vincentML
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quote:
The main problem was not the idea of a homeland for Jewish people, but the location that they picked. I suppose if there's anyone to "blame" for the situation, it would be the Romans for kicking the Jews out of that territory in the first place.
An often mistaken concept. The diaspora began with the Babylonian captivity, if not before:
As early as the middle of the 2nd century BCE the Jewish author of the third book of the Oracula Sibyllina addressed the "chosen people," saying: "Every land is full of thee and every sea." The most diverse witnesses, such as Strabo, Philo, Seneca, Luke (the author of the Acts of the Apostles), Cicero, and Josephus, all mention Jewish populations in the cities of the Mediterranean basin. See also History of the Jews in India and History of the Jews in China for pre-Roman (and post-) diasporic populations. King Agrippa I, in a letter to Caligula, enumerated among the provinces of the Jewish diaspora almost all the Hellenized and non-Hellenized countries of the Orient. This enumeration was far from complete as Italy and Cyrene were not included. The epigraphic discoveries from year to year augment the number of known Jewish communities but must be viewed with caution due to the lack of precise evidence of their numbers. According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, the next most dense Jewish population after the Land of Israel and Babylonia was in Syria, particularly in Antioch, and Damascus, where 10,000 to 18,000 Jews were massacred during the great insurrection. The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo gives the number of Jewish inhabitants in Egypt as one million, one-eighth of the population. Alexandria was by far the most important of the Egyptian Jewish communities. The Jews in the Egyptian diaspora were on a par with their Ptolemaic counterparts and close ties existed for them with Jerusalem. As in other Hellenistic diasporas, the Egyptian diaspora was one of choice not of imposition.[9]
The Jewish uprisings around Jerusalem were mostly attempts by Hasidim zealots (the "pious ones") against secularization by Hellenistic (Greek) culture. Greek was the predominant language of secularized Jews. A Gymnasium was built near the Temple, using Temple funds, where men could study and play naked. Temples to "Zeus" were erected to accept sacrifices. I put the name of Zeus in quotes because Hellenistic culture had pretty much abandoned the Hellenic concept of personified gods. It is difficult to read the history of the Jews between the Babylonian Captivity and the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans without concluding they were lead by orthodox zealots. The Hellenistic Greeks had a great affinity for the "people of the book." That is why the Torah was translated into Greek and housed in the great library at Alexandria.
Early Diaspora
< Message edited by vincentML -- 7/19/2014 10:02:13 AM >
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RE: The current middle eastern crisis is Israels fault... - 
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