Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan has recently opened its free nine-week online course on Bible studies.

Each student is expected to devote two to four hours per week to the course.

Since first being offered in 2017, some 10,000 students from around the world have taken the course, amongst them residents of many African, Asian, and South American countries.

There have also been participants from many countries in the Middle East, including Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran.

Offered by the Zalman Shamir Department of Bible at Bar-Ilan, the course offers introduction to the Bible set against the background of the rich archaeological findings from the Ancient Near East.

The goal of the course is to introduce students to the fascinating world of Israel’s neighbouring civilisations in biblical times, and offer a comparative study that examines the relationship between the Bible and these civilisations.