Haggai Olshanetsky, a historian and archaeologist focusing on the Hellenistic and Roman periods at the University of Warsaw. He came on the show to discuss his research arguing that the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome, otherwise known as the Bar Kokhba Revolt, may have had more than one leader, specifically Jewish veterans of the Roman army, and it was only later that Bar Kokhba assumed leadership of the revolt. Here is a link to Haggai's article as well as links to previous episodes on the Ba...
Jun 12, 2025•37 min•Ep. 66
Baruch Halpern discusses his book David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King . The book examines the textual and archaeological evidence of David to help paint a better picture of his life, reign, and impact. This second episode covers the Absalom Revolt and Solomon’s rise to power. The first episode covers David's origins and his role in overthrowing the House of Saul. There’s a link above to purchase the book. Baruch Halpern is the Covenant Foundation Distinguished Professor of Je...
Mar 01, 2025•32 min•Ep. 65
Baruch Halpern discusses his book David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King . The book examines the textual and archaeological evidence of David to help paint a better picture of his life, reign, and impact. The first episode focuses on the origins of David and his part in overthrowing the House of Saul. The second episode covers the Absalom Revolt and Solomon’s rise to power. There’s a link above to purchase the book. Baruch Halpern is the Covenant Foundation Distinguished Profess...
Mar 01, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 64
Tal Ilan is a retired professor of Jewish studies at the Free University, Berlin (Germany), and has researched the Diaspora Revolt of 115-117 CE against the Romans that broke out across Libya, Egypt and Cyprus. The rebellion is less well known than the two other Jewish revolts against Rome, namely the Great Revolt which resulted in the destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kochba Revolt. The Diaspora Revolt had disastrous consequences for the Jewish populations of the diaspora and much of...
Dec 25, 2024•18 min•Ep. 63
Seth Schwartz is a professor of classical Jewish civilization at Columbia University and the author of Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE. The book examines the effects of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule of Jewish society in antiquity and how it shaped Jewish life and identity. Episode 2 discusses the impacts of the Hasmonean territorial expansion as well as how Judaism was transformed following the failed revolts against Rome. You can purchase a copy of the book here . Send us a t...
Nov 05, 2024•35 min•Ep. 62
Seth Schwartz is a professor of classical Jewish civilization at Columbia University and the author of Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE. The book examines the effects of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule of Jewish society in antiquity and how it shaped Jewish life and identity. Episode 1 focuses on the return of Judahite exiles from Persia and the establishment of the Torah of Moses as the official law code of the people. Episode 2 discusses the impacts of the Hasmonean territorial...
Nov 05, 2024•23 min•Ep. 61
Aren Meir and Sue Frumin come back on the show to discuss a paper they co-authored that examined plant-related Philistine ritual practices at Tell Es-Safi, which is believed to be the biblical Gath. You can find a link to the study here . Aren is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project. His research has a particular focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages of the ancient Near East. Sue is has been the archaeobotanist of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archa...
Aug 01, 2024•40 min•Ep. 60
Joan Taylor is a Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London and the author of the book The Essenes, The Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. In this episode, we discuss her book that challenges misconceptions about who the Essenes were and their place in Second Temple Judaism. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon . Send us a text...
Jul 16, 2024•36 min•Ep. 59
Michael Fradley is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and a landscape archaeologist. He was one of the co-authors of a recent study about how a remote sensing survey in southern Jordan identified at least three Roman military camps that seem to reveal a previously unknown military campaign against the Nabateans. You can find a link to the study here . Send us a text...
Oct 24, 2023•24 min•Ep. 58
Liane Feldman discusses her book The Consuming Fire, which presents a complete translation of the Priestly Source of the Bible, offering a distinctive account of the origins of the people of Israel and their relationship with God. By presenting the complete translation of the Priestly Source without the other sources that are believed to also be part of the compiled Bible as we have it today, the reader is presented with a story that is oftentimes in stark contrast to the traditional reading. Li...
