Bible Encyclopedia: Dispersion

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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

DISPERSION OF NATIONS

See BABEL; DISPERSION; TABLE OF NATIONS.

DISPERSION, THE

dis-pur'-shun, (diaspora):

1. Golah and Dispersion

2. Purpose of Dispersion

3. Causes of Dispersion

4. Extent of Dispersion

5. The Eastern Dispersion

6. The Egyptian Dispersion

7. Testimony of Aramaic Papyri

8. Jewish Temple at Syene

9. Theories of the Syene Settlement

10. Importance of the Discovery

11. A New Chapter of Old Testament History

12. Alexandrian Judaism

13. The Jews and Hellenism

14. The Septuagint

15. Early Evidence of a Jewish Community

16. The Dispersion in Syria

17. In Arabia

18. In Asia Minor

19. Among Greeks Proper

20. The Roman Dispersion

21. Jews and Pompey

22. Jews and the First Caesars

23. Influence of Jews in the Early Roman Empire

24. Jews in Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa.

25. The Numbers of the Dispersion

26. Jewish Proselytism

27. Internal Organization

28. Unity of the Jewish People

29. Dispersion Influenced by Greek Thought

30. The Dispersion a Preparation for the Advent of Christ

31. The Dispersion an Auxiliary to the Spread of the Gospel

1. Golah and Dispersion:

The Dispersion is the comprehensive designation applied to Jews living outside of Palestine and maintaining their religious observances and customs among the Gentiles. They were known as the Golah (Aramaic Galutha'), the captivity-an expression describing them in relation to their own land; and the Diaspora, the Dispersion, an expression describing them in relation to the nations among whom they were scattered. On a notable occasion Jesus said, "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, ye cannot come. The Jews therefore said among themselves, Whither will this man go that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?" (John 7:34, 35).

2. Purpose of Dispersion:

In 2 Maccabees certain priests of Jerusalem are represented as praying to God: "Gather together our Dispersion, set at liberty them that are in bondage among the heathen" (2 Maccabees 1:27; compare 2 Esdras 2:7; James 1:1 1 Peter 1:1). The thought of such a Dispersion as a punishment for the disobedience of the people finds frequent expression in the Prophets: Hosea (Hosea 9:3), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 8:3; Jeremiah 16:15, etc.), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 4:13), and Zechariah (Zechariah 10:9). And it appears also in the Deuteronomic Law (Deuteronomy 28:25; Deuteronomy 30:1). That the Dispersion of the Jews was for the benefit of the Gentiles is a conception to which expression is given in utterances of psalmists and prophets (Psalm 67 Micah 5:7, etc.). It is found also in the Apocrypha Baruch, a work belonging to the 1st century A.D.: "I will scatter this people among the Gentiles, that they may do good to the Gentiles" (1:7).

3. Causes of Dispersion:

The causes of the Dispersion most obvious to the student of Old Testament history were the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, when the king of Assyria carried Israel away into his own land and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 17:5); and when in the reign of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Judah was carried away into Babylonia (2 Kings 24:14). See CAPTIVITY. But there were other captivities which helped to scatter the children of Abraham. Ptolemy I of Egypt (322-285 B.C.) by his expeditions to Palestine and his capture of Jerusalem added largely to the Jewish population of Alexandria. Antiochus the Great of Syria (223-187 B.C.) removed from the Jewish communities in Mesopotamia and Babylon 2,000 families and settled them in Phrygia and Lydia (Josephus, Ant, XII, iii, 4). Pompey after his capture of Jerusalem in 63 B.C. carried off hundreds of Jews to Rome, where they were sold as slaves, but, afterward, many of them obtained their freedom and civic rights.

4. Extent of Dispersion:

There was, besides, a voluntary emigration of Jewish settlers for purposes of trade and commerce into the neighboring countries, and especially into the chief cities of the civilized world. The successors of Alexander, and their successors in turn, encouraged immigration into their territories and the mingling of nationalities. They needed colonists for the settlements and cities which they established, and with the offer of citizenship and facilities for trade and commerce they attracted many of the Jewish people.

