77 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines is a better value, October 15, 2005
This review is from: Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines (Spiral-bound)
I own and use the Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines and the
Holman Book of Biblical Charts, Maps, and Reconstructions. I recommend both, but if you must choose, go with the Rose Book. Why?
1. The Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines is reproducible. The Holman book is not, according to the copyright page on each book.
2. Both books are the same size and number of pages and have much of the same content (see details below). But the Rose book is more attractive with better color, photos, charts, illustrations, and overall graphic design.
3. I have communicated with the editors at both companies. Holman has never updated their book since the original publication date in 1993, therefore typos and errors still exist. Rose updates their book annually if needed.
What the Rose book has that Holman does not (this in not an exhaustive list, but these are the important things to me as a teacher):
1. Better and longer Bible time line with hundred more facts. There is a side-by-side comparison with events in world history.
2. Better and longer Christian history time line with hundreds more facts.
3. Then and Now Bible maps, showing both a color Bible map and red lines to show where modern-day cities and countries are.
4. Stunning illustrations of the tabernacle, temple, ark of the covenant, Noah's ark. Holman has nice illustrations, but not quite as powerful.
5. More information in the timeline on the history and reliability of the Bible. Gives more information on the Tyndale, Wycliffe, Geneva, King James and other early Bibles.
6. Has information about the many Bible translations since 1993.
7. Longer and more complete side-by-side comparison of 12 Christian denominations and 18 world religions and cults.
8. Complete descriptions of the feasts and holidays of the Bible and their foreshadowing and symbolism of Jesus Christ.
9. Genealogy of Jesus Christ: the family tree of Jesus Christ on one page.
10. Armor of God
11. Fruit of the Spirit and 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter)
12. Overview of each book of the Bible with writer, theme, key verse, to whom written, and date.
13. Statue in the Book of Daniel. The four kingdoms listed in Daniel 2.
14. Cycle of disobedience in the Book of Judges.
15. 100 archaeological finds that support the reliability of the Bible.
16. Seven churches of the Revelation.
Holman has these key advantages over Rose's book (there are other things, but not as important overall):
1. One more map than Rose, but the Holman maps have more detail. Neither book has the detail of another Holman product, the
Holman Bible Atlas: A Complete Guide to the Expansive Geography of Biblical History (Broadman & Holman Reference), which is always on my bookshelf.
2. 52-week Bible reading plan
3. A chart showing ancient numbering systems and the Apocrypha.
4. A comparison chart of the books of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and the Roman Catholic Old Testament books.
5. Detailed family tree of King David and King Herod (but not of one on Jesus).
6. A harmony of the Gospels
7. Jewish sects
Both books have all of the basics:
1. Weights and measures from Bible times
2. Miracles and parables of Jesus
3. Key Rulers of Israel, Judah, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome
4. Names of God; Names of Jesus
5. Jewish calendar
6. Prophets and their message
7. Ten Commandments
8. Disciples of Jesus
9. Paul's Journeys and teachings
10. Comparison of views of the millennium and end times
The Rose book is a little more expensive, but frankly I use it more and rarely refer to the Holman book anymore.
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bigger than Holman with better History and Timelines, August 28, 2007
This review is from: Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines (Spiral-bound)
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.
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