The Best Bible Atlas Ever?

The one kind of blog post I’ve deliberately avoided till now is the “In the Mail” post. I have my reasons for this, but that’s not the point of this post. I simply wanted to say that the book I received in the mail the other day might be the first one that caused me to say, “Whoa,” when I opened to the front inside cover.

For future review I’ve received The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World. This is the “Second Emended & Enhanced Edition” (copyright 2014). Here it is:

It comes highly recommended by Accordance users, where it is available electronically.

Carta Jerusalem, its publisher, describes the atlas in this way:

The Sacred Bridge will be the Bible Atlas of Record and Standard Work for the coming decades. Exhaustive in scope and rich in detail, with its comprehensive documentation of the Near Eastern Background to Biblical History, this latest Bible Atlas from Carta is one more stepping stone on the way to the study and understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

And:

This is the first Atlas to adopt the modern approach to the study of the Levant as a geographical/historical entity. Emphasis throughout the current work is on the ancient written sources – every ancient passage is interpreted firsthand, from its native language. Archaeological evidence has been taken into account whenever it is relevant.

Here is what’s inside the cover. You won’t be able to see much detail in the image (click image or open in new tab for larger), but it will give you an idea of the kind of thoroughness that seems to exist throughout the atlas. And that’s before you even get to the atlas itself.

I’m looking forward to digging in. It’s a beautiful, massive atlas, with a lot of text and full-color images packed into its large pages. The binding appears to be sewn, so it will last a long time. Here’s the product page for more information. You can also find the atlas here through Eisenbrauns, its North American distributor. More to follow.

11/7/14 UPDATE: Here is my completed review.