In this episode I discuss the historical formation of the Torah, or Pentateuch, and provide an introduction to the documentary hypothesis. I am now re...

The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, a moment that typically is said to mark in Jewish historiography the end of the "second temple period" an...

This episode focuses on the years 6 CE - 66 CE, and the events leading up to the Jewish revolt. This episode includes discussions of Roman administrat...

Without the works of the historian Josephus (36/37 CE - ca. 95) we would know little about the history of the Jews in antiquity. Yet Josephus, as a hi...

In the first century CE the area around Jerusalem teemed with small Jewish religious groups, or sects. This episode focuses on three of the most well-...

What are the Dead Sea scrolls? This episode discusses their discovery, contents, and meaning.The episode can be heard here or on the player below. Mor...

Philo Judaeus is the most well-known Jewish philosopher from antiquity. Living in Alexandria from ca. 20 BCE - 50 CE, Philo produced an astonishing co...

Was Herod the Great a brilliant ruler or a savage brute? This episode traces Herod's rise to power and his reign, 40 - 4 BCE.The episode can be heard ...

The religion of the Jews who lived in the Greek speaking areas of the Mediterranean is commonly called "Hellenistic Judaism". This episode explains wh...

On the origins of Jewish sectarianism in the second to first centuries, BCE, with a focus on Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and (if different) the fir...