Poster Map of the Tribe of Benjamin circa 1200 B.C.

The descendants of Jacob’s son Benjamin occupied one of the smallest of the Israelite tribal allotments–measuring a mere 27 miles (43 km) wide by 14 miles (23 km) high–yet the significance of all the biblical events that took place within it is immense. Benjamin was the location of the Israelites’ very first battles to conquer to the Promised Land, beginning with Jericho and moving on to Ai (see “The Israelites Conquer Ai” map). After this, four Gibeonite towns–all located in western Benjaminite territory–deceived the Israelites into forming an alliance with them (see “The Conquest of Canaan: The Southern Campaign” map) in order to avoid being wiped out by them. Two judges (Ehud and Deborah; see “Ehud Rescues Israel” and “Deborah and Barak Defeat Sisera” maps) hailed from Benjamin as did the prophet Samuel (see “The Tribe of Benjamin” map). After the Ark of the Covenant was captured near Aphek and Shiloh was overrun by the Philistines, it appears that the altar was moved to the High Place of Gibeah by the time of Solomon (see “The Ark of the Covenant in the Promised Land” map). In the closing years of the judges, a tragic incident at Gibeah led to a war between Benjamin and the rest of the Israelites tribes (see “Israel Battles Benjamin” map). Saul, the first king of Israel, also hailed from Benjamin (see “Saul Searches for His Father’s Donkeys” map). While King David’s capital was at Hebron, a detachment of his forces attacked those of Saul’s son Ish-bosheth at Gibeon, leading them to flee to the Hill of Ammah (likely the same as Emmaus; see “The Battle at the Pool of Gibeon” map). David later established Jerusalem, technically located within Benjamin’s territory, as his new capital over all Israel (2 Samuel 5:6-9). The borders of Benjamin’s tribal allotment and the adjacent borders of its neighboring tribes are meticulously defined in Joshua 15:1-16:3 and Joshua 18:11-28, demonstrating the biblical writers’ acute awareness of Benjamin’s territory. Several stretches of these borders appear to follow established roads that existed during the settlement era.

This map is designed to be printed at 24 in. x 18 in., but it may scale acceptably at larger or smaller sizes as well.

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The Battle of Elasa

The intertestamental book of 1 Maccabees and some of the accounts of the Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII) recount the early events of the Jewish struggle for independence from the Seleucids, led by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers. These events form some of the backdrop of the New Testament, including the establishment of the festival of Dedication (often called Hannukah), mentioned in John 10:22 (1 Maccabees 4:36-59). Judas was the first to lead Jews to rebel against Seleucid rule and progressively expanded the rebellion to other Jewish regions. After winning a decisive battle at Beth-horon and killing the Seleucid general Nicanor, Judas captured the attention of the growing Roman Republic and established an alliance with them (1 Maccabees 8:23-32). In spite of this, the Seleucid king Demetrius sent a leader named Bacchides to Judah with a large army. They went by the road that leads to Gilgal, and along the way they attacked Jewish forces at Mesaloth in Arbela, likely located near the caves of the cliffs of Arbel in Galilee. Then they camped outside Jerusalem but eventually marched off to Berea. Judas was camped at Elasa with a much smaller army, but he chose to attack the Seleucid forces anyway. Judas’s forces crushed the right wing of the Seleucid forces, but Judas himself was killed, with the battle resulting in significant losses for both sides. Many scholars regard the Roman camp Berea to be same as the ancient town of Beeroth, which participated in the Gibeonite deception during the era of the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 9). At the same time, many scholars incorrectly locate Berea at al-Bira, and this would erroneously suggest that Bethel could not be located at al-Bira, since both Berea and Bethel are both mentioned in 1 Maccabees 9. But Eusebius specifically locates Beeroth at a village at the foot of Gibeon at the seventh Roman milestone on the road to Nicopolis. Eusebius’s comments make it clear that he was speaking of the road from Jerusalem to Gibeon, which continues on to Emmaus Nicopolis. This makes it very unlikely that he was referring to al-Bira, which is located along the Central Ridge Route. Alternatively, this author has found that there is a small ruin called Khirbat Bi’r al-Bi’ar at the foot of Gibeon at the eighth Roman mile along the road from Jerusalem (see map). This is only one Roman mile off from Eusebius’s description, but the seventh milestone is not actually at the foot of Gibeon anyway, so perhaps Eusebius slightly miscalculated the distance. The name of the ruin also appears to reflect the name of the ancient town of Beeroth. Thus, it is very possible that Beeroth (which was likely the same as Berea) was located immediately northeast of Gibeon, as shown on this map, and not at al-Bira. This location for Beeroth also makes sense of the comment in 1 Samuel 4:2, which says that “Beeroth is considered to belong to Benjamin,” because Khirbat Bi’r al-Bi’ar sits technically just outside the border of Benjamin and would benefit from this clarifying statement that it belongs to Benjamin (rather than Ephraim). Finally, placing Beeroth at Khirbat Bi’r al-Bi’ar leaves open the possibility that al-Bira is actually the location of Bethel, as indicated on this map. Also, while some scholars have argued for placing Elasa at Khirbat Ilasa between Upper and Lower Beth-horon, it seems more likely that it was located at Khirbat al-Ashi, just south of Bethel (al-Bira). Once Beeroth/Berea is correctly located at Khirbat Bi’r al-Bi’ar and Elasa at Khirbat al-Ashi, it becomes clear that the battle, which would likely have taken place somewhere between Elasa and Berea, must have taken place south of Elasa, perhaps on the plain where it is located on this map.

