The Lands of the Bible Today

This book is great. It will make you feel as if you are there and experiencing these places in real life. It would be a great travel companion if you are planning to travel but also just a great book so you can get an idea of where things were happening while reading the Bible.

The lands of the Bible today is the closest thing to actually being there. Beautiful HD photos are combined with Scripture references, where to find out and even some personal reflections.
I found the one at caeserea Phillipi especially moving. I tore my way through this book with a hunger than would only be lessened by actually being there. Great work.

This is a very neat reference book to sites in the Bible. There are 44 sites that information is presented about. For each site, the book gives references to where it was mentioned in the Bible and also gives some key passages about the location. There are helpful maps to show where the location is in relation to other sites. There are gorgeous photographs of the areas today. In the "where to find it in Israel/Turkey/etc." sections, the book tells you how to find or get to each location, and also gives a list of 'things to see". This would be a great resource to help plan a trip to the Holy Land or a great reference to have when studying the Bible.
I received an ARC of this and will be pre-ordering it for my home library.

A stunning travel guide. I have never been to any of these places in real life, but it was wonderful to tour these ancient locations through this book. I love that each location provides a section for where to find it in the Bible, key passages in the Bible about it, things that happened there, where to find it in Israel and things to see while there. The pictures are beautiful and helpful to providing modern day context. I would love to have this with me if/when I do eventually get to travel there in real life.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher on NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own, freely given.

Written from an evangelical Christian perspective this handy compact book will enhance an visitor to Israel making a pilgrimage of biblical sites.
In alphabetical order for ease of turning up the correct page, 44 sites and locations are identified that would be a must see or high on any visitor’s list.
Far more than a simple guide book, although it contains maps, photographs and directions to find each place. What marks this inspirational book is that it links each entry with it’s biblical mentions and setting. Providing references as well as direct quotes to help prepare for, or deepen one’s experience.

I was fortunate to visit Israel in 1980 on an exchange of students to learn more about the modern nation and take in the historic sites. Unlike many church tours with experienced guides we had Jewish tour leaders. I asked him and the group if we could find appropriate scriptures to make each place come alive and be more aware of it’s biblical references.
This worked well. I had my bible to hand to read an appropriate passage but how I could have used this latest guide under review.
I feel any church based group could each be given one as part of their biblical tour or encouraged to buy one as part of their preparation. It is a memorable experience and at times quite overwhelming.
This book will not only help prior to one’s trip it would be an excellent source to remember one’s pilgrimage.
It has brought back my own now distant journey. I was pleased to read the personal additions the author makes to visiting special places like the Sea of Galilee.
It isn’t an exhaustive list of the places one can see but it is quite comprehensive to my mind. History becomes a living thing and more archeological digs have revealed more truths and links since my trip.
I am grateful for the joy of reminiscing it has giving and stirred my old bones to want to re-visit again. I warmly and unconditionally recommend it to all like-minded readers to recall, plan or be enlightened with a trip to biblical lands.

"The Lands of the Bible Today" is a booklet which briefly covers 44 sites that are mentioned in the Bible. For each site, the author included a list of references in the Bible to the site, quotes of key passages mentioning the site, a summary of things that happened there in the Bible, directions on how to find it, a few things to see when you're visiting, and some comments about the site by someone who's been there. Also included were several nice, full-color photos showing some of the archaeological remains at the site. Many of the sites were in Israel, but a few were locations that Paul traveled to. The sites were: Beersheba, Bethany, Bethlehem, Bethsaida, Caesarea by the Sea, Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Dan, Dead Sea, En Gedi, Ephesus, Garden of Gethsemane, Gath, Golgotha, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Joppa, Jericho, Jerusalem, Jesus tomb, Jezreel Valley, Jordan River, Kidron Valley, King David's palace, Korazim, Laodicea, Magdala, Megiddo, Mount of Beatitudes, Mount Carmel, Mount Ebal, Mount Hermon, Mount of Olives, Mount Tabor, Nazareth, Philippi, Pool of Siloam, Sea of Galilee, Shechem, Shiloh, Solomon's palace, Temple Mount, Thessalonica, Tiberias, and wilderness of temptation. This booklet is a nice, brief overview of the sites, but it doesn't seem like enough information to actually navigate to and around the sites without also having a guide.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

