Selected Links Associated with the Book
I am indebted to so many people and have truly stood on the shoulders of giants. Please find below several links to websites, individuals, computer programs, and books that were indispensable in the writing of The Bridge to the New Testament. Individual references to these resources, and hundreds more, are throughout the book, but I wanted to call attention to these in particular.
People, Books & Models
I cannot even begin to descibe how thankful I am to David Hendin, perhaps the world's leading expert on Biblical coinage. I would highly recommend his book, Guide to Biblical Coins, if you want to explore the breadth and depth of this subject of which I only scratched the surface in Chapter 14. He was kind enough to examine the coins I have collected over the years and verify they are authentic. He identified the fake overstrike of the coin mentioned in The Bridge to the New Testament, Table 14-9.
The Temple model kit shown in Chapter 12 (Photo 12-17) was put together by Scott Schneider, and his site can be found here. The models (Herod's and Solomon's Temples) are very well done. The parts themselves are very well made with precise tolerances, and the instructions very accurately step through the construction process. You can see a picture of the Temple model that I put together with his kit at his site.
One source that I used extensively in my book was from the life-long work of Leen Ritmeyer. His book, The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is an essential addition to your library if you are interested in ancient Jerusalem and the real-estate of the Temple Mount. His site contains many archaeological drawings and depictions of sites throughout the Biblical world.
Another book along the lines of Ritmeyer's is Jerusalem: History, Archaeology and Apologetic Proof of Scripture by Galyn Wiemers. I carried his book on the plane with me to Israel as a reference to the sites we would see there, particularly the Temple Mount. His site can be found here.People, Maps & Photos
All of the maps in The Bridge to the New Testament were done in Bible Mapper by David Barrett, a completely interactive and customizable solution for any period of history and any region associated with the Bible. I highly recommend this software if you are a Bible teacher or minister looking for a relatively easy to use map generator.
Another source that I used a good bit was World History Maps by Thomas Lessman. A static book like mine does not begin to do justice to this amazing resource, however. He has maps of the entire world with every year of human history! A truly massive and impressive undertaking!
If you are looking for photos of Bible places, look no further than BiblePlaces.com, a comprehensive series of photo collections put together by Dr. Todd Bolen. His photo companion to the Bible and pictoral library of Bible lands contain literally thousands (!) of high-quality pictures with full explanations of each. If you are a Bible teacher or minister, this site is a must.Online Resources
There are many online resources for looking up Bible passages. One of my favorites that I used often was Oremus Bible Browser, mainly because it contained the Apocrypha for the versions that have these books (I almost exclusively used the New Revised Standard Version).
The Biblical Archaeology Society contains a treasure trove of articles on all things related to Biblical archaeology. I would highly recommend a subscription to their print publication if you want to stay abreast of current archaeology finds and scholarship.
Much of what we know of the inter-testament period is from Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian that lived from about 37 to 100 AD. His Jewish name was Yosef ben Matityahu, but he took the name of Flavius from his benefactor, the Roman Emperor Vespasian of the Flavian Dynasty. One site, which I used extensively, contains the complete works of Josephus in a very well-organized manner.
They (you know, the internet) said it couldn't be done, at least not easily. Many references will say that you cannot write a multi-hundred-page book in Microsoft Word, but I did. One site, run by Allen Wyatt, that helped me tremendously was tips.net. If you have a problem that you need solved in Word (or Excel or Windows), this is your site!