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Celebrating over 200 Maps and 20 Years!

Celebrate with us! At the end of 2024 we posted our 201st map for the Bible Mapper Atlas and finished cataloging over 70,000 freely available photos for over 650 ancient locations, bringing to completion 5 rewarding years of work. Now the start of 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of biblemapper.com and Bible Mapper software. So in celebration of over 200 maps and 20 years, we are offering registration keys for Bible Mapper 5.1 at $20.00 all year long! Please pass the word along about our high quality digital Bible map resources (most of them free!) and our $20 registration key offer.

Here is a complete list of all our resources:

Bible Mapper Atlas: Free, high-quality, digital Bible maps & photos
WebViewer: An online tool to find Bible places & photos
Image Fetcher: An online catalog of photos for hundreds of Bible places
Bible Mapper Software: A high quality tool for making your own custom maps (all the maps in the Bible Mapper Atlas have been created with this software)
TimeGlider: An online, scrollable timeline of Bible events
PassageBrowser: An online Bible browser that displays related Bible maps right next to the passage

Top 10 Bible Mapper Atlas Maps of 2024

Here are 10 of the best Bible Mapper Atlas maps released in 2024, based purely on the author’s personal opinion:

10. Sodom and Gomorrah Are Destroyed
9. Hagar Flees from Sarai
8. Hezekiah Strengthens Judah
7. Nomadic Range of Ishmael’s Descendants
6. The Covenant Is Renewed at Shechem
5. Kadesh-Barnea and Its Surroundings
4. Jacob Travels to Southern Canaan
3. The Israelites Conquer Ai
2. The Kenites at Jabez
1. Edom and the Land of Seir

Paul Is Imprisoned for the Gospel

As the book of Acts attests, Paul was no stranger to imprisonment, and he catalogued his incarcerations among his many credentials of suffering that affirmed his legitimacy as an apostle to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:4-5). The first mention of Paul being imprisoned is when he and Silas were arrested in Philippi after exorcising a spirit of divination from a slave girl (Acts 16). Paul’s actions angered the girl’s owners, since the men were no longer able to make money off of the girl’s fortune telling abilities. Later in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul notes that he had already suffered multiple imprisonments (2 Corinthians 11:23), making it clear that not all of Paul’s imprisonments and other sufferings were recorded in Scripture. The next imprisonment explicitly mentioned in Scripture is when Paul was arrested in the Temple in Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey (Acts 21:27-34). Soon after this Paul was sent to Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, where he remained in prison for two years (Acts 23-26; see “Paul Is Transferred to Caesarea” map). This may be where Paul penned the letters commonly known as the Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon). At the end of this time Paul appealed his case to Caesar and was sent to Rome, where he spent another two years under house arrest awaiting his trial before Caesar (Acts 28:16-31). If Paul did not write his Prison Epistles while he was at Caesarea, then it is likely that he wrote them from Rome during this time. The next time we hear of Paul being imprisoned is likely several years later in his second letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:8-17; 2:9; 4:9-21). Though it is not certain, the tone of Paul’s writing during this time of imprisonment, which seems markedly more somber than the optimistic outlook he seems to have about his incarceration during the writing of the Prison Epistles (e.g., Philippians 1:21-26; Philemon 1:22), suggests that this incarceration was not the same as his house arrest. If so, then it is possible that between his first and second incarcerations in Rome Paul fulfilled his intention to travel to Spain to continue spreading the gospel (Romans 15:22-28). Just prior to his second incarceration in Rome, Paul had informed Titus that he planned to spend the winter in Nicopolis northwest of Achaia and asked him to meet him there (Titus 3:12). Perhaps it was around this time or soon after that he was arrested once again and brought to Rome. Paul’s ultimate fate is not noted in Scripture, but tradition (Clement, Dionysius, Eusebius, and Tertullian) attests that this final imprisonment of Paul took place at what is now called Mamertine Prison. During Paul’s time this was the only prison in Rome and was called simply “the Prison,” and it was not typically used for long term incarceration but rather for holding those awaiting imminent execution. There, during the reign of Nero, Paul met his earthly death by the sword and was received into eternal life by his loving Savior, whom he had served so long.

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