The best reference for ancient Near Eastern texts related to the Bible is the The Context of Scripture, edited by Hallo and Younger.  This three-volume work is superior to Pritchard’s ANET in many ways.  Unfortunately, it is published by Brill and thus is very expensive.

Eisenbrauns has an outstanding deal on the complete set in paperback.  Instead of $310, it is available this weekend only for $124 (plus shipping). 

If you miss the sale, each volume is available at Amazon for $200-300 each (1, 2, 3).  Or you can get the set in Libronix (electronic) format for $299.95.

If anyone has volume 1 in hardback and wants to sell or trade, send me an email (tbolen91 at bibleplaces dot com).

By “here,” I mean Mark Vitalis Hoffman’s excellent summary of “Digital Resources for Biblical Mapping.”  Mark has done a fantastic job in the last couple of years of helping Bible teachers with electronic resources.  You can stay up-to-date with the latest fruits of his labor at his blog, Biblical Studies and Technological Tools. 

Mark has a variety of resources from his website Scroll and Screen (including a roundup of resource for biblical photos), and your favorite section will probably depend upon your particular interest, but truly outstanding and unique (as far as I know) is the listing of maps related to the biblical world.  As you’ll see, there is no “one-size-fits all” for biblical maps (as there is, ahem, for biblical photos), and that’s what makes such an annotated survey so very helpful.  Enjoy, and if you have feedback from your experience with these resources, I’m sure that Mark would be happy to hear it.

Today only (and maybe also May 7 am?) at Eisenbrauns:


Excavations at Capernaum, Volume 1: 1978-1982, edited by V. Tzaferis, Eisenbrauns, 1989.

List Price: $99.50

Your Price: $39.80

You save: $59.70 (60%)

This is the first of the final reports on the excavations conducted by Israel’s Department of Antiquities and Museums, the Greek Orthodox Church, Notre Dame University, Averett College and Southwest Missouri State University at the site owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The first five seasons have yielded not only much ceramic and numismatic material, but also a rather satisfactory stratigraphic sequence, providing a continuity of some 400 years, from the early 7th century to the early 11th century A.D. The findings are illustrated by eight full-color plates and 14 foldout plans.

These findings are of special importance for their contributions to Late Byzantine and Early Arab pottery, and Umayyad gold coins and for the new light they shed on literary evidence pertaining to Capernaum.

Eisenbrauns’ Deal of the Day is:

Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land: Preservation and History, by Yoel Elitzur (2004). List Price: $65; Today: $26 (60% off)

The book description begins:

That many ancient toponyms in the Holy Land have survived for thousands of years, right up to modern times, is a remarkable and unique phenomenon, unparalleled in neighboring countries, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Asia Minor. Preserved toponymy provides a basis for research in the historical geography of the country and is also of major importance for studies in the history of Hebrew and Aramaic, being a kind of ancient “recording” of an archaic linguistic inventory. In addition, it has many implications for a wide variety of other scholarly fields, such as Bible studies, Rabbinics, Qumran and Samaritan studies, early Christianity, Arabic and Islam. This reserve of preserved place-names is therefore frequently consulted and used by scholars for their purposes.