Civilization first
stirred in the Fertile Crescent. It was also the birthplace of three of
the world’s major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas may
be a slightly misleading title. It includes maps but is no atlas and
ranges well beyond biblical sources to include the Koran and historical
accounts from late antiquity. Nonetheless, media studies professor
Jean-Pierre Isbouts uses the Old and New Testament narrative as his
timeline through the region’s early history, referencing archaeology
and other surviving texts and placing the material in the context of
the culture and even the ecology of the Near East. It is a thoughtful
journey through a past that has molded the present and will continue to
shape the future.
