Peter Goeman invited me to join him on The Bible Sojourner podcast to talk about how understanding geography helps us to better understand Scripture. It was a fun episode, and I was able to share some of my favorite stories along with some new ones.
Peter has a lot of interesting guests and topics related to biblical studies in general, so you may want to add this podcast to your rotation (Spotify, Apple, etc.—full list here).
If you listen on YouTube or Spotify or another channel that has video, you’ll see some photos, maps, and plans that I use to illustrate our discussion.
Here are the time stamps for the YouTube video:
00:00 Introduction
1:20 Todd Introduces Himself
3:05 Background to Bibleplaces.com
6:30 How Does Todd Motivate Students to Care about Geography?
10:30 How Does Geography Impact the Ancient Israelite?
16:17 What are some Key Geographical Locations in Israel?
19:40 Are There Key Locations that Carry Religious Significance?
23:33 How do Archaeologists Determine Where an Ancient City Was?
32:41 What are some Interesting Biblical Examples of Geography in Scripture?
35:00 The Location of Nob
38:50 Esther and the City of Susa
43:16 Acts 12 and the Death of Herod Agrippa I
46:32 The Deliverance of the Demoniac in Mark 5 (in region of Gerasenes or Gadarenes?)
53:03 The Connection between Geography and Modern Israel Life
1:00:50 How Can We Pursue a Further Study in Biblical Geography?
1:05:52 Conclusion
