Great Courses – The History and Archeology of the Bible

The Pound Ridge Library is pleased to announce the continuation of a series of lectures which mark the eleventh year of courses which are part of the library’s continuing presentation of a new educational concept in life-long learning: a series of DVD seminars from The Teaching Company/The Great Courses encompassing a wide variety of subjects, given by outstanding scholars from major colleges and universities throughout the United States. This program, the first of its kind in the country, is designed to provide collegial, small group-setting for courses “you didn’t get to take at college, but wanted to.” The seminars, developed and moderated by Lawrence Brotmann of Pound Ridge, NY are held at the library on Thursdays at 12:30 pm and consist of four 30-minute (closed-captioned) lectures per session, most from 3 to 6 weeks per course.

Course Overview
As one of the foundational documents of Western civilization, the Bible has impacted our culture perhaps more than any other written work. Its influence on our religious, spiritual, and philosophical conceptions; our notions of morality and social justice; and on Western art, literature, and history would be hard to exaggerate.

Of course, the Bible is not a history book. It’s a book of faith, and, above all, its writings have religious and spiritual intent. Yet, each of its stories originated in a particular place and time, and many of them intersect meaningfully with what we know about the ancient world.

As a result, the work of historians and archaeologists opens a thrilling world of discovery, as they bring their methods and insights to bear on the beloved narratives of the Bible. No matter what your relationship to the Bible is, fascinating and illuminating perspectives on the texts come from looking at the Judeo-Christian scriptures through the disciplines of history and archaeology:

The reference in Exodus to the waters of the Nile turning to blood correlates with a phenomenon of the Nile’s ecosystem that periodically turns the waters red;
Egyptian records from the 1280s BCE mirror the biblical story of the enslaved Israelites building garrison cities for the Pharaoh, speaking of the same sites mentioned in the Bible;
The legendary Temple of Solomon is lost to history, but excavations in the 1980s in the Negev Desert unearthed a shrine showing what it may have looked like, containing the same key features known to have characterized Solomon’s Temple; and
Excavations in Jerusalem in the 1960s uncovered a large stairway that is likely to be the stairway used by Jesus and the Apostles to enter the Temple following their stay in Bethany.
Speaking to these matters and many more, we have joined with National Geographic to present The History and Archaeology of the Bible, which takes you on a multidimensional journey through the Bible from Genesis to the Crucifixion, seen through the lens of the latest historical and archaeological findings, and accompanied by vivid video footage of many of the sites where the stories of the Bible unfolded.