Yesterday we marked the first anniversary of the passing of Anson, a great scholar, a superb teacher and above all, a true friend. Along with his unique contribution to the study of Bible Lands – languages, historical geography and history – Anson also was one of Carta’s premier authors.
Rainey working on el-Amarna Letters at The British Museum (photo: Roy Brown)
Two decades ago, Anson revised and updated Aharoni and Avi-Yonah’sThe Macmillan Bible Atlas. Soon after we started discussing a new, ground-breaking work:The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical Worldwith R. Steven Notley, and its popular abridged edition,Carta’s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Biblewhich Anson, somewhat reluctantly, pared down in order “to augment the personal Bible study of all who seek a straightforward understanding of biblical history.” These two we published after a mere decade of gestation. Carta was also fortunate in having Anson – again with R. Steven Notley – update the 5th edition ofTheCarta Bible Atlas.
Teaching History and Historical Geography of Bible Lands: A Syllabusaccompanied Anson on his last U.S. lecture tour. Anson was happy to see in print what turned out to be his last published book.
In our “Recommended Books” section, we wrote the following about The Sacred Bridge. One of the books we treasure most (and which we would never dream of lending out, for fear of being left without it!) is The Sacred Bridge by Anson Rainey and Steven Notley. Reading it is like visiting a library with an erudite companion, who knows all the languages necessary to explore the culture in which you are interested or like walking in Bible lands with an omniscient voice guiding you: “This is the way, walk ye in it!”
