I am slowly recovering from jet lag, but it is complicated a bit by the heat. We are in the middle of a seven day stretch of 100 degree weather that won’t end until Sunday.

I have some ideas for some posts that build on the images that I shared during my trip to Israel, but it is a bit hard to concentrate tonight.

Instead, I will share a bit of reading material that I have picked up in the past week.

I will start with The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor.

This is a great resource as it covers most of the major archaeological sites in Israel. I have already looked through part of this guide as Luke has carried his copy with him during our past trips to Israel.

I saw a copy at the bookstore in the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. I may have been able to get it a bit cheaper on-line here at home, but decided that I would always have memories of buying it in Jerusalem when I use it. That is worth the dollars that I would have saved.

We had walked over to the American Colony Hotel to see something interesting. However, that is another story.

On Sunday afternoon I stopped by the library. While looking through the book sale books I ran across a copy of Paul the Traveller: St. Paul and his World by Ernle Bradford. I have read a few sections of the book and it gives a nice overview of the world that Paul lived in.

Bradford was a historian, but also spent 30 years sailing in the Mediterranean so has some good insight into the travels of Paul.

Last night I went to my mailbox and found the latest issue of BAR: Biblical Archaeology Review. Right away the cover reminded me of items that I saw last week in the Israel Museum.

I have scanned through the magazine and look forward to reading several of the articles. I will most likely write another post in my In the BAR series sometime within the next week. I am already thinking about some of my pictures that relate to the article about Pontius Pilate.

Now to check and see if it is cool enough to open windows.

Steven