Every year the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association awards its Christian Book Awards in six categories: Bibles, Bible Reference & Study, Christian Life, Fiction, Children & Youth, and Inspiration & Gift. In 2010, the award for Bible Reference & Study went to the New Moody Atlas of the Bible with good reason: this altlas is one of the best published in recent years and is a must have for those who wish to study the Bible.
The New Moody Atlas of the Bible
by Barry J. Beitzel
Moody
October 2009
The first obsticle to creating a new book like this is justifying its existence in light of the internet. Why should we pay $50 for a hard bound book instead of just using Google to look up the maps and info? The answer is as clear as the reason why Snopes.com exists. You can’t trust the internet completely because you never know where the info on the internet came from.
With Beitzel’s atlas you know where it comes from. Moody has a long and storied history of publishing solid scholarly references and Beitzel (Dr. to you and me,) is professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical University and his mapwork has been published in some of the Bibles readers probably carry with them, like the NLT Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, and the NIV Study Bible.
This solid scholarly work has one more thing going for it that the internet just doesn’t: there isn’t an equivelent to pulling a chair up to a table, grabbing all your reference books, the Word, and a notepad and digging into the scripture. Tablets and PCs just can’t compete against the satisfaction of having the book on your desk in front of you and in your hands. Seeing in full clarity, not dealing with lo-res images.
But if you must have these maps and info online, Moody has a special treat. Everyone who buys the book gets a code to unlock all the images and info online as well.
This is a great reference that all students of the Word should consider.
Scott Asher is the founder and administrator of BookGateway.com. Along with his contributions to BookGateway, he reviews for the commercial site BuddyHollywood.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he cartoons and writes on anything he finds funny and Christianity, which sometimes overlap.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.