An overview of Jewish history from earliest times through the second century, covering First and Second Temple periods, the Assyrian and Babylonian Exiles, the Roman period and the birth of Christianity, the first Roman-Jewish War and the Bar Kochba revolt. Impress your relatives and former friends with your knowledge of Biblical Jewish History!
Introduction
- The Land of Israel
- The Biblical Narrative
- The Archaeological Record
- Daily Life in Biblical Israel
- Exile and Return
- The Maccabean Revolt
- The World of the Sages
- Judaea under Roman Rule
- The Birth of Christianity
- The Roman-Jewish War
- Women in Ancient Israel
- The Jewish People Survive Antiquity
Bibliographic Essay: On Covenantal History
Photo Credits
Please scroll down for details.
This course builds on the Jewish History Lab series in my YouTube channel. If you’re just interested in binge-watching the free videos, please do so in good health, no need to register for this course. On the other hand, if you would like to pursue your learning objectives to a greater depth, here’s a few things you can expect by registering:
- Access to the draft text of Volume 1 of The Jewish People: A History, a three-volume series under contract with Koren Publishers in Jerusalem. You’ll have the opportunity to comment on the draft as I write it, and thereby literally make your contribution to Jewish history! Amazing, right? I love the Internet.
- On occasion, some new videos that I’m not quite ready to release to the wider web audience just yet.
- A nifty certification of completion when you’ve gone through the units.
- More opportunities to interact with the instructor (me) and other serious fellow students.
If you are familiar with the Hebrew language, you will know that each letter corresponds to a number: alef, the first letter, has the value of “one,” bet, the second, has “two,” and so on. The word for “life” (חי, “chai”) has the numerical value of 18, and therefore it is customary among Jews to make donations or gifts in multiples of $18. So $36 is just a nice number, wishing both your family and mine a long and happy life. I recognize that many worthy students might find even $36 challenging, so the course is open for as little as $3.60.
Surprise bonus for everyone: I have found that imposing even a very low paywall reduces the amount of noxious participation precipitously. Intellectual vandals, it seems, prefer to spew hatred only if they can do so for free (and usually anonymously). So that’s good.
If you are a fellow educator and would like to request complimentary registration, please click this link. It would be my pleasure to offer you access to the course as a professional courtesy.
If the course isn’t what you expected, please contact me through the link in the first module of the course within the first week of registration and I’ll be happy to send you a refund.
Enjoy the course in good health!