Learn About the Religions of the Ancient Near East? Free?

Have you ever wondered what curious ideas ancient man once held? This past spring semester I had the pleasure of teaching a course titled Religions of the Ancient Near East where I dove quite deep into not only the Israelite religions (yes, there is an "s" on that word) but also the religions of Israel's neighbors. Much of the information for the course came from my own personal studies for gradaute school, but some of the information was fresh...and fascinating.

I am not going to give it all away, but what I will do is give you these few videos from the course. I taught the course online via G+ hangouts, but unfortunately for you I didn't record the first few weeks. Instead, I am offering here the first video I recorded separately for the course before deciding to lecture live. Where are the others? They are all neatly packed away on YouTube and like can find the entire playlist here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHT62N6G-zQgW_KFRkMkF96rE3dYOa-5j

So, go watch some videos and learn. Be sure to leave comments for me as well.