BibleMap.org – The Rand McNally of the Bible

I hope you have the plutonium in your DeLorean ready, because I’m going to take you back in time…back to where I was just a chubby cheeked kid in Sunday School…back to where I had a perfect attendance record and received my first Bible as a prize. Because back then, there were two things that I thought were awesome about my Bible.  (and they still are by the way)

1. Having my name imprinted on the outside in silver. That meant it was customized just for me!  This was way better than the Spokey Dokeys on my bike! I still maintain this tradition today (the name imprint, not the Spokey Dokeys), mostly because my Bible finds itself in some of the oddest places, and it allows people to reconnect me with it.

2.  The maps in the back. When the sermon hit a level of intelligence that I couldn’t appreciate at the time, I’d trace the steps of Paul and note how his first missionary trip resembled a ship.  -Or- I would check out the other map of Israel and locate the only three cities that meant anything to me as a kid: Jericho, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem.

Well today there’s a little better level of sophistication when it comes to finding out where, geographically, you are in the Bible. You can go to BibleMap.org: a simple mapping tool that directs you to what place a city, group of people, or geographical feature were physically located at  in a certain chapter in the Bible. It acts like a Bible GPS, letting you know where you are in the particular Bible passage. It also brings up certain facts or points of interest about the city or group of people.  For example, in Joshua 2: 10 when it says, “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.” It’ll point out the Jordan river and where the Amorites were from. For historical junkies like myself, BibleMap will also give you certain historical information about the selected item. This can be a great tool when discussing or reading in the Old Testament when it gets into all the different cities and people.  It can also give a visual of where things occurred and provide you with new, interesting information.

Is it 100% perfect? No, but it can give you an idea of where things were or maybe some helpful information that you wouldn’t know otherwise. BibleMap.org is a great tool in mapping out the Bible. It still has some work that could be done to it (i.e. I’m not sure why you can scroll so far down when the site content is only at the top), but its imperfections are heavily outweighed by its usefulness.  Make sure to check it out when you find yourself lost in the Bible. BibleMap.org has a few other neat features like the ability to zoom in/out on the map powered by Google, photos of particular cities, and of course, Paul’s missionary journeys.  Works best in a Firefox browser, and was developed by He Lives Ministries.

Share and Enjoy:

Share

Tweet