4-session class, taught by Walter Katz, PhD. Thursday evenings: March 23, April 6, April 20, May 4, 7-9pm. Free and open to the public; donations gratefully accepted.

This class will start by reviewing the Egyptian Pharaohs between 1500 BC and 1100 BC, and the geopolitical maps of this era. Pharaohs of note includes Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Rameses II Merenptah and Rameses III. There is very little archaeologic evidence of the Hebrews and Israelites during this period. It is only after the Six Day War in 1967 that we were able to do serious archaeologic research in the biblical areas Judea and Samaria and understand their population and culture. This course relies heavily on the  “The Bible Unearthed” by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. We will discuss the relationship between Judea and Samaria and between each of these kingdoms and the surrounding Egyptians, Phoenicians, Philistines, Canaanites, Hittites, Assyrians, Aramaeans, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans and to correlate the treaties made and broken, wars won and lost, when and why the Torah was written, and why Deuteronomy was “discovered”, and why the Torah was redacted. The course will cover the history of Canaan until about 200 BC.