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 

Who We Jews Are Who Have Returned to Our Ancient Land Part 1

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

October 8, 2023's Terrorist attack and invasion of Israel on Simchat Torah in the USA, the day we celebrate reading the Torah.  Israel is 10 hours ahead of the USA. In Israel,  children were captured, throats were slit or beheaded with axes by these people the world wants to see share land next door  called "Palestine."  They are already the Hamas terrorists of Gaza. Gaza has become a Palestine and they still beat the drums for a Palestine, another Palestine?  

Approximately 9.5 million Jews lived in Europe in 1933, the year Hitler came to power. This number represented 1.7% of Europe's total population and more than 60 percent of the world's Jewish population. By 1945, most European Jews—2 out of every 3—had been killed.  That means that we lost 2/3rds of our total world population. 

Yet we had been kept from entering Palestine, which had been decided in the 1920s by the League of Nations  to house the Jewish Homeland, and that England held the 30 year mandate starting July 24, 1922  to rule until 1948.  By 1948, there were 650,000 Jews living in Palestine, almost the same number than entered with Moses on the Exodus.  We're not getting very far growing our population.  So many bumps along the way.  

                                                                      

 Abba Eban reminds us that our ancient Hebrew ancestors were the 1st people to abandon idols of Assyria and worship the One G0d of all humankind, something many people today have even discarded in their modern and scientific world.  Everything the ancients used, the Temple of Jerusalem, the High Priest, the sacrificial fire, animals to be sacrificed, has disappeared from our religion since the Romans burned down Jerusalem in 70 CE. We have a segment of our population working on reviving the icon of our heritage, the 3rd Temple, of which our cousin, Stanley Goldfoot of Jerusalem was involved. As the centuries have come and go, Judaism continues and updates itself. It's not a stagnant belief, but it goes back 4,000 years; the oldest of the three religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.    

Egypt and Mesopotamia -such a civilization-had its beginnings.  They developed writing, math, astronomy, medicine, painting, sculpture, warfare, arts and sciences with architects designing palaces, tombs, temples, huge ones at that.  Hundreds and thousands of gods were worshipped as all of nature held a divine being.  Sacrifices were made, some of them human.  Many kings and queens were said to be gods.  Here, Abraham entered the scene, where our Jewish story began, 4,000 years ago.  He introduced one G0d to us from Ur of the Chaldees.  

              A family of shepherds, Jacob and his sons, our family

When Jacob told the pharaoh that we were a people of shepherds, he wasn't kidding.  His ancestors, which are also ours, stretched back into the land of Persia or today's Iran as shepherds.  Moses came along with the Exodus, 40 years of getting from Egypt after 400 years of slavery to freedom in Canaan taking place in 1225 BCE. From the Exodus came Moses from the bull-rushes who taught us, one G-d.  We learned that as long as we continued to serve the one G-d and obey his law, we had G-d's pledge of special protection.  Break that and we were in trouble. We arrived in Canaan with 601,730  in the last tribal census listed in Numbers, chapter 26 after losing 1,820 along the way; by seniors, those defending us,  illness.     

That evidently did not mean bodily protection, as we lost 6 million in the Holocaust, and we just lost an amazing amount to slaughter and injury with the Hamas infiltration of October 7th,  but to our history and continuation of our people as a whole.  After all, not many persons as a "people" have lasted through the centuries this long.  We have determination to last as a people, for what we stand for is most worthwhile compared to what a few other nations are doing today. Where is their morality as human beings? It's so horrible so many had to die by the hands of immoral people who chose to torture, rape, murder our people, slaughter children in front of other children.   

Long ago we had  kings Saul and David, selected by a prophet Samuel, sheepherders, different from other nations.  David and Saul did not become dictators, did not claim to be divine or have statutes built for themselves, and did not silence the prophet Nathan who criticized David.  At this point, all people were equal, even the kings.  Solomon became king, and at this time the land's southern end was called Judah and the northern was called Israel.  This happened  ever since Jacob had wrestled with his angel, and won, the name of which was Yisrael (Israel), which changed his life.  

                   Assyrian Attack

750 BCE was when everyone  was as developed as we are today but without our education.  They had no idea of all the science we have learned.  They believed in gods, and the Hebrews believed in the power of One G-d only, being quite different from all the others.  They thought the world was flat; that the sun revolved around the earth. 

