A History of Judaism

By: Martin Goodman

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

A sweeping history of Judaism over more than three millennia.

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other.

In this magisterial and elegantly authored audiobook, Martin Goodman takes listeners from Judaism's origins in the polytheistic world of the second and first millennia BC to the temple cult at the time of Jesus. He tells the stories of the rabbis, mystics, and messiahs of the medieval and early modern periods and guides us through the many varieties of Judaism today.

Goodman's compelling narrative spans the globe, from the Middle East, Europe, and America to North Africa, China, and India. He explains the institutions and ideas on which all forms of Judaism are based and masterfully weaves together the different threads of doctrinal and philosophical debate that run throughout its history.

A History of Judaism is a spellbinding chronicle of a vibrant and multifaceted religious tradition that has shaped the spiritual heritage of humankind like no other.

©2018 Martin Goodman (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Learned a lot I never knew about early Judaism

I particularly liked the BCE and 1st millennium of the common era. Not as much as I was expecting about Moorish Spain. There’s a lot that could’ve been covered about antisemitism in western literature.
Poor Rabbi Akiva. One has to wonder why the out-of-context reference was added to the Passover Haggadah. Speaking of which, who wrote the Haggadah and when? I expected to learn that.
Did not know there was a Palestinian Talmud. I struggled with that usage, because the coinage of the ancient Greeks was Syria-Palestine. Distinction should have been made between what “Palestine” meant many centuries ago vs. the land modern day Palestinians refer to as Palestine. Sensitive issue. Important not to conflate the two.
Can’t verify accuracy in many cases so I’m giving the author the benefit of the doubt even in instances that didn’t entirely make sense to me.
Subtracted a performance star for some mispronunciations that made me cringe and took me out of the moment. Fingernails on chalkboards. Awful. Should have been corrected and re-recorded. Torah. (!) Eliezer was butchered. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Kaddish. Yizkor. Basics. Many more. Also. no consistency as to Sephardic or Ashkenazi pronunciations. I would subtract more, but it can’t have been easy to narrate.

The Amount of historical detail

A great narrative with so much information. The speakers voice was perfect. I learned so much!

Well written, but audio and text Chapter headings are mismatched.

Overall, the book is well written and the narration is fine. It's odd, though, that the chapter labelled "20" is introduced in the audio as Part 5, Chapter 16. other chapters were mismatched by only a chapter or two.

Again, everything else is fine.

Not a wasted word.

Methodical and clear description of Jewish history. The historical breakdown of the evolution of the Jewish religion.

A worthy history of Judaism itself

This is history of Judaism pe se, not
a formal history of the Jews broadly. The religious history is richer than I ever imagined. Worthy of this excellent tome.