Introduction

This course is designed to be a self-study, online course for those interested in learning about the life of King David and his historic legacy. The course is at once biographical in its focus upon King David as presented in Kirsch's book King David and historical in scope as it employs the Empire series video "The Kingdom of David" to study David's kingdom and its implications and impacts.

The text for this is King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel (2009) by Jonathan Kirsch. This book can also be purchased from Amazon as a Kindle e-book or through Barnes & Noble. Kirsch's King David is a biographical expose of the life and history of King David and serves as a complilment text to the Empire film series "The Kingdom of David." Reading the book while watching a film of what became of David's kingdom provides an interesting retrospective / prospective perspective of the man and his legacy.

Course Enrollment & Participation

You can register for this class by contacting Dr. Terry Wimberley at etwimber@hotmail.com. The course schedule involves four sessions and all of the Kingdom of David videos are free on Youtube. After having completed each course session participants may choose - on a purely optional basis - to answer the session study questions and submit them at etwimber@hotmail.com or to contact Dr. Wimberley by phone or email to request a time for dialogue about what you have learned. You may do so by phone or dialogue via Skype or Facetime. Dr. Wimberley's phone number is 239.405.4164. There may also be efforts to convene group meetings of the class using the Zoom application on our computers. If you are unfamiliar with how to use Zoom, this online tutorial link should be useful: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting .

Enrollment: You can enroll in this course by emailing etwimber@hotmail.com or by texting Dr. Wimberley at 239.405.4164.

The Kingdom of David
Session 1: Empires: The Kingdom of David: By the Rivers of Babylon

Session 2: Empires: The Kingdom of David: The Book and the Sword

Session 3: Empires: The Kingdom of David: The Gift of the Jews

Session 4: Empires: The Kingdom of David: The End Days

Overview of the The Kingdom of David

The Kingdom of David documentary chronicles the story of the Jewish people and how they were able to preserve their culture from being subsumed by the other worldly kingdoms that surrounded them. It begins with the Babylonian Eixle where Judean scribes sought to preserve the identity of their culture with the creation of the "written word" of God - translating oral traditions into sacred scripture. It describes the struggles of the Judeans with the Seleucid Empire and concludes with the revolt agains the romans and the emergence of powerful rabbinic leaders such as Hillel, Youchanan ben Zakai and Rabbi Akiva - who preserved Jewish tradition for this modern era.