John A. Beck - The Holy Land for Christian Travelers

For Marmy,
my bride,
my soul mate,
and coadventurer,
whose longtime support
for my wanderings
made this publication possible

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The L ORD had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people and your fathers household to the land I will show you.

GENESIS 12:1

I t is time to go. The Lord is calling you to step away from all that is familiar, just as he once called Abram. He is inviting you to leave your home, your family, and the normal rhythms of life in order to show you a new land. But this is no ordinary place. The promised land shaped Bible events, molded the thinking of men and women of the Bible, and provided the images that communicate the thoughts of God. As you explore this land, you will quickly see that the Bible is at home here. And you will become more at home in your Bible as you travel the promised land.

I know that will happen because it happened to me and because I have seen it happen to others. I have studied the relationship between this Holy Land and the Bible for twenty years. Those years have changed me. During that time I have led more than one thousand people on educational journeys here. Each person has been changed by the experience. So be ready to be transformed. The Lord brings people to the promised land to change them. Expect it. Expect to be changed in ways you cannot yet begin to imagine.

I wrote this guide to help with that change and to achieve the Lords intentions for your trip to the promised land. Abram made a permanent home here. That is not true for you, so I wrote this guide to help you plan and execute a trip that makes the best use of your limited time. If you are on a guided tour, this guide will help you to find the things most important to the Christian faith and your Bible reading. If you are traveling on your own, this guide will help you to compose an efficient, enjoyable, faith-bolstering journey. Like all international travel, a trip to Israel comes with inherent risks. You should plan a trip that takes into consideration your own physical limitations and the conditions in the state of Israel at the time of your trip. This includes consulting the travel alerts and warnings issued by your home country with regard to travel in the Middle East.

To navigate this land you will first need to navigate the pages of this guide, so let me offer you a few thoughts on its composition. First a word on my selection of sites for inclusion in the book. I started with sites that tour groups are most likely to visit and then added sites critical to our understanding of key Bible stories and Bible passages. As a further aid, I have marked the must-see locations with .

I gathered these important stops into chapters that connect those sites regionally. That is the way you are most likely to encounter them when traveling. For example, I have gathered all the sites in the Jerusalem area or the coastal plain. If you are having trouble finding a specific place you plan to visit, the index of locations will quickly get you to the correct page.

You will find considerable variation in the length of the entries. I determined the length of each entry on the basis of the likelihood of your visiting the site, its contribution to Bible reading, and the degree to which the interpretation of the site is advanced by on-site signs and literature. This allowed me to give you more where there is less otherwise available to you.