More about the lectures of Dr. David Neiman audiobooks:

 

The lectures of Dr. David Neiman (1921-2004) sparkle with a rare combination of features.  They are original and scholarly yet of keen interest to the non-specialist.  Dr.Neiman had the uncommon ability to relate life in antiquity to a modern audience. 

 

Dr. Neiman knew the script, the language and content of the cuneiform tablets as well as the Hebrew original of the Old Testament. Most importantly, Dr. Neiman demonstrated how engaging the story of mankind really is regardless of the age or the intellectual and religious atmosphere.

 

Cradles of Civilization:

 

Dr. David Neiman tracks the rise of civilization from the Agricultural Revolution to the Ceramic Age, and then the Bronze. He traces the origin of writing and its development into hieroglyphics and then into the alphabet. Dr. Neiman explores the legendary reign of Hammurabi of Babylon, the tumultuous history of ancient Egypt and gives a dramatic retelling of the earliest known piece of literature, "The Epic of Gilgamesh". 

 

Discovering Genesis:

 

The Book of Genesis is a fascinating account of ancient Israel's earliest traditions regarding both its origins as a people and the origins of the natural and human world it experienced. In the eight-part series Discovering Genesis, the late David Neiman, professor of Jewish theology at Boston College, expertly guides you through the book's first chapters-from the story of creation to the Tower of Babel-to examine how the Biblical writers grappled with the fundamentall questions and mysteries of the shared human experience: Where do we come from? Who are we? What makes us different? How did civilization come about? Why do we die? Drawing on recent findings in Biblical studies, ancient history and archaeology, Dr. Neiman also reveals the cultural, historical and linguistic context in which the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the Flood were originally written and understood. In the final lectures of this series, Dr. Neiman examines the life of Abraham the Partriarch and places his story into a political and historical context.

 

The Church and The Jews:

 

Dr. David Neiman's lecture series, "The Church and The Jews" traces the intimate and troubled relationship between the Christian Church and the Jewish people. The series starts with the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. when the Catholic Church was founded and takes us through the Crusades, the Disputations of the 13th century, the Spanish Inquisition and the Reformation. 

 

The Jews in History:

 

Dr. David Neiman's lectures on Jewish history connect the story of the Jewish people into the larger context of world history.  "Joseph and the Exodus" ties the story of Jewish slavery and freedom to archaeological and historical records. "David and Solomon" takes a critical look at the kings of Israel. "The History of the Talmud"is a dramatic account of the development of the Jewish legal system amid a changing political landscape. In "The Politics of Purim" and "The History of Hanukah" the Jews play a pivotal role amid the clash of empires. And "The Khazarian Empire" explores the real story behind the legendary Jewish kingdom.