Jul 25, 2023•44 min•Ep. 57
Dr. Piers Mitchell is an Honorary Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge and the lead author of a recent study that analyzed sediments from two latrines from the Kingdom of Judah. The study found that dysentery was widespread in the ancient capital of Jerusalem. You can read the study at this link . Send us a text...
Jun 26, 2023•34 min•Ep. 56
In this episode of the podcast, Abigail Krasner Balbale discusses her book The Wolf King: Ibn Mardanish and the Construction of Power in Al Andalus. The Wolf King explores how political power was conceptualized, constructed, and wielded in twelfth-century al-Andalus, focusing on the reign of Muhammad ibn Sad ibn Ahmad ibn Mardanīsh also known as The Wolf King. Abigail is an Assistant Professor of Islamic History at New York University and her research focuses on the intersection of political pow...
Apr 20, 2023•49 min•Ep. 55
Dr. Shamam Waldman discusses a recent paper she co-authored with her colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that was published in the journal Cell. The study was an effort to sequence the DNA from the remains of Ashkenazi Jews in medieval Europe and focused on a DNA analysis that was done on the extracted teeth of individuals who were buried in a Jewish cemetery in Erfurt, Germany around the 14th century. The findings of the study shed light on where Ashkenazi Jews originated from, how...
Feb 14, 2023•37 min•Ep. 54
Professor Gary Rendsburg comes back on the podcast to discuss his book How The Bible Is Written. The book examines the literary aspects of the Hebrew biblical text and highlights the artistry and skill of the biblical authors. How The Bible Is Written is available in a number of stores, including in-person at Barnes & Noble and online at the links below: - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - HendrickSonrose - Christian Books - Amazon Send us a text...
Oct 25, 2022•55 min•Ep. 53
Hannah-Lena Hagemann is based in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Hamburg University, where she leads a research group on rebellion in early Islam. She is the author of The Kharijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition which is the first comprehensive literary analysis of the Kharijites’ history as depicted in early Islamic historiography. The book provides a new perspective on early Kharijism and explores their narrative function as rebels and heretics in early Islamic tradition. Yo...
Jul 26, 2022•48 min•Ep. 52
Professor Yosef Garfinkel is a Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Yigael Yadin Chair in Archaeology of Israel. In 2021 he was one of the authors of a study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology which examines how the Assyrian army laid siege to the town of Lachish in Judah in 701 BC. Specifically, the study examines how the Assyrian army constructed an impressive siege ramp in under a month and were confronted with unique conditions. The remnants of t...
Apr 12, 2022•31 min•Ep. 51
Professor Benjamin Sommer is an American biblical scholar and Jewish theologian. He’s a Professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Professor Sommer is the author of the book Revelation & Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition, which examines how the biblical authors conceived of the revelation at Sinai as both a collaborative and participatory event. You can find a link to purchase his book on Amazon here....
Apr 05, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 50
Andrea Berlin is the James R. Wiseman Chair in Classical Archaeology and a Professor of Archaeology and Religion at Boston University. Her research focuses on the archaeology and history of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Roman East, Ceramic Studies, Second-Temple Judaism, and the archaeology of Israel. In this episode, we discuss the book The Middle Maccabees of which she is a co-editor and a contributing author. The book examines the beginnings of the independent Jewish state founded in the s...
Feb 22, 2022•56 min•Ep. 49
Professor Boaz Zissu is an archaeologist and a member of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. He has authored and collaborated on numerous studies of the Bar Kokhba Revolt including co-authoring the book The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Archaeological Evidence. We discuss the background to the revolt, its scale and administration, and its ultimate demise. You can purchase a copy of the book at this link and can find Professor Zissu's lectures ...
