Timeline of Jews From 4,000 Years Ago

 Nadene Goldfoot

                                          Judaean Desert

I've discovered that there are many people who have never known of our Jewish history.  They may even think of it as starting in Rome, around 70 AD (anno domini).  

 Horrified, I've made a copy of my own timeline I have done in my blog 'Israel."  Notice, we started back 4,000 years ago in known histories.  Here we go, and I ended at 100 CE-Common Era/AD.  

1391-1271 BCE  from 70 sons, grandsons of Jacob to 611,30 Jews with Moses       

  1010 BCE-970 BCE  King David  of Israel , census of David: c 5,000,000 population
961 BCE to 920 BCE  King Solomon 

721 BCE: Assyrian attack on 10 northern Tribes of Israel, stolen away
597-586 BCE Babylonian Invasion 
          Babylonian exiles returning: 42,360  
167 BCE Revolt of Maccabees against Antiochus the Greek
165 BCE Rededication of Temple by Judas Maccabee (Hanukkah)  From 163 B.C.E. there is evidence of Jews in Rome.  They were probably slaves, Traders?  
139 BCE Jewish community in Rome, expulsed.  Jewish slaves later lived here.  
73 BCE-4 BCE Herod I, the Great, king of Judea appointed by Rome.  When he died, there were uprisings by the people so Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus crucified 2,000 Jews to quell the uprisings.   

69 BCE:  Cleopatra:  Cleopatra was of Macedonian descent and not a native Egyptian. She was the second daughter of King Ptolemy XII and the last sovereign of her dynasty, which had been founded by Alexander’s general, Ptolemy, in 326 BC. She came to power in 51 BC, at the age of seventeen, and was married to her eldest brother, Ptolemy XIII. 
30 BCE  Herod the Great by Julius Caesar, crucifixions; 25,000 Jews till 70 CE.  
 5 BCE, in Bethlehem, Judea, Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem from Greece, Gaul and Syria were following Roman appointed King  Herod's orders to kill all male children under age 2.                                

 1 CE 1st century Abba Sikra zealot in Jerusalem during the revolt against the Romans, alias Ben Batiah.  nephew of R Johanan ben Zakkai, helped to escape from Jerusalem.    In the year 6 CE. there were Jews at Vienne, France and Gallia Celtica which would be today's " Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and the west bank of the Rhine in Germany.".   "The first settlements of Jews in Europe are obscure;  in the year 39 at Lugdunum (i.e. Lyon) which is Lyon, France started in the year 43.  
19 CE Jews again expulsed from Rome. 
29 CE Jesus was crucified during Pontius Pilate's rule; starting the narration of Christianity., About 25,000 Jews crucified by Herod till 70 CE.     
49-50 CE Jews again expulsed from Rome. 
60 CE-Nero ruling: 700,000 Jews in Judea, 1,500,000 Jews scattered in other places.  4,200,00 Jews in the world, most likely less.  
61-63 CE  Jeshua Ben Damna, high priest, appointed by Herod Agrippa II, displaced by Gamla and ensued a struggle, toward end of the siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE fled to the Romans with other members of the priestly families.
c.65 CE  In town of Pekiin, Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai and son Eleazar hid from Romans in a cave for 13 years.

70 CE Jerusalem burned down, Temple destroyed, Jews starved to death before, taken prisoners.   1st Academy (university to educate rabbis) founded set up by Johanan ben Zakkai at Jabneh in Judah, south of Jaffa, reestablished the Great Sanhedrin in Jabneh until 132 of Bar Kokhba's Revolt.  
70 CE families of 24 Cohenim moved to outside of Jerusalem, each family to a different town, where their descendants lived until 1948. One place was near Kiryat Ata, now Shfar Am, an Arab town.  It has an ancient synagogue.  Survivor interviewed by Sandi Zigelman.
                                                                       

  Arch of General Titus, soon to become emperor,  Menorah Relief; Romans taking away Menorah, other things from Jerusalem Temple, taking 97,000 slaves from Judaea in 70 CE

