GREAT DISCOVERIES SALE!

[R. Mansfield]

LEARN FROM THE PAST with great deals on CHURCH HISTORY Resources for the Accordance Digital Library!

 

Discover ancient wisdom and save BIG on the following titles for Accordance:

• NEW! The Reformation Commentary on Scripture (9 volumes)--45% off!

• Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (29 volumes)--35% off!

• Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity--45% off!

• Ancient Christian Devotional (3 volumes)--30% off!

• Ancient Christian Doctrine (5 volumes)--35% off!

• Historic Views of the Holy Land: Bible Places - Views that Have Vanished--33% off!

• Historic Views of the Holy Land: Bible Places - American Colony Collection--33% off!

• Churches & Monasteries in Israel--20% off!

• 100 Archaeological Sites and Biblical Landscapes in Israel--20% off!

• Deissmann's Light from the Ancient East--30% off!

• Wood's Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources--25% off!

 

Special prices for the titles listed above are good through July 11, 2016 (11:59 PM EDT) and cannot be combined with any other discounts.

 

 

 

For more information see today's blog post!

[ukfraser]

Hi, i keep looking at views that have vanished ( bit of a 6x6 nut) and wondered if anyone who has this resource would like to comment on how often they find themselves using it and what they particularly like. I have spent ages comparing the complete list of images with other resources.

 

Thanks

[A.D. Riddle]

Have you looked at these pages?

http://www.lifeintheholyland.com/views_vanished_david_bivin_1960s.htm

http://www.lifeintheholyland.com/views_vanished_bivin_then_now.htm

 

 

The producer, Todd Bolen, wrote an essay entitled "The Collection’s Value" which I have pasted below.

 

A.D.

 

The Collection’s Value

by Todd Bolen

This collection was a tremendous joy to develop because of the many excellent photographs that helped me to see and appreciate the land of Israel the way it looked before I was born. From archaeological sites to military parades, I was continually fascinated by one "discovery" after another. The following is my perspective on the contribution that the photographs of David Bivin make for us today.

 

A Window into the Past

Everyone loves to go back to a place where they grew up decades after their last visit and to reminisce about how things used to be. The connection that many people have with Jerusalem and Israel is both similar and different to this. Most lovers of Jerusalem have never lived there – their love derives from the stories of Scripture and perhaps their own visits to the city. But there is a huge gap between how the places look now and how they looked in biblical times. That is one reason why we love to see images of these places from times past. Even if the 1960s do not seem so long ago, it may be accurate to say that as much has changed in the last 40 years as in the previous 2000 years. Whether or not they are quantifiable, the changes of the last four decades have been quite dramatic in certain parts of the biblical lands. Photos like Bivin’s give us a window into the past that is both educational and enjoyable.

 

Continuous Presence

There is a difference between the photographs of a tourist and one who calls Israel home. While Bivin only expected to live in Jerusalem for one year, he has now lived in Israel for more than 45 years. Most of his photographs were taken before 1970 (in this collection, 625 of 700 date to 1963-1969). They cover many biblical sites and modern events. Bivin’s presence in the land allowed him to get photographs which an intermittent visitor likely does not have the opportunity to take.

 

Color Photographs

Many people took photographs of the Holy Land in the 20th century. Until the 1960s, however, most of these photographs were black-and-white. Thus, Bivin has provided us with some of the earliest color photographs of Jerusalem and the surrounding countries.

 

Photographic Skill

Prior to his move to Israel in 1963, Bivin invested in a high-quality, medium-format camera. This camera and its special film immediately stood Bivin apart from other visitors with their 35mm cameras. For Bivin, taking photographs was not just another part of his experience, it was something he approached with serious responsibility. His camera was the window to the biblical world for the family he had left behind and the groups to whom they would later show the slides. Film was expensive, as was the cost of developing, and with only twelve photographs per roll, Bivin framed his photographs carefully and shot wisely.

