Ancient Israel with Dr. Kenneth Hanson

The dawn of Israel

The conquest of Canaan

The Binding of Isaac

The Judges

The Talmudic Age #14 For Jews living in the eastern Mediterranean in the second and third centuries of the Common Era, following two catastrophic revolts against their Roman overlords, the best thing to do was to get as far away from Rome’s power and authority as humanly possible. Eastward they fled, to Babylonia. The great Sages there took upon themselves the massive task of codifying the whole of the law. Originally it was all memorized, via a lifetime of study. Only later was it written down, becoming the many encyclopedic volumes of Jewish literature we have today. Welcome to the age of the Talmud!Dr. Kenneth Hanson http://drkenhanson.com/

Aftermath #13 It could easily be argued that without a temple the Jewish people would have gone extinct. After all, isn't that what naturally happens to conquered people down through the centuries? Yet, something new and inexplicable was about to happen that would change the course of history. Indeed, the aftermath of the Great Revolt against Rome is as mind-blowing as the revolt itself... Dr. Kenneth Hanson http://drkenhanson.com/

Hanukkah to Rome #13 It is a day and age when foreign rulers exert a "hard tyranny" over the land of Israel. In one little town a local Jewish priest is carrying a swine to the altar, when an elderly fellow priest named Mattathias is filled with rage, grabs a spear, and runs him through. He summons his five sons to his side and calls for a great insurrection. The Maccabean revolt is born, and a brand new holiday will commemorate it – Hanukkah! Dr. Kenneth Hanson http://drkenhanson.com/

Hanukkah to Rome #12 It is a day and age when foreign rulers exert a "hard tyranny" over the land of Israel. In one little town a local Jewish priest is carrying a swine to the altar, when an elderly fellow priest named Mattathias is filled with rage, grabs a spear, and runs him through. He summons his five sons to his side and calls for a great insurrection. The Maccabean revolt is born, and a brand new holiday will commemorate it – Hanukkah! Dr. Kenneth Hanson http://drkenhanson.com/

Out of Babylon #11 Flashback to the sixth century BCE. With the final demise of Jerusalem, we see that the end result of generations of civil war between Israel and Judah is extinction for both. The lesson? When any society is fundamentally weakened from within, it eventually succumbs to invaders from without. But history also shows that extremity sows the seeds of rebirth, rekindling venerated old ideas and spawning bold new ones. Dr. Kenneth Hanson http://drkenhanson.com/

Downfall #10 In the eighth century B.C.E., both Israel and southern kingdom of Judah are at their zenith. Both, however, will go into ignominious decline, swallowed up by Assyria and Babylon, respectively. It ends where it all began, near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers – the same territory from which Abraham and his family made their long trek to the land of Canaan, so many centuries before. But as the prophets certainly knew, it’s precisely out of the crucible of suffering that the “greatest generation” may well arise.Dr. Kenneth Hanson http://drkenhanson.com/