This week we have two copies of the excellent Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus to give away, courtesy of Zondervan. I have already heaped effusive praise upon this book earlier in the year, and

I’ll quote just briefly from what we said then:

This book brims with insights. I love to learn new things about familiar and dear subjects, and again and again I found myself writing in the margin an exclamation mark or a reminder to return to that page.

Amazon has dozens of five-star reviews, many of which communicate the value of the book better than I have. The author, Lois Tverberg, also has a website with excerpts, articles, and a blog.

We have one drawing from which we will select two winners at random.

You may enter the drawing one time only. Email addresses will be used only to notify the winners. The contest ends on Friday.

Congratulations to Coleman B. and Jimmy R., winners of The Holy Land Revealed, produced by The Great Courses.

We plan to have giveaways of other resources in the weeks to come and you’re invited to enter those drawings. Thanks to all who entered.

I see that The Holy Land Revealed is still available for 70% off at www.thegreatcourses.com, in both DVD and video download formats.

The timing of this giveaway is ideal for two reasons: (1) Yesterday Jodi Magness announced the discovery of a mosaic depicting Samson in a synagogue she is excavating in Galilee; (2) the DVD course we are giving away is now on sale. (Last week when a friend wrote and asked about the course, we checked and it was available for $375. Today it is $99.95.)

We gave The Holy Land Revealed away when it first was created more than a year ago and we would just echo some of our comments there.

The instructor of The Holy Land Revealed is Jodi Magness, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This video DVD course includes 36 half-hour lectures on 6 DVDs.  You can see a complete list of the lectures in the right sidebar on this page, but I’ll just note a few of particular interest here:

• Biblical Jerusalem’s Ancient Water Systems
• Samaria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel
• Discovery and Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Herod as Builder—Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
• Monumental Tombs in the Time of Jesus
• Masada—Herod’s Desert Palace and the Siege

A quibble: the course is entitled “The Holy Land Revealed.”  This is a potentially ambiguous title.  I was expecting more of a geography-type course.  But this is clearly focused on archaeological discoveries that illuminate the land’s history.  Not only that, you should know that it is not evenly balanced across the periods.  This is not surprising if you know Magness’ expertise.  Naturally she is going to teach at greater length what she knows best.

The Holy Land Revealed is not something produced or sold by BiblePlaces.com, but we believe that it is a useful resource that our readers would enjoy. The course does include dozens of photos licensed from our collection, but we receive no royalties from sales.


We have two copies to give away. One will be given away to entrants who use the email form. The other will go to those who enter with PunchTab. You can enter either or both. If you cannot see the forms below, click here. The giveaway ends this Friday at noon Eastern Time. We have no idea how long the sale will last.

(We need your email address to notify you if you win. We will not use it for anything else.)