{"id":390,"date":"2014-08-29T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=390"},"modified":"2014-08-27T20:42:54","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:42:54","slug":"bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Pastors, Bible Study Leaders, Seminary\u00a0Students, History Buffs<\/p>\n<p>Genre: Historical Reference<\/p>\n<p>FBSN Rating: A<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Who knew ancient public archives were important for biblical understanding?<\/p>\n<p>Well, James Martin, John Beck, and David Hansen did\u2014and that\u2019s why their very interesting book, <em>A Visual Guide to the Gospel Events<\/em>, starts with a trip to just that location. It was here that Matthew and Luke likely went when researching and retracing the genealogies of Jesus that appear in their respective books. And it was the public archive that proved to skeptics of the gospel writers that they\u2019d accurately reported their claims of Jesus being descended from the King David himself. Kinda cool.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, this whole book is kinda cool\u2014at least for Bible Study Nerds. Printed in full color and featuring over 350 photos, maps, and illustrations, it really is a \u201cvisual guide\u201d to the entire life of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>The authors say their goal was to \u201cshow the important relationship between the events and teachings of Jesus and the places they occurred.\u201d Safe to say they&#8217;ve succeeded.<\/p>\n<p>Each short, accessible chapter here takes the reader on a \u201cvisit\u201d to a specific location in the ancient Middle East where some event from the life of Christ occurred. The book is comprehensive, covering every major moment recorded in the gospels in chronological order. As such, there are sections on Jesus\u2019 birth and early years (Bethlehem fields, Judea, the Jerusalem Temple), the beginning of Christ\u2019s ministry (Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, synagogues), Jesus\u2019 parables and teachings (narrow roads, sheep herding in open country, the Jerusalem-Jericho road), as well as the Gentile world at the time of Christ, the makeup of ancient Jerusalem, the cross, and Christ\u2019s resurrection.<\/p>\n<p>The best word to describe <em>A Visual Guide to Gospel Events<\/em> is one Mr. Spock made popular: \u201cFascinating!\u201d Placing Jesus\u2019 life and times in literal geographical space really does bring a new perspective on familiar stories. And, thankfully, the authors have written this book to be read by just about any Bible Study Nerd\u2014pew sitters and pastors alike. Some highlights for me were the archaeological and sociological exploration of the Pools of Bethesda (where Jesus healed an invalid), the glimpse of what a \u201chouse with many rooms\u201d might have represented to hearers when Jesus used it to symbolize heaven, and images of Gethsemane olive trees that date back over 1500 years! And believe me, this is just scratching the surface of what\u2019s in this book.<\/p>\n<p>You can use <em>A Visual Guide to Gospel Events<\/em> as a reference for Bible\u00a0teaching on specific gospel passages, or just read it straight through. Either way, you\u2019ll find it an interesting, and sometimes thought-provoking, glimpse into your Christian history.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-392\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/08\/VisualGuideGospelEvents.jpg\" alt=\"A Visual Guide to Gospel Events\" width=\"294\" height=\"379\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"A Visual Guide to Gospel Events\" href=\"http:\/\/bakerpublishinggroup.com\/books\/a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events\/283650\" target=\"_blank\">A Visual Guide to Gospel Events <\/a>by James C. Martin, John A. Beck, and David G. Hansen<\/p>\n<p>(Baker Books)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Pastors, Bible Study Leaders, Seminary\u00a0Students, History Buffs Genre: Historical Reference FBSN Rating: A &nbsp; Who knew ancient public archives were important for biblical understanding? Well, James Martin, John Beck, and David Hansen did\u2014and that\u2019s why their very interesting book, A Visual Guide to the Gospel Events, starts with a trip to just that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[157,156],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-resource-spotlight","tag-bible-reference","tag-life-of-christ"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reader Appeal: Pastors, Bible Study Leaders, Seminary\u00a0Students, History Buffs Genre: Historical Reference FBSN Rating: A &nbsp; Who knew ancient public archives were important for biblical understanding? Well, James Martin, John Beck, and David Hansen did\u2014and that\u2019s why their very interesting book, A Visual Guide to the Gospel Events, starts with a trip to just that&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-29T12:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-27T20:42:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/08\/VisualGuideGospelEvents.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Reader Appeal: Pastors, Bible Study Leaders, Seminary\u00a0Students, History Buffs Genre: Historical Reference FBSN Rating: A &nbsp; Who knew ancient public archives were important for biblical understanding? Well, James Martin, John Beck, and David Hansen did\u2014and that\u2019s why their very interesting book, A Visual Guide to the Gospel Events, starts with a trip to just that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-08-29T12:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-27T20:42:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/08\/VisualGuideGospelEvents.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html","name":"Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/08\/VisualGuideGospelEvents.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-29T12:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-27T20:42:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/08\/VisualGuideGospelEvents.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/08\/VisualGuideGospelEvents.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/bible-resource-spotlight-a-visual-guide-to-gospel-events.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bible Resource Spotlight: A Visual Guide to Gospel Events"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}