Dec 14, 2021•44 min•Ep. 48
Khalil Andani is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Augustana College and holds a Ph.D. In Islamic Studies from Harvard University. Professor Andani’s dissertation “Revelation in Islam: Qur’anic, Sunni, and Shi‘i Ismaili Perspectives” won the 2020 Best PhD Dissertation of the Year Award from the Foundation for Iranian Studies. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss his dissertation, which is a historical investigation of Islamic theologies of revelation in the formative and classical peri...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 47
Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. Professor Bohak came back on the show to discuss a paper he co-authored titled Divorcing Lilith: From the Babylonian Incantation Bowls to the Cairo Genizah. We talked about the transmission of Jewish magical recipes from incantation bowls in Sasanian Iran to those found later i...
May 25, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 46
Matthew Chalmers is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Northwestern University’s Department of Religious Studies. He is a scholar and theorist of religion, working with texts and traditions of the late antique eastern Mediterranean in Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. In his current book project, The Samaritan Other: Representation, History, and Lost Late Antique Difference, he spotlights the continuous participation of Samaritans – a t...
May 04, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 45
Daniel Fuks is a Newton International Fellow of the British Academy at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. As a PhD candidate in the Archaeobotany Lab at Bar-Ilan University, he was the leading author of the research study that examined the rise and fall of the Byzantine Negev viticulture. You can find a link to the study here . Additionally, the Mediterranean Seminar nominated the paper as ‘Article of the Month’ in November 2020 which you can check ...
Feb 17, 2021•49 min•Ep. 44
Sarit Kattan-Gribbetz is an Associate Professor of Theology at Fordham University and the author of Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism, which can be purchased on Amazon . The book explores the rhythms of time that animated the rabbinic world of late antiquity, revealing how rabbis conceptualized time as a way of constructing difference between themselves and imperial Rome, Jews and Christians, men and women, and human and divine. Send us a text...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 43
Playaling is a language learning platform founded by Jordan Gerstler-Holton, a former Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) fellow and long-time student of Arabic. Playaling is composed of a dedicated team of language professionals making engaging real-world Arabic content available to teachers and students across the globe with a heavy focus on Arabic dialect instruction. Lena Krause, an Arabic teacher at Beacon Academy in Evanston, Illinois, has done a tremendous job creating the North African...
Jan 25, 2021•43 min•Ep. 42
Carolina Lopez-Ruiz is a Professor at Ohio State University in the Classics Department and her research focuses on understanding Greek culture in its broader ancient Mediterranean context. She has authored a number of books on the Phoenician civilization and in this episode we discussed her book When The Gods Were Born - Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East, which examines the links between ancient Greek civilization and Northwest Semitic peoples and how the cultural exchange between the two infl...
Jan 24, 2021•49 min•Ep. 41
Professors Aaron D. Rubin and Lily Kahn came back on the show to discuss their new book Jewish Languages From A to Z . The book is a comprehensive survey of Jewish languages, covering more than 50 different languages and language varieties and sheds light on the rich variety of languages spoken and written by Jews over the past three thousand years. The book also features a number of photographs of various manuscripts that help bring the languages to life. Aaron D. Rubin is the Malvin E. And Lea...
Dec 16, 2020•49 min•Ep. 40
Michael Philip Penn is a professor of religious studies at Stanford University and the author of Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World as well as the book When Christians First Met Muslims . Professor Penn’s book and research examine Syriac sources to better understand how Christians in the Middle East perceived the early Muslims and in doing so challenge some widespread cultural assumptions about early Christian-Muslim relations. You can purchase Envisioning Islam on A...
Dec 13, 2020•50 min•Ep. 39
Sue Frumin is a post-doctoral researcher at Bar Ilan University and archaeobotanist. Sue works in the archaebotany lab run by Professor Ehud Weiss at the university. She is one of the co-authors of a 2015 paper that examined the impact of the Philistine migration on biodiversity in the Southern Levant. You can check out the paper here Send us a text
Nov 10, 2020•22 min•Ep. 38
Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. In this episode of the podcast, we spoke about Jewish magical practices of late antiquity and the use of Jewish amulets, incantation bowls, and manuals in Aramaic and Hebrew. You can purchase Professor Bohak's book Ancient Jewish Magic on Amazon. Send us a text...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 37