 

Dramatic Moments

When Bivin first traveled to Israel in 1963, he could not have known of the dramatic, world-changing events that would occur in the decades that followed. His presence in Jerusalem enabled him to capture such fascinating events as the aftermath of the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, the Independence Day celebration of 1968 when Israel paraded military hardware captured from its enemies, and the mourning procession for Egyptian president Nasser in 1970. Besides current events, Bivin photographed many sites that would soon be altered by excavation and/or construction. For instance, King Hussein of Jordan intended to build a palace for himself at the spot of the palace of King Saul, Israel’s first monarch. Prior to the beginning of construction on Hussein’s palace in 1965, an archaeological excavation revealed evidence of King Saul’s palace. Bivin captured this discovery with his camera before the foundations of Hussein’s palace covered the remains. Incidentally, only the skeleton of Hussein’s new building had been erected when the Israeli army captured the West Bank in 1967. The palace was never completed and the site has remained unchanged from how it appeared then.

 

Important Sites

Though Bivin’s research would later focus on the Synoptic Gospels, his first decade in Israel found him doing significant work in historical geography and archaeology. As part of his training and teaching, he traveled all over Israel and the East and West Banks of Jordan with his camera in hand. He photographed on-going excavations at Megiddo, Ashdod, Masada, Arad, and Gezer.  He led groups to rarely-visited sites such as Dothan, Tirzah, Shiloh, Gophna, Tell el-Hesi, Tell Jemmeh, Mamre, Beit Zeitha, and Jebel Qaaqir. Some of his photographs are fascinating because they predate later excavations that radically altered the appearance of sites such as Beth Shean, Arad, and Caesarea. Some photographs are intriguing because the appearance of a site has since been altered by later construction or reconstruction (e.g., Peter’s house at Capernaum, now covered by a Catholic church; the area around the Hebron Machpelah which is now a tourist plaza). Some sites were recently excavated when Bivin photographed them. Today they are overgrown, buried, or poorly preserved (e.g., Dothan, Tirzah, Shiloh, Samaria). Some sites are no longer accessible (e.g., Tel Malhata lies inside an Israeli military base). Some sites have deteriorated because of time or vandalism (e.g., the sheikh’s tomb at Gerar, the standing stones at Gezer). A number of the photos are of places and from vantage points that are simply not accessible today because of construction or security.

 

Jerusalem

Much has changed in Jerusalem since 1963. Until 1967, Bivin could only enter the Old City of Jerusalem as a Christian pilgrim for a few days at a time, around Christmas and Easter. He had to cross into Jordan via the Mandelbaum Gate. Other parts of the city were in “no-man’s land.” Following Israel’s capture of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967, much was done to renovate the city, especially near the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and the western wall of the Old City. Bivin photographed the excavations south of the Temple Mount both near their inception in 1968 and shortly after the completion of Mazar’s work in 1977, when everything was newly cleared but not yet cluttered with signs and handrails. Bivin was present at the Western Wall when the prayer plaza was being created. He was on the scene when crates of Jordanian ammunition were being removed from the Citadel of David. He captured the streams of Israelis finally able to visit the most ancient parts of the holy city, off limits to them during the decades of Arab control.

 

