ScrollCompass
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Coming soon to iPhone, iPad and Android

Follow biblical journeys across antique maps.

A fully offline, interactive atlas that brings biblical journeys to life through antique maps, animated routes and historical context.

Coming soon to the App StoreiPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later

Coming soon to Google PlayAndroid 8.0 or later

Browse the 31 journeys See how it works

The ScrollCompass journey library, with Paul's First Journey featured.
ScrollCompass on iPhone: Paul's Voyage to Rome, with the ship's route drawn past Crete and the caption for scene 6, Euraquilo.
  • 31 journeys
  • 6 antique-style maps
  • 6 languages
  • Works offline

How a journey works

Each journey is a short story told on a map. The map is the stage: the camera moves from place to place, the route is inked in as you go, and a caption tells what happened there.

Follow the route

Routes are drawn across the map as the story moves: a solid line for roads, long dashes for sea lanes, a different dash for the way home, so no route depends on colour alone. Short original captions tie each scene to its passage, given as a chapter-and-verse reference.

Holy Week in Jerusalem on iPhone: the route from Bethphage drawn on a plan of the city, with the caption for scene 1.

Journey stops

Every place in a journey is also in an ordered list. Choose a stop and the map moves there and opens its card: no gestures needed. You can leave the story at any time to pan and zoom around the map, and everything revealed so far stays on it.

ScrollCompass on Android: the Journey stops list for Holy Week, starting with The Temple and Bethany.

Honest about what is uncertain

Not every place in the Bible can be pinned down. Where a site or a road is approximate, disputed or known only from tradition, the map says so: the route is dotted, the place carries a badge, and a note explains that particular case. Ancient and modern names are shown side by side.

Every place carries one of six certainty levels

Confirmed
The site is identified with confidence, usually through excavation or an unbroken record of the name.
Widely accepted
Most scholars agree on this identification, though it has not been settled beyond question.
Traditional
The identification comes from long tradition rather than from direct evidence.
Approximate
The general area is known, but the exact position shown here is an estimate.
Disputed
Scholars propose different locations. This map shows one of them and says so.
Unknown
The location is not known. It is placed here only to keep the sequence of the journey readable.
Jacob's Flight and Return on iPhone: the ford of the Jabbok, with dotted routes and the modern site name under Peniel.

Journey complete

At the end of each journey, a summary lists the stops in order, the key events and the passages, with the approximate distance travelled. Distances are reconstructed from the drawn routes and are always given as approximate.

The journey summary for Holy Week in Jerusalem: about 14 km travelled, and the stops in order.

31 journeys, from Genesis to Acts

Old and New Testament journeys on six maps, from Abraham's road out of Ur to Paul's voyage to Rome.

Old Testament 15

  1. Jonah Runs from His CallingSent east, he sailed west
  2. Abraham: From Ur to CanaanA household on the road, and a promise
  3. Jacob's Flight and ReturnOut by one road, home by another
  4. Joseph: The Road into EgyptSold down the coast road, and a family that follows
  5. Moses and the Burning BushFrom the Nile to Midian, and to the mountain of God
  6. The ExodusOut of Egypt, through the sea, into the wilderness
  7. The Wilderness YearsFrom the wilderness of Sin to Mount Nebo
  8. The Twelve SpiesForty days in the land, forty years for it
  9. Crossing the Jordan and JerichoFrom the plains of Moab over the river to the walls of Jericho
  10. Ruth: From Moab to BethlehemA famine, a vow, and a harvest
  11. The Journey of the ArkTaken in battle, sent home on a cart
  12. David Flees from SaulCaves, wilderness and a king who could not catch him
  13. Elijah's Great JourneyA drought, a mountain, and a whisper
  14. Naaman's Journey to the JordanA commander, a captive girl, and seven dips in a muddy river
  15. Exile and ReturnFrom Jerusalem to Babylon, and home again

New Testament 16

  1. Paul's First Journey Featured journeyAntioch to Derbe, and all the way back
  2. The Birth of Jesus and the Flight to EgyptNazareth, Bethlehem, the temple, Egypt — and home
  3. The Beginning of Jesus' MinistryFrom the Jordan to Cana, twice over
  4. Around the Sea of GalileeMark's lakeshore sites, in Mark's order
  5. The Storm and the Gerasene ShoreAcross the lake and back
  6. Through Tyre, Sidon and the DecapolisThe long way round the lake
  7. The Final Journey to JerusalemLuke's road from Galilee to the Mount of Olives
  8. The Road of the Good SamaritanA parable Jesus told, set on the real road down from Jerusalem to Jericho
  9. The Road to EmmausTwo disciples walk west toward evening, and back the same night
  10. Holy Week in JerusalemMark 11–16, with the other Gospels labelled
  11. The Road to DamascusA light on the road, and a basket over the wall
  12. Philip and the EthiopianFrom Samaria to a desert road, and up the coast
  13. Peter: Lydda, Joppa, CaesareaDown to the coast, and a door opened to the Gentiles
  14. Paul's Second JourneyFrom Antioch into Macedonia and Greece, and home again
  15. Paul's Third JourneyEphesus, the Aegean, and the road up to Jerusalem
  16. Paul's Voyage to RomeA prisoner's passage to the emperor's court

Read about all 31 journeys

Six languages

The interface, the captions and the map labels are available in six languages. You can change this at any time, even in the middle of a journey.

  • English
  • 简体中文
  • Español (Latinoamérica)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Deutsch
  • Français

English is the original text. The five translations were written with care, but native-speaker editors have not reviewed them yet.

Offline by design

Every map, illustration, caption and sound file is installed with the app. ScrollCompass makes no network requests at all, and works exactly the same in airplane mode.

ScrollCompass collects nothing. No name, no email address, no location, no contacts, no advertising identifier, no analytics and no crash reporting. There is no third-party SDK that could collect anything on its behalf.

  • No account or sign-in
  • No ads
  • No analytics or tracking
  • No internet connection needed

Read the privacy policy

Made for families and classrooms

Every journey carries age guidance and a note for parents and teachers. Difficult passages are stated plainly and briefly, never dramatised, and a content note appears before the scenes that need one.

  • Age guidance for every journey: 7 and over, or 10 and over
  • No scoring, streaks, badges or leaderboards
  • No chat, no comments and nothing shared with strangers
The details page for Paul's First Journey on Android: passage Acts 13:1–14:28, period, length and a content note.

Coming soon

ScrollCompass is being prepared for the App Store and Google Play.

Coming soon to the App StoreiPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later

Coming soon to Google PlayAndroid 8.0 or later

ScrollCompass is not in the App Store or Google Play yet. This page will link to both as soon as it is.