Julie Baretz - The Bible on Location: Off the Beaten Path in Ancient and Modern Israel

Do you know anyone named Debbie? Josh? David? Everyone recognizes those names from the Bible, but how much do we really know about the characters from one of the greatest works of literature ever written? The Hebrew Bible is an anthology of thirty-nine texts. While most people are familiar with the Genesis stories and the Exodus narrative, the books that chronicle the Israelites after they arrive in the promised land are often far less familiar and infrequently read. Yet they contain a captivating array of complex characters faced with social, ethical, and spiritual dilemmas.

This is an unconventional guidebook. Rather than point you toward recognizable landmarks, it leads you in the footsteps of fascinating literary characters. In Israel little remains of monumental buildings and cities from the time of the Hebrew Bible, but the landscape is virtually unaltered.

The stories in this guidebook come from the biblical books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah. In contrast to the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), which we read cyclically in the Jewish tradition every year, the books that follow chronologically are often ignored, apart from selected readings as the haftarot. These nine biblical books form the outline of this guidebook because all their action takes place in the land of Israel, and almost all the locations mentioned in the narrative have been identified.

Did the events of the Bible really happen? The development of biblical scholarship as an academic discipline has enabled us to dig deeply into the text in search of linguistic clues, cultural patterns, and nuance. The modern science of archaeology has enriched our knowledge of the biblical period immenselysometimes correlating, sometimes illuminating, and sometimes challenging the historical authenticity of the stories.

Yet despite the wealth of knowledge accrued in the modern age, the Bible still remains something of an enigma. It is written in an ancient Hebrew dialect no longer spoken. Letters and words are missing throughout the Hebrew text. The interpretation of a word can change the meaning of an entire sentence. The abbreviated storytelling style can be puzzling. All this means that the text is interpretable by anyone who chooses to read it.

But oddly enough, many Jews dont read the Bible. Classic Jewish scholarship concentrates on the Talmud, the rabbinic literature that interprets the biblical laws. Zionism reserves a place of honor for the Bible in the Israeli educational curriculum, but nonreligious Jews educated in the diaspora rarely crack the good books spine in a methodical, studious fashion. I am a classic example. My Jewish upbringing was buttressed by membership in a Conservative synagogue, bat mitzvah, Camp Ramah, and the Zionist youth movement Young Judaea. The Jewish bookshelf in my home included tomes such as The Joys of Yiddish, My Life by Golda Meir, and The War against the Jews by Lucy Dawidowicz. The Bible wasnt anywhere on the shelfit wasnt even on the radar.

The impetus for my Bible studies was embarrassment. Close to 70 percent of the tourists who visit Israel are Christiansbread and butter for Jewish tour guides. Early on in my guiding career, I found myself standing before groups of evangelical Christians who knew the Hebrew Bible inside and out. Most had read the Bible in its entirety several times, many were members of church Bible study groups, many could recite text passages by heart, and they all wanted to visit the places where the events of the Bible had transpired. In order to get up to speed (and not look like an idiot), I spent hours poring over texts and marking up my travel-sized Bible. Ultimately I was able to whip out passages on site and refer to people and places with ease. Eventually I began reading these stories with Jewish groups too, who always clamored for more