Judah After Zedekiah in 586 BCE? Or Israel After Hoshea in 721 BCE?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                       

We leave Judah and Israel, Our Israel divided into two. because of 2 distinct ways of continued living, which became their destruction.  Situated in a land bridge between the Babylonians and Egyptians, the two great powers of the day, Kings Jehoiakim (608-598 BCE) of Judah and Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) of Judah kept switching allegiance depending on which seemed the more powerful. Judah first favored Egypt, then Babylon, and then returned to Egypt. The Bible and the Babylonian Chronicles help us reconstruct the events that led to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.  

     JUDAH/JUDEA/JUDAEA/JEWS TO 70 CE

After Zedekiah's defeat in 586 BCE, the Kingdom of Judah was dissolved into a Babylonian province. King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire appointed Gedaliah as governor over the remaining impoverished peasants. However, Gedaliah was assassinated just a few years later, triggering a flight of refugees back to Egypt.  

1. Gedaliah: Appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar to administer the remnant of the Jewish population left in the land. He ruled from Mizpah until his assassination around 582 BCE by Ishmael, a member of the royal family. 

2. Ishmael ben Nethaniah: Briefly usurped local control after assassinating Gedaliah, plunging the region into further chaos before fleeing to the Ammonites. 

3. Nebuchadnezzar II: The Babylonian King who conquered Jerusalem, burned Solomon's Temple, and initiated the Babylonian exile. He held supreme imperial authority over the territory of Judah. 

4. The Achaemenid Empire: Following the fall of the Babylonian empire, the region passed into Persian (Iran) control in 539 BCE under Cyrus the Great, who eventually allowed exiled Jews to return and govern themselves under Persian oversight. Cyrus was a good ruler, and today is the one ruler that both the youth of Iran and Israel share as a great leader. So, almost half of the Israelites who came to Canaan in the first place were living in the Jerusalem area when the Romans attacked Jerusalem in 70 CE.  

After Cyrus the Great, the Israelites (Jews) were primarily ruled by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. They functioned as an autonomous province (Yehud) under a succession of Persian kings before falling to Greek and Roman conquerors over the following centuries.

       GREEK AND ROMAN CONQUERORS

Judah was always the largest in population, coming into Canaan with 76,500 men.  Evidently the 2 census's taken by Moses were only counting the men, who would have to defend the group as they moved along to Canaan from Egypt.  Simeon only arrived with 22,200.  The sequential progression of empires and rulers over the Israelites includes:

• The Persian Period (539–332 BCE): The returned exiles were governed directly by the Persian royal court, notably Darius the Great (who oversaw the completion of the Second Temple), Xerxes I (the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther), and Artaxerxes I (who authorized the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls). Local leadership was often managed by Jewish high priests and appointed governors, such as Zerubbabel. 
• The Hellenistic Period (332–167 BCE): Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, the land of Israel fell under Greek rule. Upon Alexander's death, control of the region was contested by his generals, shifting between the Ptolemaic Kingdom (based in Egypt) and the Seleucid Empire (based in Syria). 
• The Hasmonean Dynasty (142–63 BCE): Led by the Maccabees, the Jewish people successfully revolted against Seleucid religious oppression, securing a period of Jewish self-rule and independence under the Hasmonean kings. 
• The Roman Period (63 BCE onwards): The Hasmonean kingdom was eventually annexed by the Roman Republic under Pompey the Great. The Romans ruled the area directly through governors and client kings, like Herod the Great, leading up to the First Jewish-Roman War and the destruction of the Temple. 
•         FATE of the 10 NORTHERN TRIBES

In the meantime, we have these 10 other northern tribes left in the hands of Jeroboam (933-912 BCE) of a leading tribe of Ephraim, (32,500)  who had had the job of superintendent of forced labor who had been working on building the Temple.  That's why the states split away.  They had enough of the forced free labor.  Solomon, usually a most fair of judges, had been in a panic to get the job done before he died.  He was not a well man, who hid it well.  

The Division: Jeroboam, a former overseer under Solomon, returned from exile in Egypt to lead the revolt of the 10 tribes (Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, and Manasseh). 

