Sunday, March 28, 2010

On "On Roman Roads with St. Paul" by R. Martin Pope ***

This short text essentially gives geographic background to Paul's travels. It's quite good though perhaps too concise. Pope provides information on how the towns--and most especially the roads--would have appeared in Paul's day, a bit of history regarding each place, and often information on how the area appears today. Clearly, much has changed, but the landscape itself in some cases is probably similar, even if structures, indeed whole towns, have long since disappeared. The disadvantage of the contemporary descriptions: the book was written in 1939. I'm certain that much has changed even since then. But it was nice to read of Paul's journeys in a landscape context and from an author who took his primary sources seriously.

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