Here are the caveats from the map itself:
Countries mentioned in the Bible by their name at the time, an area within, or of the people who lived there
*Where a people or region mentioned encompassed an area of multiple current countries, only the country closest to the Middle East is shaded.
*Countries where location of the area mentioned in the Bible is heavily debated are not shaded.
Based on the highlighted areas in the map, here is a list of the modern countries that correspond to regions mentioned in the Bible:
- Egypt
- Israel
- Jordan
- Lebanon
- Syria
- Iraq
- Iran
- Turkey
- Saudi Arabia
- Yemen
- Oman
- United Arab Emirates
- Bahrain
- Qatar
- Sudan
- Libya
- Tunisia
- Greece
- Cyprus
- Bulgaria
- Albania
- North Macedonia
- Croatia
- Malta
- Italy
- Spain
- France
- Ethiopia
- Somalia
- Pakistan
- India
As noted in the original reddit post Armenia should be included but isn’t.
Also if you’re wondering which Bible is included:
The new and Old Testament of the Christian/Catholic Bibles. No consideration to the individual sects outside or within those (like Mormons) or anything else that may be in the Koran
It’s interesting to note that the authors of Bible neglected to mention any parts of Americas, Australia and the one of the world’s most populous countries with a culture going back millennia.
After publishing this map I came across another one by brasilemmapas that even mentions the bible verse where each country is mentioned which you can see below.
Here’s a list of the countries mentioned in the image along with the corresponding Bible references provided:
- Armenia – Genesis 8:4
- Saudi Arabia* – Galatians 4:25
- Bulgaria/Romania – Colossians 3:11
- Croatia – 2 Timothy 4:10
- Cyprus – Acts 15:39
- Egypt – Exodus 4:19
- Spain – Romans 15:24
- Ethiopia* – 2 Chronicles 9:1
- France – 1 Maccabees 8:2 (Deuterocanonical)
- Greece – Acts 20:2
- India** – Esther 1:1
- Iran – Daniel 8:20
- Iraq – Jeremiah 25:11–12
- Israel – Numbers 34:1–15
- Italy – Acts 18:2
- Jordan – Deuteronomy 23:3
- Lebanon – 2 Chronicles 2:8
- Libya – Matthew 27:32
- North Macedonia – Acts 16:9
- Malta – Acts 28
- Palestine – Judges 16:21
- Syria – 2 Kings 5:1
- Sudan/South Sudan – Genesis 2:13
- Türkiye – Acts 2:9
* Notes from the image:
- Saudi Arabia includes Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
- Croatia includes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- *Ethiopia includes Eritrea, Djibouti, and Yemen.
- **India may include part of modern Pakistan.
And here is the full text:
- Genesis 8:4 (Armenia / Ararat)
“And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.”
- Galatians 4:25 (Saudi Arabia)
“Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.”
- Colossians 3:11 (Bulgaria/Romania)
“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
- 2 Timothy 4:10 (Croatia)
“For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.”
- Acts 15:39 (Cyprus)
“They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus.”
- Exodus 4:19 (Egypt)
“Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.’”
- Romans 15:24 (Spain)
“I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.”
- 2 Chronicles 9:1 (Ethiopia – Sheba)
“When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. Arriving with a very great caravan…”
- 1 Maccabees 8:2 (France – Deuterocanonical)
“They had heard of their wars and the brave deeds that they had performed among the Gauls, and how they had defeated them and forced them to pay tribute.”
- Acts 20:2 (Greece)
“He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece,”
- Daniel 8:20 (Iran – Persia/Media)
“The two‑horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia.”
- Acts 18:2 (Italy – Aquila from Pontus via Italy)
“There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.”
- Deuteronomy 23:3 (Jordan – Moab/Ammon region)
“No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.”
- 2 Chronicles 2:8 (Lebanon)
“Send me also cedar, juniper and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber there. My servants will work with yours.”
- Matthew 27:32 (Libya – Cyrene)
“As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.”
- Acts 16:9 (North Macedonia – Macedonia)
“During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’”
- Acts 28:1–2, 31 (Malta)
“Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. … The islanders showed us unusual kindness. … He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!”
- Judges 16:21 (Palestine – Philistia/Gaza)
“Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.”
- 2 Kings 5:1 (Syria – Aram)
“Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.”
- Genesis 2:13 (Sudan/South Sudan – Cush/Nubia)
“The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.”
- Acts 2:9 (Türkiye – Asia Minor/Phrygia/Pamphylia)
“Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,”
What do you think?
Samo says
You mention that “Croatia includes Bosnia and Herzegovina.” in 2 Timothy 4:10
As ancient Galatia is somewhere in Turkye, modern Dalmatia is the land that’s today part of Croatia (and was clearly part of Roman empire in the times of J.C.).
If we are talking about the ancient province of Dalmatia in the Roman Empire, in 125 AD it also included modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, modern Montenegro, parts of modern Albania (NW part), modern Serbia (SW part) and modern Slovenia (SE part).
But to state that Croatia includes Bosnia and Herzegovina is wrong. Croatia does not include Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Michael says
Thank you for your article.
For those readers genuinely seeking the truth and sincerely interested in learning about the true biblical identity of the nations in the world today – for ancient peoples have continually migrated so that old appellations do not apply in our modern age – they are encouraged to visit The Lightkeeper at Orion-Gold – article: Appendix I: Identity Index (from The Noachian Legacy).
God Bless