The third episode of the podcast, "From Israelite to Jew." This episode discusses the events leading up to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and the resulting exile.

This is the second episode of the podcast, "From Israelite to Jew." It focuses on the religion of ancient Israel, as reflected in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and archaeological finds.

This episode introduces my podcast series, "From Israelite to Jew." In it I examine the relationship between religion and its academic study, suggesting that the two ways of understanding religion are not diametrically opposed.

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" and beginning of the "rabbinic period." But to what extent did things really change? In this episode, the last of this series, I also reflect more broadly on the series.

The Jewish revolt in Judea that began in 66 CE ended with the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70. Why, though, did the Jews in Judea and the Galilee revolt? And why did the Romans destroy the Temple?

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 administration and the Sanhedrin.

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 historian and a man, was a complex figure: was he a Jewish patriot or a Roman toady?

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-known of these groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, and the early followers of Jesus.

What are the Dead Sea scrolls? This episode discusses their discovery, contents, and meaning.

Philo Judaeus is the most well-known Jewish philosopher from antiquity. Living in Alexandria from ca. 20 BCE - 50 CE, Philo produced an astonishing corpus that has often been held up as a signal example of "Hellenistic Judaism." Who was Philo, and what was he up to?

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 religion of the Jews who lived in the Greek speaking areas of the Mediterranean is commonly called "Hellenistic Judaism". This episode explains why scholars use this term; why it is less useful than it might seem; and how it is that most of these Jews would have worshiped the God of Israel.

On the origins of Jewish sectarianism in the second to first centuries, BCE, with a focus on Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and (if different) the first inhabitants of Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls would be found.

A discussion of Judah's consolidation of power around 162 BCE to the last of the Hasmonean kings, in 30 BCE.

Why did the Maccabees revolt around 165 BCE? This episode explores both the revolt of the Maccabees and the origins of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

A discussion of two books dating from the third or second centuries, BCE, Jubilees and 1 Enoch. Both books, part of a collection traditionally known as "the Pseudepigrapha," testify to a Jewish understanding of continuing direct divine revelation in the Hellenistic period.

A discussion of Alexander's conquest of west Asia and its aftermath (323 - 200 BCE). What is "Hellenism," and how did the Jews react to it? Particular attention is paid to the Septuagint, Ecclesiastes, and Ecclesiasticus.

This episode discusses two Jewish communities outside of Jerusalem, that represented by the biblical book of Esther, and that of Elephantine, Egypt. It takes place in the fifth to fourth centuries, BCE.

The seventh episode of the podcast, "From Israelite to Jew." This episode deals primarily with the career and reforms of Nehemiah, which lasted from 445 BCE to around 432 BCE.

This is a meditation on the Talmud as read through Tolstoy, and how such a reading can generate a useful stance in the modern world.

In this episode I discuss the historical formation of the Torah, or Pentateuch, and provide an introduction to the documentary hypothesis. I am now receiving technical support from Brown University, and the quality of the audio is improved.

The fifth episode of the podcast, "From Israelite to Jew." This episode deals primarily with the career of Ezra, in 458 BCE. I discuss intermarriage in the Bible and the emergence of the Torah as a source of authority in Israel.

The fourth episode of the podcast, "From Israelite to Jew." This episode traces the first two returns from Babylonia to Jerusalem, first under Sheshbazzar and then under the dual leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the building of the Second Temple (539 BCE - 516).