Maps Archives

Bible maps make the Bible clearer

The Casual English Bible® maps tell Bible stories in a captivating way that engages even people who have never read the Bible. Lavishly detailed maps only make the stories of Jesus and others more compelling and easier to picture and to understand.

These 3D-style maps of Bible lands are created from blended high resolution satellite images, matched to precise elevation data from international space agencies.

How to search for maps

—Type “Galilee” into the Casual English Bible’s map search engine, below. Instantly, you’ll see dozens of beautiful maps…many in 3D style. Each one tracks with a different Bible story. These aren’t generic maps with a hundred place names.
—Type “Samson” into the Bible map search engine. You’ll see the tiny village where he lived in the Judean foothills below Jerusalem.
—Type “Corinthians” and you’ll see a gallery full of maps associated with Paul’s letters of 1, 2 Corinthians, to the church in Corinth, Greece.

3D sense of the lay of the land

Get a feel for the lay of the land:

—Ararat Mountains, where Noah’s boat ran aground. The Bible doesn’t say it was Mount Ararat.
—Judean hills where Joshua and the Israelites found most of their battles for the Promised Land. They avoided the plains, where their enemies with armored chariots had the advantage over Israel’s foot soldiers.
—Jesus’ 20-mile climb from Jericho and the Jordan River Valley upward half a mile high, to the crest of the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem.
—One surprise for some readers is the Jesus Triangle, a plug of ground between three cities. It’s where Jesus spent most of his ministry time. A person can walk that entire triangle in a single day. Type “Jesus triangle” to see it.

Pharaoh Shishak attacks Israel

Map of Pharaoh Shishak's campaign against Israel and Judah in 926 BC

Pharaoh Shishak attacks Israel

Bible Book: 1 Kings Type: Maps Location: Adam, Aijalon, Beth Horon, Gezer, Gibeon, Kiriath-jearim, Mahanaim, Pharaoh Shishak, Sheshonq, Shiloh, Socoho, Succoth, Tirzah Era: Heroes, kings

Pharaoh Shishak raids Judah, Israel

Egypt's ruler, Pharaoh Shishak, saw a chance to enrich his kingdom when King Solomon's Israel fell apart, collapsing into two competing nations. Shishak attacked scattered cities throughout both nations, Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Israel broke in half when Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam, refused to lighten up on the forced labor and high taxes Solomon had imposed, to maintain his aggressive building projects. Instead, he threatened to get tougher. The northern tribes took a walk and never came back. Rehoboam was left ruling only his own tribe of Judah, in the south.

On the Bible's record

Bible writers report only that Shishak threatened Jerusalem and that Judah's king Rehoboam saved the city by emptying the Temple treasury and giving it to Shishak. This payoff convinced the Egyptian to go home. The story appears in 1 Kings 14:25-28 and in 2 Chronicles 12:2-12.

"During the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s reign, Egypt’s King Shishak invaded and attacked Jerusalem. 26He stole everything of value from the Temple. And he took the golden shields Solomon had made. Rehoboam replaced the shields, but he used bronze instead of gold. And he ordered the royal palace guards at the front door to keep them safe. Whenever the king went to the Temple, the guards who escorted him brought the shields with them. When they returned, they stored the shields in a guarded room." (1 Kings 14:25-28)

This could have been when the Israelites lost their most sacred relic, the chest with the stones of the Ten Commandments. The gold-covered chest is also known as the Ark of The Covenant. King Shishak, usually linked with Pharaoh Shoshenq I, allied himself with King Jeroboam of Israel instead of Rehoboam of Judah. Some of his war records were found, with lists of Judean cities he conquered. Jerusalem isn’t among them. Bible writers say he attacked with too many soldiers to count, a cavalry of 60,000, and a chariot corps of 1,200 (2 Chronicles 12).

On the Egyptian record

Egyptian records are more involved than the short snippet in the Bible. An ancient inscription on the Amon temple in the Egyptian city of Luxor reports a military campaign that took him throughout both nations of Judah and Israel. The inscription identifies many target cities by name.