Political & Religious Strategy: Fearing that his subjects would travel to Jerusalem (in the southern Kingdom of Judah) for religious festivals and eventually pledge loyalty to the Davidic dynasty, Jeroboam established rival cultic centers like the people they surrounded themselves with, Aram and Ammon. He set up golden calves in the cities of Bethel and Dan, declaring them also to be the gods of Israel, and appointed non-Levite priests. This was worse than saying oy vey!  Why did he go so far, a 180 degree turn-around???

Reign: His 22-year reign was marked by ongoing warfare with the southern kingdom of Judah. His dynasty ended shortly after his death when his son , King Nadab (913-911 BCE)  was assassinated in one report;  killed while fighting the Philistines in another who said that Baasha, his rival, murdered him; (I Kings 15-25)and Jeroboam's entire family line was wiped out. 

Archaeology: Excavations at Tel Dan have unearthed remains of the cultic shrines and high places that match the biblical accounts of Jeroboam's rule. 

Fate of the 10 Northern Tribes

• Continuous Idolatry & Instability: Following Jeroboam I, the Kingdom of Israel experienced severe political instability, frequent assassinations, and continued worship of foreign gods. 
• The Assyrian Conquest (722 BCE): The northern kingdom was ultimately conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians implemented a forced deportation and resettlement policy, removing thousands of Israelites and scattering them across the Assyrian Empire (including modern-day Iraq and Syria).
• "Lost" Status: Because these northern tribes were dispersed and integrated into surrounding cultures over the centuries, the historical records of their independent existence ceased. They are popularly known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
•                    NORTH MEETS SOUTH-UNITE
• Southern Migration: Many refugees from the northern kingdom migrated south to Jerusalem to escape the Assyrian destruction. Therefore, remnants of the northern tribes likely survived and intermingled with the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, continuing their identity into the Second Temple period.  
• The Second Temple period (516 BCE to 70 CE) was a transformative era of Israelite history defined by the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple, profound religious development, and successive foreign conquests. It ended catastrophically when the Romans destroyed the Temple during the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 CE. 
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  Following the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jews faced massacres, enslavement, and displacement. Without a sacred center, Judaism transformed: sacrificial Temple rituals ended, and the surviving Pharisees shifted the faith to Second Temple period Torah study and communal prayer, cementing Rabbinic Judaism.
• After the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Jewish people adapted to survive the loss of their central holy site. They transitioned from a Temple-based, sacrificial religion to Rabbinic Judaism—focusing on Torah study, communal prayer, and synagogues—while many faced forced displacement from their homeland.
• Following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Romans did not completely expel the Jewish population, but heavily displaced them through slavery, execution, and regional bans. While many were sold into slavery and sent across the Empire, surviving communities remained in their ancestral lands, while others fled to established diaspora centers.
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Jews Who Remained in Palestine After 70 CE's Assault From Rome: The Mystery Years

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Western WallThe Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

• Rabbi Hillel (b: 1st century BCE)  (Hebrew: הִלֵּל Hīllēl; variously called Hillel the Elder or Hillel the Babylonian; died c. 10 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of the House of Hillel school of tannaim. He was active during the end of the first century BCE and the beginning of the first century CE.  He lived through; The First Crusade in Palestine, though his wife and daughter were killed. He has been credited for writing the GOLDEN RULE in the negative 
• form of "Do not do unto others that which you would not have them
•  do unto you"
• He came from Babylon to Israel, although he was descended from David. His descendent, Judah haNasi, traced his lineage through both the female lineage of the Tribe of Benjamin and the family of David.

By August 70 ce the Romans had breached the final defenses and massacred much of the remaining population. They also destroyed the Second Temple. The Western Wall, the only extant trace of the Second Temple, remains a site of prayer and pilgrimage. The loss of the Temple for a second time is still mourned by Jews during the fast of Tisha be-Av.  

Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai (1st century CE) 1st-century sage in Judea, key to the development of the Mishnah, the first Jewish sage attributed the title of rabbi in the Mishnah. 

Rome celebrated the fall of Jerusalem by erecting the triumphal Arch of Titus.

During the Byzantine era from 330-637 CE, Jews in Palestine were a significant minority population in small, agricultural villages and urban centers, existing in a complex and sometimes precarious legal and social position between a dominant Christian state and a larger, non-Christian demographic.

They were the ones we never hear about.  They hadn't left.  They were able to live through the Roman occupation and attack and the wiping out so many Jews in their attack on Jerusalem.  

