The Rose Guide to the Temple is available from the publisher today for $10 plus shipping (reg. $30; Amazon $20). We’ve recommended the book previously here.
HT: Daniel Wright
I did not put this list together, but my choices would be quite similar to Wayne Stiles’ picks. He writes:
Most of us give Christmas gifts that are quickly forgotten.
After the iPhone gets cracked, or the DVD gets watched, or the sweater gets snagged, they all end up at the landfill.
This year, why not give a gift that will last a lifetime?
Bible Lands study tools make great gifts because they take your personal Bible study to the next level. What’s more, they don’t wear out.
Here are my top 5 recommendations for gifts you’ll enjoy giving.
You can click over to see Wayne’s top 5, but his comments on the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands are worth quoting:
Even though I’ve been to the Holy Land many times, I’ll never see all of it. One resource will show you more than any other.
All together, the 18-Volume Expanded Edition of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands includes more than 17,500 High Definition photographs from 9 countries in the ancient Mediterranean world.
My recommendation for starters? Get the “Israel Collection.” It includes volumes 1-5:
- There are more than 1500 photos of Jerusalem.
- More than 1500 photos of Judah and the Dead Sea area.
- More than 2300 photos of the areas of Galilee and Samaria.
These are more than just High-Resolution pictures from the Holy Land. Special care has been taken to photograph biblical sites.
Nothing else rivals the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. If a picture paints a thousand words, then thousands of high-resolution pictures are even better. I use these images almost daily on my blog, and I have used them for years in my teaching and personal Bible study.
His recommendations include an atlas, a study Bible, several devotional books, and an exclusive tour of Israel.
- Tagged Photo Resources, Resources
The Associated Press reports on the Carchemish excavations. Six photos are featured. (A version with photos embedded is here.)
NT Blog: The Jesus’ Wife Fragment: How the Forgery Was Done
Logos Bible Software, my Bible study program of choice for more than 15 years now, has released version 5. The Biblical Studies and Technological Tools blog is reviewing it. In Part 1, Mark Hoffman provides excuses for upgrading, and in Part 2, he gives reasons, with plenty of illustrated examples.
Eisenbrauns’ Deal of the Weekend is Exploring the Longue Duree: Essays in Honor of Lawrence E. Stager. Don’t let the title fool you: there are many interesting articles in this book. (Click on the Table of Contents link for a full list.)
- Tagged Forgery, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup
You can read or download the last three years of Palestine Exploration Quarterly for free with a simple registration, for a limited time. You can see the table of contents here. The issues from 2009-2011 appear to be free without registration from the table of contents. Here are a few recent articles that caught my eye:
What Would the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I Have Seen If He Had Visited the Central Jordan
Valley?, by Lucas P. Petit.
Palestinian Antiquities Looters, Their Skill Development, Methodology And
Specialised Terminology: An Ethnographic Study, by Salah H. Al-Houdalieh.
The Location of Ziklag: A Review of the Candidate Sites, Based on Biblical,
Topographical and Archaeological Evidence, by Horton Harris.
The Location of Tarichaea: North or South of Tiberias?, by Nikos Kokkinos.
The Protestant Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, Englishwomen, and a Land Transaction in Late Ottoman Palestine, by Ruth Kark and Seth J. Frantzman.
Members of the Palestine Exploration Fund receive four issues of PEQ a year (as of 2013) as well as other privileges.
UPDATE (11/10): They changed the free access noted above. You should still be able to get to the content by registering for their free and informative mailing list.
- Tagged Resources
Shimon Gibson’s excellent work is the “Deal of the Weekend” at Eisenbrauns right now. Marked down from $49.95 to $14.99, this is a great deal.
The publisher’s description:
Jerusalem in Original Photographs brings together pictures taken by the early travel photographers who captured unique moments in history. 
Structured around a contemporary map of the town, the selection of illustrations leads the reader on a walking tour through streets often little changed over the course of the intervening century. These black and white photographs have been drawn from the Palestine Exploration Fund archives and are accompanied by masterful commentary by the renowned archaeologist, Dr. Shimon Gibson.
From a review in Near Eastern Archaeology:
“Jerusalem in Original Photographs, 1850–1920 is an impressive volume, an entry point to important archival materials, a contribution to the history of photography in the Middle East, and an opportunity to reclaim the visual legacy of the last century. Photographs are valuable resources for research into the past. The immediacy of the images, the scope of the representation covering small details up to landscapes, and the visual information make for intriguing insights… “Jerusalem in Original
Photographs, 1850–1920 is a multifaceted book. It could be displayed on a coffee table and examined for its fine images. The layout of the volume is an engaging way to remember the late Ottoman and early British Mandatory city. The volume documents an important mode of representing the city. For the specialist in the period, the book is a superb resource to examine critically architectural and other material changes during the transition from Ottoman to British rule. Reading and studying this book may prove a very enlightening endeavor for many types of audiences. Gibson deserves congratulations for producing an important scholarly resource and an attractive compilation.” — Uzi Baram, New College of Florida in Near Eastern Archaeology 65:4, 2002
The Eisenbrauns website has more details. Recommended!
- Tagged Resources
A dog fell into a hole in Jerusalem and now it will become an open biblical tourist park.
Work continues in Georgia in constructing a museum for artifacts from Israel.
The next time you travel to the Golan Heights, you can remember your day this way: Bastions, Burials, Battles, and Borders.
Ferrell Jenkins shares a photo of a beautiful sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher may close its doors for a day to protest its bank account being frozen for not paying its water bill.
Al Jazeera posts 15 photos on the Western Wall prayer plaza and excavated tunnels.
The Zondervan Atlas of the Bible is marked down to $14.99 for the Fabulous Friday sale at christianbook.com. (Amazon: $26.39). It might make a great gift for someone who wants to understand the Bible better.
The latest SourceFlix video short is about the olive harvest. (If you appreciate their work, you might consider making a donation some time.)
A special exhibition opens next week at the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum on “The Battle over King David: Excavating the Fortress of Elah.”
I bet that this is the first (future) motion picture reference to Shaaraim in connection with the David and Goliath story. (If they ever read 1 Samuel 17, they’ll get rid of it. Shaaraim is not Qeiyafa and it’s not the Philistine base either.)
HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer
Woman harvesting olives near Bethlehem
Photo from Cultural Images of the Holy Land
Photo from Cultural Images of the Holy Land
- Tagged 10th Century, Galilee, Golan, Museums, Resources, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup