The period covered by this book is effectively c. 200 bc to c. ad 200; but to begin our outline at 200 bc would be to plunge into a situation which must be described very largely in the light of the previous centuries. In fact the Exile of the Jewish people (597 BC) provides a natural point at which to begin. For centuries this event has been regarded by Jewish scholars as beginning the period of the Talmud, and by others as beginning the formation of ‘Judaism’, thought of as a system of belief and practice founded on God's dealings with his people in the past.

The period therefore begins with a disaster; it was followed by a measure of recovery, but the disaster produced the permanent effect of the dispersion (Gk diaspora) of the Jewish people. Our outline must therefore begin with the Exile, Restoration and Diaspora.

EXILE

The biblical account of the events leading to the Exile is narrated in 2 Kings 17 and 23-5. In 721 bc the majority of the inhabitants of the northern kingdom of Israel were taken into captivity by the Assyrians, who, in their Annals, claimed to have transported 27,290 of them as booty (see ANET, p. 285). In 597, 587 and 582 much the same fate befell the southern kingdom of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians, though Jeremiah's total of 4,600 (Jer. 52:28-30) probably refers to adult males only.