Customer Reviews

The Kregel Bible Atlas

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written by church history expert Tim Dowley, The Kregel Bible Atlas is a reference intended for all readers, from lay people to serious students of the Bible. Full-color maps, charts, diagrams, the boundaries of ancient empires, photographs, information concerning the historical context of the ancient world, and much more fill this trim yet savvy companion that outlines nearly everything that modern archaeology can tell us concerning when and where the great events of the Old and New Testaments took place. An expertly written, researched, and presented reference.

I expected a lot from this atlas and was pretty disappointed. For a Kregel publication especially, I didn't expect the author to be so liberal-oriented in his views. He clearly believes in the Bible, which is always a good thing. But on the other hand he has the Israelites crossing the Reed marshes rather than the Red Sea, and he has Matthew and Luke borrowing from the famous "Q" document (for which we have no textual support). So...kind of a bummer in that regard.

Nonetheless, it is a useful atlas if you're just wanting the big picture of the Bible narrative from Old Testament to New. However, it's not that great as an exhaustive resource if you're trying to follow in detail most of the stories in the Old Testament. Certain battle scenes are referred to, but the reader has no reference to go to on the map in the vicinity of the author's narrative. Important cities are left off the map (or retained on a map several pages away), and it's just not very helpful.

There are some useful cutaways and decent pictures, but nothing you can't live without. I personally recommend Rose Publishing maps (too many to link to) for big picture resources and either the Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible or the Crossway ESV Bible Atlas for more exhaustive reference material. This Kregel atlas just doesn't really fit into a good category.