The Bible Lands PhotoGuide has hundreds of detailed articles describing the most important Biblical locations, illustrated with more than 1,100 high-quality photographs. More than just a collection of pictures, the PhotoGuide is specifically designed to be a teaching tool which helps make the Bible come alive. It includes: Photographs of Biblically significant sites and regions in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Sinai, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. More than 100 photographs of Jerusalem.. A detailed article on the Hebrew Tabernacle, complete with photographs of a life-size replica of the Tabernacle located at Timnah, Israel. Photographs of an excavated village at Nazareth complete with walled terraces, watchtowers, a stone quarry, and a winepress dating back to the first century. Important artifacts, such as a bronze serpent dating to around the time of Moses, a horned altar from Beer-sheba, and more. Pictures of the bema at Corinth where Paul stood trial. An electronic copy of the King James Bible is included.

Accordance® Bible Lands PhotoGuide. OakTree Software, Inc. 498 Palm Springs Drive, Suite 100, Altamonte Springs, FL 32701, 2001. http://www.OakSoft.com. (877) 339-5855. Macintosh format. $59.

Roy Brown, the developer and programmer of Accordance, loves the biblical lands, especially the land of Israel. He learned Hebrew in Israel, he met his wife there, and he frequently returns there to teach the Bible. The Accordance Bible Atlas reflects some of the expertise that he has developed in his studies there. Roy has produced Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide, a companion tool to the Atlas, which contains numerous pictures of Biblical sites. There are over six hundred and forty photographs from Israel, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Traveling to the biblical lands is the best way to get a feel of the country and a more vivid impression of the biblical narrative. Next best is to have good photographs which let you see the country. Most of the photos in Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide were taken by Roy Brown himself. Others were by Hanan Isachar and by George Gerster. They are all of very good quality, but those taken by Hanan Isachar are particularly superb. Furthermore, while Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide is a stand alone program, it is also integrated with Accordance. Thus when reading a passage you can go directly from a place mentioned in the Bible text to the PhotoGuide. When reading about the Negev, clicking on the PhotoGuide takes you to a brief article describing the region and mentioning a number of passages where the Negev is found in Scripture. This is followed by ten pictures of this region. You can see what a dry, barren, rocky, hilly area it is. Under "Israel" there is an overview with pictures of the different regions of the country (e.g. the coastal plain, the Shephelah, the hill country of Judah and Ephraim, the wilderness of Judah, Galilee, the Negev, and the Arabah). There are additional pictures of each of these areas under the specific location. I was surprised to find so many pictures of places outside of Israel. There are numerous pictures areas in Greece, Rome, and Turkey (the Asia of Paul's journeys). The article on Rome has seventeen pictures including the Coliseum, the Arch of Titus, the Mammertine prison where traditions says that Peter was held, and an early Christian carving of a fish in one of the catacombs.

This is one of those programs where you will want to peruse it for a couple of hours at first just enjoying the pictures. Afterwards it will be very helpful in the normal course of your Bible study to look at the major sites, which are mentioned in your Bible study. The cost is reasonable. If you took six hundred pictures, the cost of film and processing would be $200-300, and the pictures would not be nearly as good.