Thursday, March 4, 2010

Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts

Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, third edition, is probably the finest book, and certainly the book with the most value for the price, that I've reviewed for Thomas Nelson.

The 470-paged book is a wealth of full-color photographs, maps, and graphics for any student or teacher of the Bible. Organized book by book through the old and new testaments, it has information on authors, dates, themes, literary structures, characters, and events, as well as detailed outlines and informative charts for every aspect of each book. For a map lover like me, the maps alone (I counted 84) are worth the price of the book.

To give you a close up of the book, consider these features: the six-page entry for Ephesians contains a paragraph about the author, two about the date of Paul's writing, three about theme and literary structure, a chart of "Ephesians at a Glance," an outline of the book, a map and discussion of the city of Ephesus, and a comment about Paul's phrase "in Christ," which appears thirty-five times in the book. Acts, a much longer book, has 12 pages, including 7 charts and 9 maps, for its entry.

And, Thomas Nelson keeps on giving with this volume. All the maps and charts are available for free download at their website. This feature is invaluable for teachers and Bible study leaders who want to provide visuals for their students. Thank you, Thomas Nelson, for publishing this fantastic resource, and thanks for my complimentary copy and the opportunity to review for you.