Noteworthy Individuals

It is fair to say that most people now visiting the Holy Lands or studying the Bible have arrived too late to meet or to have known many of the giants in the disciplines. It is probably also fair to say that many of these individuals were not viewed as “giants” at the time, but history has given us a better perspective of the significance of their contributions. Thus it is gratifying for one who has read many of the works of Yigael Yadin to see him in action in the field. A great scholar of Jerusalem, Michael Avi-Yonah, was another of Bivin’s teachers and posed for a photo with him. Other legends in the field were photographed by Bivin, including Nelson Glueck, Abraham Malamat, Yohanan Aharoni, Ephraim Stern, Avraham Negev, Gabriel Barkay, and Anson Rainey. Some of these photos show one generation of scholars teaching the next. One of my favorite photographs in this regard captures Aharoni teaching at Tel Erani, with (my teacher) Amihai Mazar standing behind him yawning! Another photo shows one Jerusalem legend next to another: Michael Avi-Yonah standing with Gabriel Barkay. At the time, of course, Bivin did not know what the significance of this photograph would be. In 1968, Barkay was a classmate of Bivin and had yet to make his contribution to the archaeological world with regard to the dating of the St. Etienne tombs, the Garden Tomb, and the excavation of the Ketef Hinnom tombs with their famous silver amulets. In his notes, Bivin had described the shot simply as a photograph of Avi-Yonah. But having been a student of Barkay, I immediately recognized my teacher in the photo as a young man. When I showed Barkay the picture, his face filled with emotion, as he recalled many memories of his beloved professor. Maybe I am unique in this regard, but I am cognizant of my teaching lineage, and though I have never met most of them, the teachers of my teachers are appreciated by me.

 

Photographer’s Perspective

Another significant benefit of this collection is the personal perspective that Bivin brings to the photographs. He has provided notes for many of the pictures — sometimes they are more historical in nature, and at other times, they are more personal. Bivin is modest given his significant achievements, and sometimes I would have to prod him to provide us with personal details surrounding a photograph. Some of the viewers of this collection know Bivin personally, and others will have studied under him through his lecture tours in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. But my feeling has always been that everyone enjoys eyewitness testimony, even if they have never known the individual. Thus, Bivin has supplied some fascinating background to the pictures. (These explanations are provided in the PowerPoint files.)

 

Availability

Finally, one additional point worth noting is that much of the value of this collection lies in its availability. Bivin was not the only one living in Israel taking photographs throughout the 1960s. He has never claimed to be a professional photographer. His interests were divided by school, friends, and other issues of life. So while his photographs at the time may not have been singularly valuable, today they are because they are now available to the public. The work of other photographers is today locked in cabinets, where they will never be digitized and published. Some photographic collections have undoubtedly been passed down to heirs who don’t realize their significance. Other photographs are restricted to stock photography collections, available for purchase only to those who can afford to pay premium prices (namely, publishers). Some collections undoubtedly have not been well preserved or have been discarded. Fortunately, Bivin (and for many years, his mother) took great care to preserve his collection. And later, in the providence of God, our paths crossed. Bivin was not afraid to entrust his collection to me, and the Lord provided me with a situation where I could embark on this project. Now, four years after starting the initial sorting and scanning, it is a delight to see this work complete.

 

 

 

By the way, what does "6x6 nut" mean?

 

A.D.

[ukfraser]

Yashica tlr uses 120 format film and images are square and 6cm by 6 cm or 2.25 by 2.25 inches rather than the more usual 35mm format of slrs (old film format, history lesson).

 

I think there is something very special about square images. Think about vinyl and cd covers! ;o) the initial images on early manned space flights were all shot on a 6x6 camera.

 

And thanks, AD, yes i had seen it and this is why i keep being drawn back to the resource. And much as i appreciate the quality and material, i wonder how much i would actually use it. Hence my question about how others are using it compared to other image collections. Its a brilliant price and not something likely to break the bank. But...

 

I have the cultural image set which is another excellent resource, and i enjoy looking at the images but find i am not using them as much as i expected.

Edited July 9, 2016 by ukfraser

[R. Mansfield]

Two things:

 

(1) I use the Views that Have Vanished photos regularly when I teach the Bible at church. These photos are amazing because they were taken before modern industrialization and depict life in biblical locales much as it had existed for thousands of years. If you put them in your PowerPoint or Keynote slides, be certain to put them through a sepia tone filter for that extra antique look!

 

And..

 

(2) Only HOURS remain to save big on the Reformation Commentary on Scripture, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Views that Have Vanished and everything else you see in the original post!