weak in content and format. There is a cross-reference index, but it's to other Holman publications, rendering it useless for most people. There is also a map index, but there's no general index, so you can't look up a person or book to see where it is referenced in any of the charts.

One thing about this book is that it's very colorful, and a quick flip through makes it seem like it has a lot of information. However, when you actually try to mine useful tidbits from it, it's in fact very superficial. I know that the nature of maps and charts is to be general (wide but not deep), but even allowing for that it seems the charts topics and maps chosen are not very helpful. I haven't yet gone running to my bookshelf for it to look something up, nor have I found much inside that was unique on flipping through it. It's not that's it's terrible, it's just not very helpful or worth the time to go fumbling through it for anything.

One thing that stood out to me as a Catholic, is that they have a pie chart showing the percentage of religions of the world, highlighting that the largest religious group are Christians (about 34% of the world's population.) They don't show that most of those Christians are Catholic - ignorance of which shows up in the 52-week reading plan chart: they leave out the deuterocanon, rendering it useless for the largest group of the world's Christians or curious Protestants. Demerits for not at least adding them parenthetically.

The timeline chart was the most disappointing feature. It could have been so much more than it is; and what is there is not done very well. The formal Papacy was established in 600 A.D.? The Early Church Fathers, a few Protestant denominations, and Catholics date it to Matthew 16:17-19 in the first century. Of all the information you could put on a timeline, why introduce a point of contention in a chart like this? It's not like the timeline is exhaustive - it's actually very sparse.

All in all, it's not too expensive, so I guess for some folks it may be worth having. I'll stick with internet search engines and the richness of the web.

This book is excellent for finding the area one is reading about in the Old Testement Books. Everyone should have on when reading the Bible.