If you want a great "Places in the Land of Israel" book, look no further! This book contains a breathtaking compilation of photos that makes you feel as though you are really there. I have honestly been looking for a book of this quality for about 7 years now, ever since I visited Israel, and this book far exceeds what I could've hope for!
Each place contains fabulous photographs, as well as Scripture references to that location, a short summary of those events in Scripture, a map displaying its location, and things to see if you visit there today. Dave Brannon truly did a fantastic job compiling all of this information! I only wish I had had it when I visited Israel!!! If I could give it more stars, I would!
Definitely a must read (and re-read, and re-read again!) for all those who are interested in the Holy Land, or who have been or want to go there someday!
*Thank you to the publisher and author for providing me a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

One of my goals has been to visit the Holy Land. However, the current Coronavirus situation has made that a challenge. So, when I saw this book, I was intrigued. It presents 44 of the places you will read about in the Bible and provides gorgeous present-day photographs and excellent information, so it is almost like going on a tour. In addition, for the Bible student, the author provides Scripture references, and key passages about each location. The versatility of this book makes it a great idea for anyone with an interest in studying, learning about, or using it during a tour of the Holy Land. They've done a wonderful job and I would love to see a volume 2 of this work.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book provided by the publisher and Net Galley. However, the thoughts expressed are totally my own.

I am currently studying the Bible, learning about different areas, learning about different Hebrew meanings, etc. So I thought this book would go along with that, it did in a way. I liked seeing the different maps of where things where, I also enjoyed seeing where to find the places in the Bible and the Stuff that Happened in the Bible section. The author did a very good job making sure these 2 sections didn't give the same information when it was possible. Some locations are only mentioned a couple times in the Bible so overlap will happen in those cases.
If I was going to Israel, Turkey or Greece, I'd want this book with me. It's definitely more of a travel guide then what I was hoping it was going to be. I loved the pictures, the Where to find it in Israel, Turkey, Greece, etc, and the section of recommendations of what to see. This would definitely be the book I'd purchase to take with me if I was going. I'd want to see the different places and know where I had to go. Like I said before I loved the map section because it gave me a good idea of where all of the places are located. Now when I read my Bible I do have more of an understanding.
I'd love to see another book, maybe of some of the earlier places from the Bible, like in Genesis and in the Old Testament. I'd like to see where our roots started, I'd love to see more pictures.
The only thing I didn't like was the pictures and information usually took up only 2 pages. 1 page for the main picture and the name of the place being described, and also 1 page for ALL of the information. Maybe a few more pictures would've been nice.
The book had beautiful pictures, good information, good Bible references and I'd recommend this to anyone who is going to travel to the countries mentioned in the book, if I ever get over there this will be the book I take!

I love this book! The pictures are absolutely gorgeous. The Bible references and information on each location are very helpful too.

I enjoyed this book. It is a good beginner travel guide or study guide.
Covering a lot of locations, forty-four to be exact, in a rather short book, the author doesn’t go into depth on any topic. Instead, he starts off each section with a beautiful picture and a verse. He follows that with a list of Bible verses referencing that location and briefly recounts the most prominent Biblical accounts that happened there. After that, each section could include any combination of directions to get there from Jerusalem, things that can currently be seen, or a personal memory.
Each section is short, so there aren’t many pictures, but they are good. The colors are vivid and the details clear. There are also several maps throughout the book. Even if some of them are rather small, they are still quite clear.
The only, ever so slightly, annoying thing about this book is the organization. For example, because it is alphabetical, after the section on Galilee that mentions Tiberias, we don’t then read about Tiberias; we read about Shechem. That gave it a little bit of a scattered or chaotic feel if you are reading many sections together.
I would definitely recommend it as an introduction to Biblical sites as they are today.
I received this as a free Arc through NetGalley and Our Daily Bread Publishing. No favorable review was required and it was my honor to provide my honest opinions.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for provide me with a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.
As someone that grow up reading and hearing about the Bible and all the history around it, this book is really interesting. And makes me want to go and see this wonderful and meaningful places. Is easy to read and the illustrations are very pretty.

The Bible is the bestselling book of all time. It is also ancient with many names, places, and cultures totally foreign to many modern readers. One of the best ways to get a feel of the Bible context is to physically go visit the Holy Land. For various reasons, not many people would be able to visit the places. It could be physically demanding or financially limiting. For the rest of us, the best way is remotely or through the print medium. This book is a powerful version of the latter. With beautiful and captivating pictures of 44 places in the land of Israel and beyond, readers are able to get a glimpse of the biblical terrains. The purpose of this book is two-fold: Firstly to help readers be more familiar with the knowledge of these places. Secondly, to make our reading of the Bible a little more personal and also to bring the physical locations alive to us when we read Scripture. For each of the 44 locations, one to two pages have been allocated to provide salient information for Christians interested to know more about the physical locations. Some of the features include:

Name of the city or place and where is it on the map;
Events that occurred there;
Bible passages that referred or alluded to the specific place;
Key passages that show us the significance of the location;
Where we can find the location now;
Some attractions that visitors can see;
Beautiful photographs and maps;
Buildings and monuments; as well as scenery;
Historical background of the place;
Favourite Site Reflection;
and much more.


