The Book of Exodus: Myths and Stories – Thomas Römer’s 2014-2015 Seminars at the Collège de France

Videos of Professor Thomas Römer’s 2014 and 2015 seminars at the Collège de France, entitled The Book of Exodus: Myths and Stories, are available at the Collège’s website, or for download at the links provided below (800mb+). The seminars have been overdubbed by an English translator.

His lectures cover similar material to that in his book, Moïse en version originale (Bayard, 2015).

Thomas Römer is Professor of Old Testament at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Collège de France, and author of many works, including Israels Väter (1990), on the Patriarchal traditions in the Pentateuch, and The So-called Deuteronomistic History (2007), on the unity and disunity in the books of Deuteronomy to Kings.

20 FEBRUARY 2014, 2:00 pm
Introduction: Between Autocthony and Allochthony – the Invention of the Exodus

27 FEBRUARY 2014, 2:00 pm
The Oppression in Egypt

06 MARCH 2014, 2:00 pm
Pharaoh’s Midwives: The Birth of Moses, an Imported Legend

13 MARCH 2014, 2:00 pm
The Birth of Moses (continuation). Moses and the Midianites (Part I)

20 MARCH 2014, 2:00 pm
Moses and the Midianites (Part II)

27 MARCH 2014, 2:00 pm
From the Divine Name to the Attack of Moses. Preparations of the Narrative of the Plagues

03 APRIL 2014, 2:00 pm
A Competition of Magicians ? The « Plagues » of Egypt

10 APRIL 2014, 2:00 pm
The Institution of the Passover and the Passage of the Sea. The Historicization of a Myth

26 FEBRUARY 2015, 2:00 pm
Going out of Egypt: Building a Mythical Story

05 MARCH 2015, 2:00 pm
The Song of Myriam and Moses and the First Sojourn in the Desert: The “Law Before the Law”, Manna and Nostalgic Longings for Egypt (Exodus 15-17)

12 MARCH 2015, 2:00 pm
Exodus 16: The Discovery of Manna and the Sabbath

19 MARCH 2015, 2:00 pm
Massa and Meribah, the War Against Amalek and the Encounter on the Mountain of God (Exodus 17-18)

26 MARCH 2015, 2:00 pm
From the Mountain of God to Sinaï (Exodus 18-19)

02 APRIL 2015, 2:00 pm
Theophany, Covenant and Decalogue

09 APRIL 2015, 2:00 pm
The Decalogue and the Covenant Code

16 APRIL 2015, 2:00 pm
The Covenant Code, Breaking and Restoring the Covenant (Exodus 21-40)

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Reclaiming Jewish History – Colloquium 1997, International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism

The 1997 Colloquium for the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (IISHJ) included a number of presentations on the Hebrew Bible and early Judaism. These are now available on YouTube:

Carol Meyers, “Origins of Ancient Israel”

Panel response to Carol Meyers

William Propp, “Origins of the Bible”

Panel response to William Propp

Eric Meyers, “From the Maccabees to the Dead Sea Scrolls”

Panel response to Eric Meyers

Ari Elon, “Origins of the Halakha”

Panel response to Ari Elon

The Quest for the Historical Israel: Israel Finkelstein vs. Amihai Mazar

In October 2005, the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism invited Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar to speak on the historicity of ancient Israel. The proceedings of Colloquium ’05 were published by the Society of Biblical Literature as The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel.

Videos of the lectures have now been made available on YouTube.

“Archaeology and the Bible” Israel Finkelstein

“Archaeology and the Bible” Amihai Mazar

“When Did the Jewish People Begin?” Israel Finkelstein

“When Did the Jewish People Begin?” Amihai Mazar

Colloquium Panel Response: When Did the Jewish People Begin?

“The Truth About Solomon’s Temple” Israel Finkelstein

“The Truth About Solomon’s Temple” Amihai Mazar

Colloquium Panel Response: Truth About Solomon’s Temple

“The Kingdoms of Israel And Judah” Israel Finkelstein

“The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah” Amihai Mazar

Colloquium Panel Response: Israel And Judah

“Patriarchs, Exodus, Conquest: Fact or Fiction?” Israel Finkelstein

“Patriarchs, Exodus, Conquest: Fact or Fiction?” Amihai Mazar

Colloquium Panel Response: Patriarchs, Exodus, Conquest

Colloquium Panel Response: Implications

Israel Finkelstein – Jacob M. Alkow Chair in the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University, author of The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts.

Amihai Mazar – Eleazar Sukenic Chair in the Archaeology of Israel ad Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Author ofArchaeology and the Land of the Bible.

Brian Schmidt (moderator) – Professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. Author of Israel’s Beneficent Dead.

Harry Cook (panel) – Episcopal minister and journalist, former columnist for the Detroit Free Press, author of Christianity Beyond Creeds and Sermons of a Devoted Heretic.

Yaakov Malkin (panel) – Professor of aesthetics and rhetoric at Tel Aviv University, author of many works including Judaism Without God – Judaism as Culture, The Bible as Literature.

Paula McNutt (panel) – Professor of Religious Studies and Dean of Arts and Sciences at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY.

Rabbi Sherwin Wine (panel) – founding rabbi of the Birmingham Temple and Humanistic Judaism, author of Judaism Beyond God and Staying Sane in a Crazy World.

Eric H. Cline: “The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel” – On Archaeology and the Bible

Professor Eric H. Cline delivers four lectures on the current state of archaeological contributions to the understanding of the Hebrew Bible. The lectures are available as mp3s and on iTunes. The lectures were originally delivered in February 2010 to the Josephine F. and H. Max Ammerman Study Retreat.

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel: Part I

Part one discusses the account of the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan.

mp3 iTunes

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel: Part II

Part two discusses David and Solomon. Both kings have been the subject of controversies and debates. A reference to the “House of David” was found in 1993 on an inscription in the north of Israel — the first extra-biblical mention of David yet discovered — allowing us to reconsider the evidence for David and Solomon.

mp3 iTunes

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel: Part III

Part three discusses how the expansionist ambitions of the Neo-Assyrians from Mesopotamia in the eighth century BCE spelled an end to the kingdom of Israel and gave rise to the tradition of the Ten Lost Tribes. The question of where the exiled members of these tribes ended up continues to be debated.

mp3 iTunes

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel: Part IV

Part four discusses how Nebuchadnezzar and the Neo-Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem not once but twice, burned the Temple of Solomon to the ground, and exiled the leading citizens of Jerusalem and Judah to the far-away city of Babylon. It also provides an in-depth look at Jewish history during the Babylonian period.

mp3 iTunes

Eric H. Cline is Chair of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures at The George Washington University.

Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò: “Food or Drink? Pork or Wine? The Philistines and their ‘Ethnic’ Markers”

Dr Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, of the University of Warsaw, provides a lecture entitled “Food or Drink? Pork or Wine? The Philistines and their ‘Ethnic’ Markers”, delivered at Food, Kitchen and Cuisine in Antiquity: The First International Conference in Ancient Mediterranean and Oriental Languages and Cultures, Wrocław (Poland), June 11-13, 2013.

The aim of the paper is to review the value and usefulness of the ethnic-markers of ancient societies, based on the assumption that certain populations practice certain eating and drinking habits. In other words, the conviction that some food and drink habits may be used as reliable tools for determining the ethnicities of ancient societies, will be questioned. This argument is applied to the case of the Philistines, a population of Aegean or Aegeo-Anatolian origin, who settled in Palestine in the early twelfth century BCE.

The paper is also available for download from Academia.edu, with registration.