Decent, brief Old and New Testament introductions are sometimes difficult to come by in video format.  But, these two seem to be pretty good videos for lay people that make use of professors at Lutheran universities and schools of theology.  They are done by the ELCA, but they do treat different traditions, such as by discussing the concept of canon.  Anyway, if you have some lay folks who might want a general overview, you might encourage them to check them out here or on Google video:

Old Testament Introduction

New Testament Introduction

It’s nice to see Jim West endorsing Lawrence Schiffman, his exact words being “He’s awesome.”  I have used two of Schiffman’s audio courses before from the Modern Scholar Series, The Hebrew Bible and The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth Behind the Mystique.  However, I had heard about issues concerning Schiffman (a charge of plagiarism, or something like that if I recall correctly) but didn’t really know enough about the situation, and I figured I liked the courses regardless.  So, I didn’t think any more about it and have continued to recommend the courses to friends.

But, it’s nice to see that the issues I had heard about were a sham.  The two courses provide a good introduction both to the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls, though I don’t think the course on the Hebrew Bible is the best available (for that I might check out Amy-Jill Levine from the Teaching Company or Christine Hayes at Yale Open Course).

For those interested, I have a video of Schiffman on my site entitled “Judaism, Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.”  Also, it is possible to get the two courses in the Modern Scholar series that I link to above free from Audible with a two week trial.  Just use the link the box in the sidebar of this page that says “Download 2 Free Audiobooks.”  Being a trial though, you have to remember to cancel if you don’t want to keep the subscription. There’s also a course by Eric Cline entitled the History of Ancient Israel: From the Patriarchs through the Romans.