If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a collection of 10,000 pictures worth?  I hope that you will forgive the pitch here, but I wanted to make you aware of a phenomenal new resource:  the Photo Companion to the Bible.  Starting with the Gospels, my friend-colleague Todd Bolen and his team over at BiblePlaces.com have curated the most comprehensive collection of photos of places and objects and routes related to the text of the Gospels.  Organized verse-by-verse in a simple Powerpoint format, sharp photos, vintage shots, aerial vistas, museum artifacts, and well-marked maps are just a few of the contents of this collection.  The Photo Companion to the Gospels is, quite possibly, the next best thing to actually going to Israel.  And I don’t say that lightly.

The collection is available for purchase at BiblePlaces.com as a complete collection, or as in individual Gospel, as a CD, or as an immediate download.

If you want to see a little more of how it works, here is a Powerpoint that will explain more about the content and layout.  Please note that each picture has notes that explain the content at the bottom of each slide.

Short-demo-PCB

I can’t tell you how often when I am teaching the Gospels, I want to say, “If I could only show you what this looks like, you would understand so much better.”  My thousand words often fail, but these photos will bring clarity, understanding, and delight to the teacher and the students alike.

And while you are poking around BiblePlaces.com, you will note additional resources galore, including other photo collections; BiblePlaces Blog – important new stories related to biblical archaeology; BiblePlaces Newsletter – free photos and announcements of new releases 2-4 times a year; and daily photo with verse or caption on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

And speaking of vintage photos, here is one for you.  Traveling the Land, hiking the trails, tasting the bread, seeing the stage on which the Lord directed much of human history is truly awesome.  Seeing 10,000 pictures is the next best thing.