 Their status was dependent on the fluctuating theological aims of the state, the effectiveness of its central rule, and the prevailing economic and political conditions, leading to periods of both relative prosperity and persecution.  Jews were numerous and had significant roles throughout the history of the Byzantine Empire.

GOOD TIMES:  HAD PROTECTION;  In the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212, Caracalla bestowed citizenship on all residents including Jews of the Roman Empire, of which the Byzantine Empire is a continuation. This granted Jews legal equality to other citizens, and formed the foundation of their legal status in Byzantium following the founding of Constantinople in 330. Indeed, Jews enjoyed the right to practice their faith under the rule of the Byzantines, as long as they paid the Fiscus Judaicus. For example, circumcision, which was considered mutilation and therefore punishable by death if performed on a non-Jewish child, and by exile if performed on a non-Jewish adult, was legally permitted within Jewish religious practices. Byzantine law recognized synagogues as places of worship, which could not be arbitrarily molested. Jewish courts had the force of law in civil cases, and Jews could not be forced to violate Shabbat and their festivals.

HELLENIZATION-THE BIG CHANGE-ALTERING RELIGION:  After the decline of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Judaism in ancient times, the use of the Greek language and the integration of Greek culture into Judaism continued to be an integral part of life in Jewish communities in the Byzantine Empire.

• Rabbi Abdullah ibn Salam, (550–630) rabbi, converted to Islam and was a companion of Islam's founder, Muhammad

The most famous rabbi from Palestine during 330-637 CE was Shimon bar Yochai, who was a central figure in the development of Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah. Other figures like him may have existed, but their stories or names are not as widely documented in readily available sources for that specific era. He is the legendary author of the Zohar, a foundational text of Kabbalah, and his teachings and influence were significant during this time and beyond.                                         

• Tannaim and Amoraim: 

  This era saw the compilation of the Mishnah (the work of the Tannaim) and the Talmud (the work of the Amoraim), which involved extensive commentary and debate by rabbinic scholars in Palestine. 

  
• The Mishnah is the first major written compilation of Jewish oral law, a compendium of legal discussions and interpretations of Torah traditions compiled by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi in the early 3rd century CE. Organized into six "orders" (sedarim) and 63 tractates (masechtot), the Mishnah's goal was to preserve and unify Jewish practice and belief after the destruction of the Second Temple, serving as a crucial foundation for the Talmud and subsequent rabbinic Judaism.

  

   
• The Mishnah was redacted by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi in the 2nd century, and the Babylonian Talmud was completed by rabbis around the 6th century.  The Jewish people were led by Zugot, or rabbinic pairs, who taught the binding natures of both the Written Law and the Oral Law, during the first and second centuries BCE. Jewish practice dramatically changed after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE as the community focus shifted from Temple rituals to Torah learning. Threats of Roman persecution also grew, and Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi feared that the Jewish community would become fragmented and any oral traditions would be lost. At that point, he made a bold decision: he wrote down the Oral Law in a book called the Mishnah.
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   The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, serving as a compilation of ancient teachings and the primary source of Jewish religious law and theology, consisting of the Mishnah (the codified oral law) and the Gemara (commentaries and discussions on the Mishnah). It also includes various auxiliary materials and is written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, with the Babylonian Talmud becoming the most authoritative version over time. The Talmud is revered by traditional religious Jews and has profoundly influenced Jewish thought and practice for centuries. 

• Gamaliel VI (until 425 CE): The last nasi (patriarch) of the Jewish community in Palestine.
• Termination of the Jewish Patriarchate (429 CE): The Byzantine Empire did not allow a successor to Gamaliel VI to be appointed, ending the official Jewish patriarchate in the Land of Israel.

• Jews lived through this period.  They had not left.  They may have lost their king, butthey prayed for the return of their own government.   

Resource:

Edit:  9/24/25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rabbis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Byzantine_Empire#:~:text=The%20legal%20standing%20of%20the,older%20liturgical%20or%20linguistic%20customs.

https://www.fabriziomusacchio.com/weekend_stories/told/2025/2025-01-25-jewish_life_in_byzantine_empire/#:~:text=BY%2DSA%202.0)-,Jewish%20life%20in%20the%20Byzantine%20empire,periods%20of%20heightened%20religious%20intolerance.