I recently finished reading the Satellite Bible Atlas by William Schlegel. This is the best book of Bible maps I’ve ever seen. If you have a Bible, you probably have a few maps in the back of your book… but none of them are likely to compare with the vast variety of maps assembled here.
After a few general maps of the Levant, the Satellite Bible Atlas is arranged in chronological order. It starts with Abraham and moves all the way through the years of early Jewish rebellion in the Roman world. As the settlement names change over time, the adjoining maps also change. Each map is accompanied by a page of explanation. Often, the explaining page will include quotes from the Bible or even archaeological tablets that have been found discussing the events from that time period.
Sometimes when I read the Bible, my eyes glaze over at all the place names I don’t recognize. Maybe it’s just me, but probably not. This book helps me visualize where most of these places are. It’s certainly not a book that you’ll want to read in a day. It’s not meant to be a page-turner like a lot of books I review here. However, this is a book that you can use as a reference book. Even though I’ve finished reading the book, I’ll probably refer back to many of these maps again at some point in the future.
I’d recommend the Satellite Bible Atlas to several types of people. If you’re interested in ancient maps, if you want to know where all those little towns in the Bible are, or if you’re interested in ancient history, you might like this book. Otherwise, you probably won’t find this book to be very interesting. But if you are, then this is the best collection of Biblical-era maps I have seen.