The foregoing study has sought to trace the trajectory of an important geographic tradition from its OT and Jewish roots, through its reception in the NT and other early Christian literature, and on into the medieval mappaemundi. It remains here merely to summarize our main findings and to suggest their possible significance for the historical investigation of the NT.

In Chapter 1, we opened our discussion with an epigram of Philip of Thessalonia that not only provided an example of the methodological issues involved with a discussion of Jewish geographical lore, but also contributed valuable new insights into the possibility of Jewish cartographic activity in the Second-Temple period. The epigram praises an artistic tapestry, made presumably by Kypros, the last queen of Judea, and offered as a gift to Emperor Gaius. Woven into the fabric of this tapestry was a very impressive image of the world dominated by Caesar. Given the fact that a Hellenistic dynast like Kypros would have traveled with equal facility between Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds, we considered it a promising hypothesis that Kypros may have blended both Roman and Jewish traditions into her representation of the world, resulting in a novel, hybrid form – perhaps an Orientalized rendition of the famous Agrippa map in Rome.

In subsequent chapters, we set out to learn more about Jewish geographical lore in the Second-Temple period and its reception in early Christian tradition.