My Thoughts
As I was reading this book, I felt that the book could benefit three groups of people. First, for those who have been to the places mentioned, it would trigger memories of what they had seen or heard. There are times in which the tour guides give us so much information that we are unable to remember everything. We might also be so in awe of the places that we didn't pay attention to what the guide was saying. At the same time, the tour guide might not be familiar with how Christians read and study the Bible. They might not even be believers at all! Thus, the book helps one to link what they remember with the spiritual significance of the place.

The second group of people are the tourists or visitors wanting to make a trip there. While there are many other guide books to help us navigate the terrain, this book is a compact volume that provides brief and concise notes for us. Usually, we depend on the guide to do all the talking. However, not all guides are equally knowledgeable. With this resource, we can easily use it to supplement what we have heard or to ask more questions based on the knowledge in this book. Books like the "Christian Traveler's Guide to the Holy Land" would give us more information. This book is a good companion to that. We can even map out our own itinerary!

Finally, this book is for the rest of us who had never visited or not intending to go to the Holy Land. They would find this book a welcome guide to bring the holy land scenes to them. Not everybody have the privilege or the financial means to travel to such a distant place. It is also useful for professors, preachers, pastors, and teachers of the Bible, where they could use information in the book to teach their students or their congregation. My favourite part of the book is the many references to help me connect the place to the Bible, and to help my audience visualize the physical place. This would make this book a helpful teaching resource.

Dave Branon is a freelance writer for many years. For 18 years, he served as managing editor of Sports Spectrum magazine. Now he is an editor for Discovery House. He loves going on ministry trips with students.

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Our Daily Bread Publishing and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

This is a nice booklet with basic facts on a bunch of the locations from the Bible. It is fairly basic and I expected there to be more pictures, but if this was just intended to be a basic intro, then it has achieved its purpose.

I really liked this book it was great descriptive told us where locations were and where to find where it was listed in the Bible

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Lands of the Bible today is a beautiful photographic book that covers 44 places mentioned in the Bible and tells you a short concise page of information relating to each place such as how and where it relates to in the Bible, historical places to see there such as Jesus birth place or tomb, and where to find it, historical things that have happened there and beautiful photography of each place.

This book would make a great guide book for travellers.

This is a great book! The images are stunning and I loved getting to see the places I read about in my Bible study time in “real life.” I plan on going through it again and adding tabs for me to quickly reference the locations while I study.

#The Lands of the Bible Today# by Dave Branon is a wonderful reference into the Holy Land. Dave has written this book with a wonderful picture and map to go with the picture. Along side the picture the author lists different stories that take place in the locations. This resource helps bring the Bible alive. The pictures and maps are very helpful . The reader will have a greater connection to Bible stories with this resource. Thank you to the publisher, the author and netgalley for allowing me to read and review this helpful resource. It would be a good resource for any Christian, pastor . The opinions are my own.

Thank you to Our Daily Bread for the ARC of this book to review.

This is a compact travel guide that would be a great addition to anyone getting ready to travel to the Holy Land, but is also packed with reference materials to enrich the study of Biblical places.

Each location has Lovely Photos and is arranged very well into sections with corresponding Bible verses, history of the location, and the location’s modern reality.

Highly recommend as a travel guide and as a reference book.

This is a very informative and interesting book. It helps bring the Bible to life in your mind getting to see the places were events happened and inspires your imagination allowing you to picture the events happening there as you read.

I'm really glad that I read through this, it is a wealth of knowledge and very well put together. I really enjoyed reading through this.

5 Stars!

Imagine walking where Jesus walked or where King David dwelled. Imagine all those places where significant bible stuff happened!

This book would make a great guide for identifying the key spots that you do not want to miss when you visit Israel or other biblical locations next.

I've always wondered what certain biblical places are called now if the names have changed, if the buildings mentioned are still there, what is in its place now and what you can still see there. This fascinating book satisfied a lot of my curiosity.

