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Remember, it's never too late to register for a class, even after it's begun. You can always catch up with any sessions you may have missed by watching the video recordings of previous sessions. The time remaining to register before the first class session is below, so stop hesitating and get to it!

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Register now!

Offered:

as in-person, Zoom, or video recordings

  • • HIS325 is offered in 2024 Term 3 (Jul-Sep).

  • • 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 31 Jul 2024

  • • Our HIS325 course is offered on Wednesday 7:00-8:30pm (NZ time) beginning Wednesday 31 July 2024 and meets for 6 consecutive weekly sessions. The last class of the Term is on Wednesday 4 Sep 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 30 Jul 2024, 9:00-10:30pm

  • US Pacific: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 12:00-1:30am

  • US Eastern: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 3:00-4:30am

  • London, UK: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 8:00-9:300am

  • Paris, France: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 9:00-10:30am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 12:30-2:00pm

  • Bangkok: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 2:00-3:30pm

  • Singapore: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 3:00-4:30pm

  • Tokyo, Japan: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 4:00-5:30pm

  • Sydney, Australia: begins Wed 31 Jul 2024, 5:00-6:30pm

Description:

HIS325: Second Temple Judaism: Ancient Israel through the Destruction of the Second Temple

  • • 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.

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. The general background:

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

    1. The Rise of the Maccabees

    1. Roman Rule

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

    1. You say you want a Revolution?: The Jewish War against Rome, the destruction of the Second Temple, and Diaspora

Additional course info:

  • Video and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboard notes are uploaded weekly after each live session
  • Begins on Wed 31 July 2024
  • NZ time: Wednesdays 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