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.

Bruce Feiler documented in book and film formats his exploratory journey of 10,000 miles through the real places of the first five books of the Old Testament.
Bruce Feiler appeared as one of 11 History and Biography speakers at 2006 National Book Festival in Washington DC.
History and Biography Pavilion, National Mall, Washington DC; Sunday, September 30, 2006, 12:22:51: Ellen (ellen.w), CC BY-ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenw/257498077/

Bruce Feiler visits Mount Ararat to explore reference in Book of Genesis to Mountains of Ararat as resting place of Noah's Ark.
NASA-generated image of Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat's two volcanic peaks, year-round snow-covered Big Ararat (center) and Little Ararat (right) in NASA's 3-D perspective view, from southwest; simulated natural color image over ASTER-derived digital topography model; June 25, 2002
Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team: NASA, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ararat_ast_2002176_lrg.jpg

Saint Catherine's Monastery was built in 6th century to enclose site of burning bush seen by Moses.
Historic monastery, with old, unique books and living burning bush, was inscribed in 2002 as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Sinai Peninsula: Mediterranean Sea to north, Red Sea to south: Berthold Werner, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katharinenkloster_Sinai_BW_2.jpg

Bruce Feiler and his guide, archaeologist Avner Goren, consider the possibility of Lake Timsah, one of the Bitter Lakes, as the sea of reeds (erroneously written as "red") that enabled Moses and the Israelites to escape their Egyptian pursuers.
dhow (traditional sailing vessel of Red Sea and Indian Ocean) on Lake Timsah
Lake Timsah on Lower, or northern, Egypt's Nile Delta spans isthmus between Red Sea and Mediterranean.: Terry Cliss from Frome, Somerset, United Kingdom, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_casillero_-_Dhow_in_Lake_Timsah.jpg

Bruce Feiler's journey of 10,000 miles follows Moses' footsteps to Mount Nebo, where clear panorama afforded view of Promised Land to the determined patriarch responsible for drawing the Israelites out of Egypt.
Sea of Galilee from Mount Nebo, northwestern Jordan: Maya-Anaïs Yataghène from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Nebo_(9808067103).jpg

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.