Walking the Bible with Bruce Feiler: Book and Documentary Film Review

Itineraries emphasize places actually or apparently linked with events in the lives of:

• Abraham (21^st century B.C.E.); and
• Moses (13^th century B.C.E.).

They also follow other earlier and intervening bio-geographies. The trek indeed goes from Adam’s and Eve’s mysterious Garden of Eden out of whose river flow the still-known Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and the unknown Gihon River of Cush and Pishon River of gold-, jewel-, and perfume-rich Havilah.

The biblical stroll heads on to the Northern Kurdistan cultural sub-region of modern-day southeastern Turkey. It thereby accesses Mount Ararat, final resting-place of Noah’s animal-sheltering, family-filled, flood-proof, football field-sized ark. It then jumps forward spatially and temporally to the geo-historical address of Abraham, descendant of Noah’s son Shem. 

Villagers keep alive traditional beliefs in Abraham as a native son of Sanlıurfa in Turkey, not Ur in ancient Iraq. Either way, biblical peregrinations lead to:

• Aramea, where Abraham’s father Terah dies in Harran; and
• Canaan, where Abraham and his half-sister and wife make northward and southward stops in Shechem and then Bethel and Negev;
• Egypt; and
• southern Canaan, where Abraham and Sarah die in Hebron, Abraham’s child Isaac escapes sacrifice on Moriah (at modern-day Jerusalem’s Temple Mount), and Abraham’s nephew Lot’s wife expires outside Gomorrah and Sodom (near the present Dead Sea).

Before considering the events and places in Moses’ bio-geography, they memorialize Abraham’s son Isaac, grandson Jacob, and great-grandson Joseph of the 18^th century B.C.E. 

Isaac’s biography necessitates sojourns within the Negev at:

• Gerar;
• Hebron; and
• Kadesh.

Jacob contrastingly opts to relocate to Egypt. Goshen to the northeast of modern-day Cairo indeed protects Joseph, Joseph’s brother and half-brothers, and their descendants from the 18^th century onward.

But well before Moses’ adoption into the royal household, Egyptians question continued thanks to Jacob’s people for Joseph’s problem-solving famine and plague. Collective amnesia results in Moses’ exodus of Jacob’s descendants through the Reed Sea (at modern-day Lake Timsah) to the Sinai wilderness. Bible walks with Moses then stop at:

• Jebel Musa, near St. Catherine’s burning bush monastery;
• Kadesh; and
• Mount Nebo’s view of Canaan.

But their representation by Bruce Feiler touches readers and viewers forever. 

My special thanks to:

• Talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the Internet;
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Feiler, Bruce. Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of the Three Faiths. New York, NY: William Morrow imprint, HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. 

Feiler, Bruce. Walking the Bible. KQED presents a production of TMC Entertainment executive produced by Drew S. Levin, produced by Rebecca Dobbs, directed by David Wallace. Telescript by Alex Gregory & Joan Meyerson edited by Ash Hasen. Boston, MA: WGBH Video, 2006.

Feiler, Bruce. Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land through the Five Books of Moses. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. 

Feiler, Bruce. Walking the Bible: A Photographic Journey. New York, NY: William Morrow imprint, HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. 

Feiler, Bruce. Walking the Bible:  An Illustrated Journey for Kids through the Greatest Stories Ever Told. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004. 

Feiler, Bruce. Where God Was Born: A Journey by Land to the Roots of Religion. New York, NY: William Morrow imprint, HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.