Dan Mazar To Lead Update of Milestone Bible Reference Book

The International Publishing Company J-M, one of the Israel's oldest publishing houses, has recently contracted Jerusalem historian Dan Mazar, the Managing Editor of Israel's predominant newspaper for Christians, the Jerusalem Christian Review, to chair the editorial board for its' reprint of the historic biblical reference series, “Views of the Biblical World”.

Also published under the name “World of the Bible”, the five-volume publication, which was first published in 1959 by International Publishing Company J-M and Jordan Publications in New York, was widely acclaimed at the time as a milestone. The book series was the first dedicated exclusively to the correlation of archaeological and historical discoveries in the Holy Land with the New and Old Testament biblical texts.

“This landmark series of reference books included contributions from the most renown biblical scholars and archaeologists of the day. It was the first to take each chapter, and in some cases even each verse, of the biblical narrative and publish a detailed commentary on the geographical, historical and archaeological discoveries in the Bible Lands related to those passages,” says Jerusalem historian Michael Leon. “The last volume, number 5, was dedicated exclusively to discoveries related to the New Testament.”

According to book-reviewer Ivan Caine, the benchmark book series included, “pictures and text [which are even today] invaluable for personal enrichment and... for teachers and preachers in college or clerical classes.” Indeed, some fifty years after its' release, the series is still found in most major libraries, Universities and Bible schools.

Dan Mazar, , who has been commissioned to head the editorial board of the new publication, is the third generation to be involved in this work. His grandfather, the world renown archaeologist and former president of the Hebrew University, Prof. Benjamin Mazar, was the original Chairman of the project in 1959. The elder Mazar was well known for his involvement in the identification of the Dead Seas Scrolls as well as his historic excavations at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The younger Mazar's father, biblical historian Dr. Ory Mazar, also directed the original publication of the “Views of the Biblical World” as the Editorial Manager of the five-volume set.

The junior Dan Mazar himself is highly regarded in the field, having authored numerous works on Christian-Israel relations and Second Temple archaeology, mostly published in Christian journals. He is a former Chairman of the political action group, the Christian Mid-East Conference, and is regarded as the architect of the first Worldwide Link of Prayer from Jerusalem in the early 1990s lead by the former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Among the other contributors to the original series were archaeologists William Albright, Yigael Yadin and Michael Avi-Yonah. Albright later commented that the book series was, “magnificently conceived... [It enabled] the reader to visualize the world of the Hebrew Bible as never before.” Renown phylosopher Martin Buber wrote that the book series was the first to show, “a comprehensive view of the countries and civilizations amid which the people of the Bible lived and developed.”

According to company sources, much of the original commentary will still be included, but will be updated with the latest archaeological and historical research. The new book release will follow the same editorial policy of the original Editorial Board, which wrote at the time that, “we... base our material on the results of the very latest biblical research, while presenting it in a form readily understood by [both academics and] the general reader.”

Borrowing from the words of Israel's second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the publishers state their aim for the new release of “Views of the Biblical World” will be to, “provide students of the Bible throughout the world with a clear picture, based on the most recent scientific conclusions, of the physical, ethnic and historical surroundings in which... the biblical stories [occurred].”