66-73 CE Judaea which was a Roman Province had the first Jewish-Roman War.  The Sadducees and Pharisees fought against the Roman Empire.  The Jewish commanders and leaders were Ananus ben Ananus, Eliezar ben Hanania, Josef ben Matityahu, and Simon Bar Giora.  In the early stage the Roman guard had 3,000 against 10,000 under Ananus and 15,000 under Bar Giora.  The Romans Syrian Legion had 30,000 in Beth Horon while there were only 500 Adiabene warriors fighting for Judaea.  Eleazar had 20,000 Idumeans fighting.  6,000 were under John and 2,400 were under Eleazar, who were the radical factions.  Then the Romans brought out 5 Legions of 60,000 to 80,000 men at the Jerusalem siege.  Judaea had about 200 Sicarii fighting.  20,000 Roman soldiers were killed while 25,000 to 30,000 Judean rebels were killed and 10,000 radical factions.  In the end, 1.1 million Jewish militant and civilians were killed and 97,000 were enslaved and most likely taken to Rome. 

72 CE 12,000 Jews taken as slaves from Judah to Rome to build the Colosseum under Vespasian.  

Masada in 73 CE Herod's Palace, where 960 Jewish Sicarii (Jewish zealots armed with small daggers) had been living in refuge, committed suicide after 3 months of being sieged by Roman Legion led by Lucius Flavius Silva with 15,000 troops.  1 woman, 5 children escaped.  Story told by Josephus.

From 37  to 100 CE, the land of Judah had been occupied by the Romans as told by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish Historian who was captured by the Romans.  He was hired to write the history of their occupation in the Jewish land.  Individual Jews lived in France before 70 CE.   "The Romans destroyed the Jews' 2nd Temple in Jerusalem and took over the city in 70 CE.  They burned Jerusalem down and took away Jews as slaves for Rome while many others fled. Many  people of Judah had scattered to the 4 winds but  a number were able to remain in Judah.  Organized Jewish communities existed in France in the period of the Roman Empire.  Their position deteriorated with the growth of Christianity and its powers.

"As the siege of the capital, Jerusalem,  in the year 70 began on the day of the Passover sacrifice (V, 13, 7, VI, 9, 3), to which naturally many thousands of pilgrims had arrived from all parts of the country, the number of the besieged was very great. Among them were many from beyond the Euphrates and other foreign lands (Dio Cassius, 66. 4). 1,100,000 men perished during the siege, 97,000 were taken captive (VI, 9, 3); of these only 40,000 were preserved (8, 2), all citizens of Jerusalem (8, 2), the rest were sold for slaves, some sent into the mines in Egypt (9, 2), others distributed among the provinces for the circuses."and where did the 40,000 settle after having been allowed to go where they liked ?

Josephus mentions one of the four sons of the high priest Matthias , the high priests Joseph and Jesus, and three sons of the high priest Ishmael, four sons of a Matthias, and many other nobles who succeeded in escaping from the besieged capital to the Romans (VI, 2, 2). 

Many of the eminent citizens ran away to Titus (V, 13, 7) and told him the number of the poor who had died. Titus allowed these to retire to Gofna; there, he said, they should stay till his hands would be free from the war, when he would restore to them their property. Among the numerous deserters was the priest Jesus, son of Thebuthi , who surrendered many costly vessels of the Temple, as well as the curtains and the robe of the high priest. The treasurer of the Temple also fell into the hands of the Romans and was exceptionally pardoned in exchange for valuable stuff, priestly garments, and costly spices.

 Already, after Cestius's defeat in the year 66, many of the nobles had left Jerusalem as if it were a sinking ship; for instance, the two brothers Costobarus and Saul, along with Phillip, son of Jakimos, who had been a general of Agrippa's troops (II, 20, 1). 

After the entry of the Romans into Jerusalem,  Titus liberated all those Jews who had been thrown into prison by zealots (VI, 9.1); they also most probably belonged to the wealthy section of the population.   It may be assumed as almost certain that the members of both groups, of the priestly and of the lay nobility of Jerusalem, at the conclusion of the war received their landed property, and assisted the poor country of Judaea in recovering from its terrible downfall. 

Where they settled is nowhere indicated by Josephus; he lived in Rome and seemed to evince no interest in the state of his native country after the destruction. It is possible that, though owning land in Judaea, some of the nobles settled outside Judaea, as Josephus, who, in exchange for his fields near Jerusalem, received from Titus others in the plain, and was rewarded by Vespasian by additional property in Judaea