Don't Know Much About History, Part 2

Don't Know Much About History
(Continued)

Using Software Tools to better understand the world of the Bible.

Would the real Bethlehem please stand up?

Let's start by locating the towns of Bethlehem and Ramah on a map, which will at least help us to see how these towns relate to one another geographically. With the Accordance Bible Atlas, this is as simple as selecting a place name in any Accordance Bible text and clicking the Map button on the Amplify palette. Accordance will then open a Map window with the selected place name highlighted and centered in the map. Thus, if we select the word "Bethlehem" in Matthew 2:16 and click the map button, the following window will appear:

The surprising thing about this map is that it shows not one, but two Bethlehems. How do we know which is the one spoken of in Matthew 2:16-18, the Bethlehem where Christ was born and where the innocents were slaughtered? We can find out simply by double-clicking the name of either Bethlehem on the map. Doing so takes us to the article on Bethlehem in the Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide, an add-on module which gives detailed descriptions of nearly every important Biblical location, illustrated with high-quality color photographs.

The PhotoGuide lists a Bethlehem in the tribal territory of Zebulun, which was probably the home of the judge Ibzan, and Bethlehem Ephrathah in the tribal territory of Judah. It is this latter Bethlehem which was the home of David, the birthplace of Christ, and the object of Herod's fury.

But the question remains, which of the two Bethlehems displayed on the map is Bethlehem Ephrathah, the Bethlehem with which we are concerned?

Layers of Understanding

To see which of the Bethlehems displayed on the map is the "right" one, we need to know where the tribal territories of Zebulun and Judah were, something which the current map doesn't show. If our map was nothing more than a static image, we would have to go looking for another map, one which displayed the regions occupied by each of the twelve tribes. Fortunately, the Accordance Bible Atlas is more than just a collection of maps: it is a fully interactive database of geographical information, enabling us to change the map on the fly in order to get the information we need.

Let's look more closely at the top part of the Map window:

Each of the various pop-up menus you see specifies a different layer of information which can be displayed on the map. By selecting different items in each of these pop-ups, you can change the background, specify the sites which are displayed, view the regional boundaries from different periods, or follow the course of various Biblical routes. In this case, we want to change the region layer pop-up menu from its default setting of "Geographic names" to the layer displaying the "Tribes of Israel." Doing so changes our map so that it appears as follows:

Now we can see immediately that the southernmost of the two Bethlehems is the Bethlehem referred to in Matthew 2, because it is the one located in Judah rather than Zebulun.

So What About Ramah?

Okay, so now we know where Bethlehem is, but what about Ramah? Where is it located, and what is its relationship to Bethlehem? To find this out, we need only return to the text of the Bible, select the word Ramah in Matthew 2:18, and click the Map button again. Our Map window will now be updated to look like this:

As with Bethlehem, Accordance finds two Ramahs on the map, one in the territory of Naphtali, and one in the territory of Benjamin. Double-clicking on either of them will again bring up the PhotoGuide, which lists no less than five different towns in ancient Israel by the name of Ramah. The PhotoGuide makes it clear however that it is the Ramah in Benjamin which concerns us here. Not coincidentally, it is clear from the map that Ramah and Bethlehem were relatively close to one another.

Next Page: How Close is Close Enough? -->

Let's start by locating the towns of Bethlehem and Ramah on a map, which will at least help us to see how these towns relate to one another geographically. With the Accordance Bible Atlas, this is as simple as selecting a place name in any Accordance Bible text and clicking the Map button on the Amplify palette. Accordance will then open a Map window with the selected place name highlighted and centered in the map. Thus, if we select the word "Bethlehem" in Matthew 2:16 and click the map button, the following window will appear:

The surprising thing about this map is that it shows not one, but two Bethlehems. How do we know which is the one spoken of in Matthew 2:16-18, the Bethlehem where Christ was born and where the innocents were slaughtered? We can find out simply by double-clicking the name of either Bethlehem on the map. Doing so takes us to the article on Bethlehem in the Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide, an add-on module which gives detailed descriptions of nearly every important Biblical location, illustrated with high-quality color photographs.

The PhotoGuide lists a Bethlehem in the tribal territory of Zebulun, which was probably the home of the judge Ibzan, and Bethlehem Ephrathah in the tribal territory of Judah. It is this latter Bethlehem which was the home of David, the birthplace of Christ, and the object of Herod's fury.

But the question remains, which of the two Bethlehems displayed on the map is Bethlehem Ephrathah, the Bethlehem with which we are concerned?

To see which of the Bethlehems displayed on the map is the "right" one, we need to know where the tribal territories of Zebulun and Judah were, something which the current map doesn't show. If our map was nothing more than a static image, we would have to go looking for another map, one which displayed the regions occupied by each of the twelve tribes. Fortunately, the Accordance Bible Atlas is more than just a collection of maps: it is a fully interactive database of geographical information, enabling us to change the map on the fly in order to get the information we need.

Each of the various pop-up menus you see specifies a different layer of information which can be displayed on the map. By selecting different items in each of these pop-ups, you can change the background, specify the sites which are displayed, view the regional boundaries from different periods, or follow the course of various Biblical routes. In this case, we want to change the region layer pop-up menu from its default setting of "Geographic names" to the layer displaying the "Tribes of Israel." Doing so changes our map so that it appears as follows:

Now we can see immediately that the southernmost of the two Bethlehems is the Bethlehem referred to in Matthew 2, because it is the one located in Judah rather than Zebulun.

So What About Ramah?

Okay, so now we know where Bethlehem is, but what about Ramah? Where is it located, and what is its relationship to Bethlehem? To find this out, we need only return to the text of the Bible, select the word Ramah in Matthew 2:18, and click the Map button again. Our Map window will now be updated to look like this:

As with Bethlehem, Accordance finds two Ramahs on the map, one in the territory of Naphtali, and one in the territory of Benjamin. Double-clicking on either of them will again bring up the PhotoGuide, which lists no less than five different towns in ancient Israel by the name of Ramah. The PhotoGuide makes it clear however that it is the Ramah in Benjamin which concerns us here. Not coincidentally, it is clear from the map that Ramah and Bethlehem were relatively close to one another.