by Richard W. LaFountain

Why in the world would anyone want to spend an entire semester studying the geography of Palestine? Most people hate geography. Geography for the average person tends to be dry and interesting. It's a science of cold, hard facts. Yet for the Bible student who wants to become a able teacher of God's Word it is a must to understand the locations where Jesus walked. It will help you to "flesh-out" a sermon or Bible study with visual images that will draw your listeners into the Life of Christ.

If you were told that you were to move to another city probably the first thing you would do is to get out a map and find out where it was located. If it was in a different state you would want to know all you could about that state. You would also want to know what are the significant points of interests and landmarks in the area. If you were to move to another country you would be diligent to learn as much as you could about that place before arriving.

Palestine's Geography

In our study of the Life of Christ we are moving to Palestine. We want you for the duration of these studies to become so familiar with Palestine that you can see it in your sleep. You can immediately envision the location of any city mentioned in the Gospels and it's relative distance from any other given place. This will be of immense value as a teacher or preacher in helping others visualize the context of the Scriptures. You are to be as a guide to the blind.

Most of your listeners will never have visited Palestine and never will. Even if they were able to visit Palestine today is significantly different that the Palestine of the New Testament. Hence it is paramount for you to have a birds-eye-view of what the region was like and where Jesus walked. It will enhance your own pleasure in reading the Scriptures once you have this first hand knowledge of the home of Jesus. Get familiar with it. Learn it well and it will serve you well in the years to come.

Palestine's Political Geography

It will be extremely important for the student of the Word to understand the political ramifications of Palestine's geography. Without that you would lose some of the important hidden meanings -

Why were pigs being raised in Palestine?
Why was there an image on a coin in Palestine when it is forbidden in 10 Commandments?
Why did Jesus respond so caustically to the Syrophenecian woman?
Why was it so strange that Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman?
Why was Herod, an Idumean, so hated by Jews?
Why did Nathaniel ask, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
What was so significant about being baptized in the Jordan? Why not a pool?
What is a Tetrarch?
What was so amazing about one disciple being a Publican, and another a Zealot?
Where was the very high mountain where Jesus was tempted?

Footsteps of Jesus

Throughout these lessons we will be following the footsteps of Jesus during his ministry. It is important for every student of the Gospels to thoroughly understand the 3 years of Jesus ministry.

Therefore we have divided up his ministry years according to his travels and approximate dates. In this it will also be important to understand the chronology of the life of Jesus as presented in the gospels. We call this chronology "the harmony of the Gospels." For this reason we have included in these studies a requirement that you put together your own synoptic account base on the Gospels.

The Thompson Chain Reference Bible has given us an excellent tool in its "Harmony of the Gospels" which has carefully examined and compared the events in Jesus' life and constructed a model of 215 events in his 3 year ministry beginning with his birth and ending in the ascension. It is certainly not the last word in harmonizing the Gospel accounts but it will be an invaluable tool for the student of the New Testament.

Distances

Comparing present day maps can be very helpful in getting a feeling for the distances Jesus traveled. Use a map of your own area of the country and overlay a map of Palestine using about the same scale. Make Jerusalem the key point agreeing with the largest city in your vacinity. From there, using the map of Palestine, measure the distances to each key location in Palestine and its comparable distance on your local map. make a photo copy of that section of your local map and draw lines to each point in Palestine. Draw the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee as reference points. For our purposes we are using Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh area as our map. Pittsburgh would be Jerusalem and Titusville is almost exactly where Capernaum would be, Franklin is Nazareth. Be sure to compare the more distant cities like Rome, Corinth, and Babylon.

Learning It Well

When we have finished these lessons you should be able to locate from memory any body of water, city or town, and/or mountain, and all of the Provinces of Palestine.

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