The first map ever included in a printed Bible, created 500 years ago, continues to shape modern ideas about borders and nationhood, according to Nathan MacDonald, Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament at the University of Cambridge.
MacDonald highlights both the achievements and shortcomings of this early map: “This is simultaneously one of publishing’s greatest failures and triumphs,” he says. “They printed the map backwards so the Mediterranean appears to the east of Palestine. People in Europe knew so little about this part of the world that no one in the workshop seems to have realised. But this map transformed the Bible forever and today most Bibles contain maps.”
He explains that contrary to common belief, biblical maps did not simply reflect an existing trend toward marking clear territorial divisions. Instead, these maps themselves contributed to shaping how people viewed territory and borders: “It has been wrongly assumed that biblical maps followed an early modern instinct to create maps with clearly marked territorial divisions,” MacDonald says. “Actually, it was these maps of the Holy Land that led the revolution.
“As more and more people gained access to Bibles from the 17th century, these maps spread a sense of how the world ought to be organised and what their place within it was. This continues to be extremely influential.”
One surviving copy of Christopher Froschauer’s 1525 Old Testament, which contains Cranach’s pioneering Bible map, is held at Trinity College’s Wren Library. The map illustrates both the journey through the wilderness described in scripture and divides up ancient Israel into twelve tribal territories—a layout based on Christian interpretations as well as earlier medieval sources like Josephus.
MacDonald notes that biblical texts such as Joshua 13–19 do not provide a consistent account of tribal territories: “Joshua 13–19 doesn’t offer an entirely coherent, consistent picture of what land and cities were occupied by the different tribes. There are several discrepancies. The map helped readers to make sense of things even if it wasn’t geographically accurate.”
He points out that during the Swiss Reformation—where literal readings of scripture were especially valued—it is fitting that Zürich was where this first Bible map appeared: “It’s no surprise that the first Bible map was published in Zürich.”
With restrictions on religious imagery during this period, maps became a permitted means for spiritual engagement: “When they cast their eyes over Cranach’s map, pausing at Mount Carmel, Nazareth, the River Jordan and Jericho, people were taken on a virtual pilgrimage,” MacDonald says. “In their mind's eye, they travelled across the map, encountering the sacred story as they did so.”
According to MacDonald, including such a map marked a key turning point for how readers experienced scripture alongside other innovations like moving from scrolls to codices or adding chapters and verses: “The Bible has never been an unchanging book,” MacDonald says. “It is constantly transforming”.
Medieval maps had used tribal boundaries mainly for spiritual meaning but by late fifteenth century onwards—partly due to these biblical maps—the idea began spreading that lines on maps represented political borders rather than only religious inheritance.
“Bible maps delineating the territories of the twelve tribes were powerful agents in the development and spread of these ideas,” MacDonald says. “A text that is not about political boundaries in a modern sense became an instance of God’s ordering of the world according to nation-states.”
“Lines on maps started to symbolise the limits of political sovereignties rather than boundless divine promises. This transformed how descriptions of geographical space in scripture were understood.”
He adds: “Early modern notions of nation were influenced by the Bible, but interpretation was itself shaped by new political theories emerging at that time. The Bible was both agent and object in this change.”
Today many people continue viewing borders through a biblical lens; MacDonald cites recent examples such as a US Customs and Border Protection film quoting Isaiah while patrolling above national frontiers.
“For many people, the Bible remains an important guide to their basic beliefs about nation states and borders,” he says. “They regard these ideas as biblically authorised and therefore true and right in a fundamental way.”
MacDonald expresses concern over simplistic readings linking ancient texts directly with current border debates: “When I asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini whether borders are biblical, they both simply answered ‘yes’. The reality is more complex,” he says.
“We should be concerned when any group claims that their way of organising society has a divine or religious underpinning because these often simplify and misrepresent ancient texts that are making different kinds of ideological claims in very different political contexts.”
His research on this topic appears in The Journal of Theological Studies (2025), accessible via https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flaf090.