What is geobasics? - Geology, tectonics, erosion and mineralogy greatly shaped the story of the Bible. How so? In the modern world we seldom think about the effects of rocks, landforms and soils on our lives, but the ancient world lived with close attention to these geographical basics, which form the root of our new release's title, Geobasics in the Land of the Bible. Geobasics and Biblical History - Rocks and their derivatives provide the basic blocks of human life, culture and history. They provide building materials, tools, systems which store water and soils for agriculture. They also determine the paths of streams and roads as well as the locations of cities. When people settled in villages and cities, each city began its own story. Questions naturally arise. Why did people congregate here? How did they the use the surrounding rocks and soils? How could they survive and even thrive? What communication links do they have with outside areas? Answers lie in a city’s setting and the region surrounding it. Indeed, each city reflects the geographical basics of its region, and these basics in turn greatly impact the city’s story as well as its place within biblical history. Geobasics provides the stage of biblical history. Geobasics in the Land of the Bible is an exciting, completely new revision of the out-of-print Geographical Basics in the Land of the Bible. The first edition of this resource served as a useful tool in advancing a regional approach to the land. Thousands of students at Jerusalem University College (fka: American Institute of Holy Land Studies) learned the basic composition of the land through this tool, and at the request of many who learned to love the land with the booklet in hand, Biblical Backgrounds offers this completely revised edition with twelve full color spreads built on Biblical Background's unique topographical data of the land. Pages 2-3: Northern Arena—rocks and soils map of Lebanon, Galilee and Bashan Pages 4-5: Central Arena—rocks and soils map of Samaria, Ephraim, Judah, Gilead and the Medeba Plateau Pages 6-7: Southern Arena—rocks and soils map of the Negev, Southern Highlands, Moab and Edom Pages 8-9: Lebanon Ranges, Beqaa and Damascus—soils and detailed relief Pages 10-11: Galilee, Golan, Jezreel and Lower Gilead—soils and detailed relief Pages 12-13: From Baalbek to Petra—full color rocks and soils map of the entire Land Between Pages 14-15: Lake Galilee and the Galilean Depression—soils and detailed relief Pages 16-17: Sharon, Samaria, Ephraim and Upper Gilead—soils and detailed relief Pages 18-19: Philistia, Judah, the Rift and Moab—soils and detailed relief Pages 20-21: Judah’s Shephelah, Hills and Wilderness—soils and detailed relief Pages 22-23: Negev, Southern Highlands and Edom—soils and detailed relief Geobasics in the Land of the Bible is off the press and will be ready for sale on June 1, 2008. Prices: $14.95—single copy $12.95—25-100 copies $10.95—100+ copies Geobasics Downloads— Geobasics Guide: The Guide introduces the features of the book and leads the user through basic marking of regional divisions with discussions of geopolitical and geoeconomic overtones. These are historical facts as well as fine distinctions of meaning that the biblical writer assumed his audience understood, but few people today appreciate. It is true that the biblical message stands loud and clear without this background, but with it the text and its message are set once again within a nuanced, living world—and many shades of meaning, muted with the passage of time, emerge once again in full color. NB: The Guide is a work in process; please check this page frequently for updated versions. The pdf may no look correct on your screen but if you pull it to your desktop and open it in Acrobat Reader it will be appear and print correctly. Geobasics-JUC Guide: The Geobasics-JUC Guide contains basic markings instructions for Geobasics in the Land of the Bible, pp. 8-23, which is not yet covered in the larger Guide discussed above. It is a special work dedicated to the needs of the many students studying at Jerusalem University College in Jerusalem, Israel during the summer of 2008. The pdf may no look correct on your screen but if you pull it to your desktop and open it in Acrobat Reader it will be appear and print correctly.