Early History of the Jews

Some knowledge of Jewish history is necessary and the following brief sketch is given to put the Jews in perspective, not as they saw themselves, but as they and their history might appear, rightly or wrongly, to an outsider.

The Jews were a small and obscure Semitic people with legendary association with Egypt, which they left under the leadership of Moses, who in part at least devised their particular institutions. Jerusalem was built as their capital city and was a natural fortress. Later it became famous for its Temple. Tiny Judaea was continually harassed by its more powerful neighbours and eventually many of the inhabitants of the northern part of the land (by then a separate kingdom) were led into captivity by the Assyrians (721 BC). The Babylonians who succeeded the Assyrian empire carried out a similar deportation from the southern kingdom (597, 587). When the Persians took Babylon, some of the exiles were permitted to return (c. 538), although many remained and formed a permanent outpost of Judaism in Babylon or in Mesopotamia. Jerusalem was inhabited once more and the Temple and its worship restored.

The Persian rule lasted until 333 BC, when Alexander the Great led his forces from Macedon in Greece on a triumphant course as far as India to the east and Egypt to the southwest, absorbing and organizing the lands through which he passed into one vast empire. On his death in 323 this was partitioned among his generals, often known as the Diadochi (Successors).