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Offered:

as in-person, Zoom, or video recordings

  • • HIS325 is offered in 2024 Term 4 (Oct-Dec).

  • • This course is offered as an in-person course at the EarthDiverse Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand, live-streamed via Zoom if you live elsewhere, and as video recordings of the live sessions if you cannot attend the regularly scheduled class.

Date & Time:

Begins Wednesday 23 Oct 2024, 7:00-8:30pm

  • • Our HIS325 course is offered on Wednesday 7:00-8:30pm (NZ time) beginning Wednesday 23 Oct 2024 and meets for 6 consecutive weekly sessions. The last class of the Term is on Wednesday 27 Nov 2024.

  • • If you live outside of New Zealand and wish to Zoom in to our live class sessions, check the nearest local Time Zone equivalent below:

Time Zone equivalents:

for live-streaming Zoom Sessions from New Zealand. If your Time Zone doesn't suit our live-streamed class, you can also access our courses by watching the live-recorded sessions that are posted to the course webpage each week, usually the next day.

  • Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Tue 22 Oct 2024, 8:00-9:30pm

  • US Pacific: begins Tue 22 Oct 2024, 11:00pm -12:30am

  • US Eastern: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 2:00-3:30am

  • London, UK: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 8:00-9:300am

  • Paris, France: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 8:00-9:30am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 11:30am-1:00pm

  • Bangkok: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 1:00-2:30pm

  • Singapore: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 2:00-3:30pm

  • Tokyo, Japan: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 3:00-4:30pm

  • Sydney, Australia: begins Wed 23 Oct 2024, 5:00-6:30pm

Description:

HIS325: An Introduction to the Religious, Cultural and Political Background of the “Inter-Testamental” and “New Testamental” Periods, aka the “Second Temple Period”

• This course provides the historical context to the religious, cultural & political backgrounds of the Inter-Testamental and New Testament periods, otherwise known as the Second Temple Period, an incredibly important period in the history of Ancient Israel.

• This 6-week course examines the religio-cultural matrix spanning Ancient Israel, Greek & Roman rule, through the destruction of the Second Temple. This period produced Judaism, Jesus and the earliest Jesus movement. It was an era of rapid religious change and uncertainty, massive cultural clashes and unending political turmoil, yet it was also an era of great religious creativity and diversity.

  • • Week 1: The general background and overview of the era, and why this era was so important. One form of spirituality was dying, and another form was being born. A brief overview of Israelite spirituality prior to this period, and the “new spirituality” which came out of this period. This era was also hugely productive in terms of literary output. The concept of “canon.”

  • • Week 2: Ancient Israelite religious and cultural traditions developed under foreign Imperial rule. For Ancient Israel, foreign domination was the norm. In the second Temple period, Israel was again under Imperial rule, but a type that they had never faced before. This ultimately became an existential threat and the biggest single issue of the time: Hellenisation. The forced cohabitation of Greek and Hebrew cultures became the overriding and central issue of the era. We witness both clash and accomodation of the two cultures. Enculturation through urban planning: What is a Polis and how did they function? Polises and the initial “Hellenising” of the Greek province of “Coele-Syria.” The new waves of construction in Judaea under Roman rule and under King Herod the Great, and the later wave of construction in the Galilee under Herod’s sons Antipas and Phillip. A number of Galilean reactions to the Galilean Polises.

  • • Week 3: The Maccabees – opposing Hellenisation through guerilla warfare. The Maccabees were anti-Hellenistic “freedom fighters” who took on the Greek Empire and decisively won. So how did they also lose so decisively? The Maccabean dynasty, “Policide,” and their newly inaugurated festival of “Sukkot b’Kislev.” Maccabean court propaganda: The Books of the Maccabees and the Book of Daniel. Tertullian: “What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem? The less the better!”

  • • Week 4: Horace: “Conquered Greece took captive her savage conquerer and brought her arts into rustic Latium.” Rome conquers Greece, but the Romans continue the Hellenising policies of the former Empire. Rome rebuilds and re-colonises the Polises destroyed by the Maccabees. The end of the Maccabean dynasty. Ruling Judaea through Roman created and appointed aristocratic “Synods.” The “Gentile zone,” the “Samaritan zone,” the “Greek zone” and “Judaea.” “What have the Romans ever done for the Jews”? “Nothing!”

  • • Week 5: Rampant sectarianism and gradual societal breakdown. The time honoured Religio-social institutions welding society together cease to operate in their intended sociological functions. Hellenised Kings and rulers governing Hellenised colonists and a largely anti-Hellenistic indigenous population. Various ways religious leaders vied for followers amongst the populace: The rise of Sectarianism. The diverse second Temple sects as responses to Hellenisation.

  • • Week 6: Societal breakdown leads to war. An “integrated” society rapidly “dis-integrates.” The “Jewish War” against Rome and the inevitable result. The end of the second Temple and the end of the era. The new spirituality becomes the groundwork, already laid, for the even bigger tragedy already on the horizon. The Rabbi’s response: How to sacrifice without a Temple, how to be a Jerusalemite without a Jerusalem, and how to be an Israelite without an Israel.

Course curriculum:

Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here after 1-2 days after each class.

    1. EarthDiverse Course information

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom Instructions

    1. The general background:

    2. 20241023 T4.1 Second Temple timeline PDF

    3. 20241023 T4.1 HIS325 Second Temple Period video

    1. Ancient Israelite religio-cultural traditions, the rise of Hellenism and the ensuing conflict between the two

    2. 20241030 T4.2 Second Temple - Polis Terminology PDF

    3. 20241030 T4.2 HIS325 Second Temple Period video

    1. The Rise of the Maccabees

    1. Roman Rule

    1. Rampant sectarianism, Social breakdown and the rise of diverse Second Temple sects

Additional course info:

  • Video and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboard notes are uploaded weekly after each live session
  • Begins on Wed 23 Oct 2024
  • NZ time: Weds 7:00-8:30pm

Meet our Instructor

History Instructor Dr Dennis Green, PhD

Dennis holds a PhD from the University of Waikato, and is a graduate of the Oxford Center for Postgraduate Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He lectured for 16 years for the University of Waikato’s Religious Studies Department. He has special interests in the Archaeology and Anthropology of the southern Levant, Iron Age Israelite history and the Second Temple Period of Jewish history. Apart from ongoing research, he is employed doing archaeological excavations in the greater Waikato area.

Location:

This class is a hybrid class with both in-person sessions in our classrooms and streamed live via Zoom.

All in-person classes are held at the EarthDiverse offices and classrooms located at 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton (located just north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station) (entrance is located on the side of the building, see map below). Those looking for parking for our evening classes can park just in front of the building in any of the available car parks. Daytime parking can be found in our dedicated car parks, or free 2-hour on-street daytime parking can be found just in front on Anglesea Street.
Location

Pricing options:

• All prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST.

• Unwaged includes students, seniors, retirees and unemployed.

• Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course.

Distance Learning:

This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton, New Zealand. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:

  • Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.

  • Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.

Distance-Learning options:

Live Zoom sessions or Video-Recordings

  • • In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.

  • • Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.

  • • Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.

Prerequisites:

An inquisitive mind and a keen desire for learning about history!

• There are no prerequisites for this course.

• Available for adults and kids ages 15 and above