I also found very interesting and useful the information that mentions what events happened in each location. For instance, I didn't know that Jacob's wife Rachel was buried in Bethlehem, that Bethlehem was Naomi's hometown and where Ruth met Boaz, and that it was the hometown of David. I must have read about it in the Bible but the facts just never clicked until I saw all the information gathered here. I only knew it as Jesus' birth place!

The photographs are clear and beautiful too. Hopefully my dream to visit the Holy Land will come true one day soon so I can see all the marvelous places featured in this book.

I will definitely be buying a copy for the church library.

This is my honest opinion based on the review copy I received from the publisher.

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Meant to fit in a purse or backpack for transportation, this small book is large in quality. Fiilled with full color photos, information and a short guide on 44 biblically referenced towns and areas; it will be a great gift for a biblical student, a Holy Land traveler or as a desk top reference for any Bible reader. I enjoyed this small tome. Thanks to the publisher for the review copy. I will refer to this often myself.

I spent yesterday looking through “The Lands of the Bible Today” by Dave Branon and remembering Israel.

The images in the book were lovely. The written content was just right. For each of the 44 locations covered in The Lands of the Bible Today, the author provided a list of relevant scriptures, key verses about the location, a bullet list of biblical events that occurred there, info on how to find the location and a list of things to see while you are there.

When I was in Israel in late 2019 I saw many (though not all) of these sites featured in “The Lands of the Bible Today” and I thought the author did them justice. I think the book could be a great travel on a trip to Israel (a few sites outside of Israel like Ephesus are covered as well) and would be helpful for anyone planning a trip to Israel. I suspect I might have tried to squeeze in a couple more stops if I’d had it.

I think the book could also be used as a Bible reference for those who have not gotten a chance to visit the Holy Land. I know that, for me, reading and seeing images of places I have not visited was interested. The photos were beautiful and the maps help pull the information together.

Nothing, no book, or video, or image can capture the magic of the Holy Land. Everywhere you go there is holy ground. It is impossible, as a Christian, to not be aware of that.

Reading The Lands of the Bible Today has also reminded me that it is well past time to catalog all my pictures of Israel and put my travel journal on the blog. I’ll be doing that as the one year anniversary of the trip that changed everything for me approaches.

What a beautiful book! I love the pictures chosen as they seem to capture not only the beauty of the place, but they include more unique pictures than what I’ve seen through web searching. One place that captured my attention was Jericho. The walls of Jericho had dwellings embedded in the walls—this visual is stunning! I never would have imagined it to look like that in my mind. Overall, The illustrations are vibrant and colorful.

This is a dynamic book. It lends itself to be a phenomenal teaching tool for both kids and adults. There’s the added visual of where these pictures are taken from in map form. Plus to top it off, they include Bible references that takes its setting in these places

Excellent book that I would recommend in print form. The electronic version is great too—but I think for what I have in mind —a physical copy for my homeschooling would be best.

My only regret is that the book has to end—I wished to flip through more pictures!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me a chance to review this book. All opinions are my own.

Five stars. Get this book, quick! If you are a student of Scripture, a would-be visitor to Israel (or someone who has been there multiple times), this new offering from Our Daily Bread Publishers will become a cherished and often-perused addition to your library.

"The Lands of the Bible Today" features a well-organized, stunning layout, beautiful color photographs, and insightful commentary. For sites mentioned (in both the Older and Newer Testaments) information is provided about "Bible Stuff That Happened There," "Things to See," "Where to Find It in Israel" (or elsewhere), the place today, and Scripture references with key passages that mention the site. You'll also find helpful maps that locate the featured site and reflections from the author. Bravo.

"The Lands of the Bible Today" makes a wonderful gift. The only text we found a bit off was a reflective comment about the Temple Mount. The author wrote, ". . . for pure excitement, one can think of an angry Jesus appearing twenty-one years later to cleanse the temple . . . ." Excitement? This is what would excite a believer in Messiah or visitor to the Temple Mount? This is what breaks God's heart.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee (Psalm 122:6).

I think this book is very useful when telling the children Bible stories, it makes it more real for them to see and hear about the same places today. It is a great addition to google search

This is a wonderful reference book and interesting. It you are interested in lands then you will enjoy this book. Yet, this is very interesting for church-goers or for Bible classes as a reference book. There are 44 sites found in the scriptures with photos included. It is very well presented. The book is in alphabetical order, which is helpful. You will find references in the Bible and a map with locations indicated. It does well-giving details about the location and other resources if you are interested in visiting the locations as well. Therefore, it also would be helpful not only to study locations in relation to studying the Bible, but for planning a trip too.