This is only a few pages - a sample, but it looks like it would be a great book for a small group at church to study and the photography is very helpful to illustrate the Bible passages. Please make the whole book available

This is a great idea for a book. Understanding biblical texts is certainly enhanced by an awareness of the geographical features of where they arose. The author gives a good example of this, noting that one of Jesus’ comments about taxation contains a reference to the sea, and the comment was made in a context that was right next to the sea. It gives a different flavour to the comment when the reader can visualise Jesus potentially nodding towards the sea as he spoke.

The Mediterranean world of the New Testament is also very photogenic. There are some beautiful ruins and some evocative locations which mean that it is a great idea to combine those pictures with a narration of the text of Acts.

However, the version of the book which I saw was only a VERY small extract of the first chapter or so. I can see that the book begins well. But I have absolutely no idea how the book continues, or ends.

One of the issues raised in this tiny extract from the book is the narration of the events surrounding Judas’ death. It refers to the geographical location and states the relevant biblical text.

Accounts of Judas’ death are interesting because they seem to combine two different views of how he came to die. Biblical commentaries over the centuries have wrestled with how to explain that factor. Perhaps it would have been useful to include an explanation of the issue, otherwise there is a risk of the book giving an excessively literalistic view of the biblical text which ignores complexities surrounding it.

The fact that I can only see the beginning of the book makes it impossible to give a star rating for the text, as a reviewer cannot comment favourably or unfavourably upon a text that he has not seen. However, software will not allow me to submit a review without a star rating, so I think I will have to give this 1 star, as I simply do not have enough information available to rate the book higher.

(These are honest comments on a ARC digital version of the text, which was made freely available for the purpose of review).

I would be very interested in buying the full length version of this book when it comes out. I loved seeing and hearing the context of both culture and location for what we read in the book of Acts- it added another layer of understanding for me and was just fascinating as someone who loves history too!

The "sample" / advance review copy of Lands of the Bible Then and Now was only 20-ish pages long. (This included the cover and back cover and miscellaneous pages. So actual pages read was 12-ish and that included photos.)

I've taken several Bible Study classes. I believe that this book would be very popular as part of Bible Studies and I would really enjoy reading the full length version this book. But I would like to see the finished book before I ordered it. It seems to me that it would make a beautiful hardcover book, but I can't really picture it as a paperback book. (Note that this ISBN indicates that it is paperback.)

The sample did describe that the walk from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives and how long it would have taken Then ... covered with olive trees. And also describes it now ... a cemetery with as many as 120,000 graves. I love that the text gives the Bible passages a new level of perspective.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Our Daily Bread Publishing for approving my request to read the advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. Anticipated publication date is August 2025. The book is expected to be 264 pages.