New Online Course Will Clarify the History of Ancient Israel and Judah

TORONTO - Jan. 1, 2015 - PRLog -- Beginning in February, the latest in a series of online courses – open to the general public – will be offered by archaeologist Dr. David Lipovitch. This eight-week long series will mark the second of a regular series of webinars on the art, history, and archaeology of the ancient Near East. These courses will only require a web connection and no special download of software. The latest offering, entitled The History of Ancient Israel and Judah: From Abraham to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt will run every Wednesday evening from 8-10 PM EST from February 11th through April 1st, 2015.

The classes will cover the history of the Israelites, Judahites, and Judeans as described in the Hebrew Bible (also called the Tanakh or Old Testament), but, in this case enhanced by what is known from the archaeology of the region. This additional information, along with historical evidence from neighbouring cultures will make it possible to read between the lines and reconstruct better the history of the people who wrote the Bible. Students will learn (among other things):

•why Saul may once have been considered a "good guy"

•how similar David was to Tony Soprano

•that Solomon wasn't quite as smart as people have been led to believe

•about the continuous in-fighting between the Israelites and Judahites

•how the Israelite kingdom  was a hotbed of intrigue and murder

•that the Maccabees may not have been such nice guys after all

•how Herod got a raw deal from ancient historians

•how early Judaism was divided into conflicting sects including one that turns into Christianity

Students will see the rise and fall of the cultures that wrote the Old Testament and after their return from exile the creation of a new Jewish culture that will under Rome become the basis for early Christianity and the New Testament.

According to Dr. Lipovitch, “three of the world’s great religions have their roots in the history and beliefs of the ancient Israelites. For a member of any of these faith communities (Judaism Christianity, and Islam) to understand the roots of their own religions, they must understand the context in which they developed and part of that means understanding the political milieu in which they developed.  One cannot genuinely understand the events of the Bible without understanding the context in which they occurred. I also believe that by learning about the history of the region in antiquity, it may be possible to better understand current events in the modern Middle East.”

Dr. Lipovitch has studied the ancient world since he was a child fascinated by the archaeology and mythology of Egypt, the Aztecs, and countless other cultures of antiquity. As an undergraduate at the University of Toronto – after a brief diversion in physical chemistry – he enrolled in double majors studying anthropology and the archaeology of the ancient Near East. Thanks to the encouragement of his mentors there he decided after completing an Honours BA in 1989, to continue his studies and earned an AM (1993) and a PhD (1999) in Hebrew Bible and archaeology from Harvard University. While working on his various degrees he excavated and surveyed in southern Ontario working with both prehistoric Native Canadian sites and historic Euro-Canadian sites, and at Ashkelon, Israel. His dissertation, Can These Bones Live Again? An Analysis of the Persian Period Non-Canid Mammalian Faunal Remains from Tel Ashkelon, examined a poorly understood time period at this important Canaanite, Philistine, and Phoenician site and introduced him to the subfield of zooarchaeology (his current specialty)– the study of animal remains in archaeology. Since then he has continued to work on or with excavations in Ontario, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey where he is currently the Staff Zooarchaeologist at the University of Toronto’s excavations at Tell Ta’yinat.

Dr. Lipovitch has been giving public lectures since the 1990s and has done so in three different countries and three different languages. He is an award-winning educator who has taught everything from kindergarten to graduate school. He continues to be an active researcher in archaeology and is currently a Research Affiliate at the University of Toronto’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.

For more information about how to take this course, attend a scheduled lecture, or acquire Dr. Lipovitch’s services, check out his website at http://www.theancientworld.ca or email him at dlipovitch@theancientworld.ca.