Assyria's religion was dedicated to conquest. They were the most powerful nation in the world.  Our one g-d had to stand up against their many gods.  Slums were growing in cities with poor people.  Amos, the prophet, taught in the northern kingdom of Israel with revolutionary ideas.  At this time royalty were killing each other for power; priests sacrificed before idols and worshipped foreign gods.  Amos alone fought against this. This shows how quickly people forget, and go back to old ways of habit.  

Only 29 years later in 721 BCE the Assyrians attacked the North and transported to Mesopotamia people where they mixed with the native population and became the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.  

Isaiah and Micah were the prophets that took over Amos's position. They said Assyria was the instrument of G-d's anger and foretold a better future for us.  World peace was born.  It was more than 2,600 years later when nations were still searching for a peaceful solution to their problems.  

Prophet Jeremiah felt he was facing ridicule and opposition, hatred and danger though now Assyria had finally collapsed as Isaiah had predicted, but Babylonia took their place as the great power.  Jeremiah said they would destroy the kingdom of Judah, so Jews now had the freedom from G-d's special protection.  Jeremiah was imprisoned.  Jeremiah was convinced the Jews would be saved from total destruction.   

     Judeans led away by Babylonians

We come to 586 BCE when Babylonian armies led by Nebuchadnezzar captured and demolished Jerusalem.  The Temple was in ruin.  Judah's people were now in exile.  Ezekiel had a vision spoke to them of a glorious future when Israel would be rebuilt and a new Temple would stand in Jerusalem.  

What did we have going for us that others didn't have?  Prophets !  Prophets shook us up when we strayed away morally and brought us up.  It was like our parents reminding us to be good and not break the rules.  Someone always had the guts to take on this role.  What brave men they were.  Israel became the light of the nations---the bearer of ideas which changed the thinking of humankind.   

539 BCE Babylon, "Return to Zion!"  Rebuild the land of Israel." 

586 BCE was a long time ago.  Hardly anyone was still alive from that exodus.  Jews were comfortable in Babylon after the 50 years being away.  Babylon was the greatest city  in the world  Jews had been able to keep their identity, if they wanted to or not, remembered as "the Jews."  They had a great standard of living.  In those Persian days, many Jews---perhaps as many as 50,000 of the several hundred thousand living in Mesopotamia---felt this same overwhelming devotion to the homeland of our people, like the swallows of Capistrano's yearning.  It was a large and joyous throng who made the dangerous 800-mile journey back to Jerusalem who had never lived there before.  

What did they find?  Jerusalem in ruins, hostile foreigners in the deserted land settled throughout Judah.  those few Hebrews who were lucky enough to remain had intermarried with other peoples now hostile to newbies from Babylonia who now expected to rule over them.  They slowly began the task of rebuilding  and within a year had the foundation for the new Temple finished.  Then they stopped. Why is not known but something happened;  climate change, war, something.  

 It took 18 years to restart, inspired by prophets Haggai and Zechariah. It took them 23 years to finish the 2nd Temple.  The original Temple of Solomon was built in 12 years.  This finished product wasn't even impressive to look at like the first one.  

The children of the returned exiles married with local non-Jews.   Jerusalem was a desolate city, defenseless.  No one was this bright and shining light leading the way.  Temple priests couldn't lead but became corrupt.  60 years after the Temple had been finished and 80 years after the end of the Babylonian exile, Israel's people fell apart as Jews.  It took Ezra  to revive Israelis. Ezra: (5th century BCE) from priestly family (J1 Cohen) of Zadok,  and Nehemiah (5th century BCE who worked under king Artaxerxes) governor in 444 BCE.  He had walls repaired in 52 days.  Sabbath was observed under him).  The men were told to divorce their non-Jewish wives.    

Nehemiah left Babylonia and became Israel's governor.  He divided his forces into half so one group worked and the other stood guard, necessary as before he got there they were being attacked.  

The AGE of PROPHETS had ended with Ezra.  Persian kings now ruled our people from 539 BCE to 332 BCE, 207 mystery years.  Judaism evolved from Hebrews to Jews whose religion was Judaism;  one people for one G-d.  

  

Resource:

My People, Abba Eban's History of the Jews

https://www.britannica.com/event/Siege-of-Jerusalem-70

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/remaining-jewish-population-of-europe-in-1945