"In this way," says Philo, "Jerus became the capital, not only of Judea, but of many other lands, on account of the colonies which it sent out from time to time into the bordering districts of Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, Coele-Syria, and into the more distant regions of Pamphylia, Cilicia, the greater part of Asia Minor as far as Bithynia, and the remotest corners of Pontus. And in like manner into Europe: into Thessaly, and Boeotia, and Macedonia, and Aetolia, and Attica and Argos, and Corinth, and into the most fertile and fairest parts of the Peloponnesus. And not only is the continent full of Jewish colonists, but also the most important islands, such as Euboea, Cyprus, and Crete. I say nothing of the countries beyond the Euphrates. All of them except a very small portion, and Babylon, and all the satrapies which contain fruitful land, have Jewish inhabitants" (Philo, Leg ad Caium, 36).

About the middle of the 2nd century B.C. the Sibylline Oracles could say of the Jewish people: "Every land and every sea is full of thee" (3:271). About the same period the Roman Senate, being anxious to extend protection to the Jews, had a circular letter written in their favor to the kings of Egypt, Syria, Pergamum, Cappadocia and Parthia, and to a great number of provinces, cities and islands of the Mediterranean, where presumably there was a larger or smaller number of Jews (1 Maccabees 15:15). It is no surprise, therefore, to read that for the Feast of Pentecost at Jerusalem, there were present after the ascension of Jesus: "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians" (Acts 2:9-12).

5. The Eastern Dispersion:

The Eastern Dispersion, caused by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, seems to have increased and multiplied, and to have enjoyed a considerable measure of liberty, and of prosperity. When the return from the captivity took place Under Zerubbabel, it was only a small proportion of the exiles who sought a home again in the land of their fathers. Nor did the numbers who accompanied Ezra from Babylon greatly diminish the exiles who remained behind. In the time of Christ, Josephus could speak of the Jews in Babylenia by "innumerable myriads" (Ant., XI, v, 2). He also tells us of the 2,000 Jewish families whom Antiochus transferred from Babylon and Mesopotamia to Phrygia and Syria. Of the peculiarities of the Jews as a people living apart and observing their own customs and arousing the ill-will of the neighbors, we have a glimpse in the Persian period in the Book of Esther (3:8). Babylonia remained a focus of eastern Judaism for centuries, and from the discussions in rabbinical schools there were elaborated the Talmud of Jerusalem in the 5th century of our era, and the Talmud of Babylon a century later. The two chief centers of Mesopotamian Judaism were Nehardea, a town on the Euphrates, and Nisibis on the Mygdonius; an affluent of the Chaboras, which were also centers of Syrian Christianity.

6. The Egyptian Dispersion:

The Egyptian Dispersion is of special interest and importance, and recent discoveries have thrown unexpected light upon it. As far back as the days of Sheshenq, the founder of the 22nd Dynasty, the Shishak of 1 Kings 14:25; 2 Chronicles 12:2, who invaded Palestine in the 10th century B.C., and engraved on the South wall of the great Temple of Karnak the names of many districts and cities he had captured, prisoners of war and hostages may have been carried off to Egypt by the conqueror. At a later time Jewish mercenaries are said to have fought in the expedition of Psammetichus II against Ethiopia, to which expedition belong the famous inscriptions of Abu Simbel (594-589 B.C.). So we learn from the well-known Letter of Aristeas. But the clearest and best-known example of a settlement of Jews in Egypt is that connected with the prophet Jeremiah. When Gedaliah, the governor of Judea, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., had been treacherously murdered, the depressed and dispirited remnant under Johnnan, the son of Kareah, resolved to take flight into Egypt, against the counsel of Jeremiah. A host of fugitives, including Jeremiah and his friend Baruch, accordingly set out thither, and settled at Migdol and Tahpanhes and Noph (Memphis), and in the country of Pathros in upper Egypt (Jeremiah 43; Jeremiah 44). It was in Egypt with those fugitives that Jeremiah ended his life. Many of the fugitives were taken prisoners by Nebuchadrezzar on one of his latest expeditions to the west, and were transported to Babylon (Josephus, Ant, X, ix, 7; compare Jeremiah 43:8).

7. Testimony of Aramaic Papyri:

Of this colony of Jews it is natural to see a strong confirmation in the recent discovery of Aramaic papyri at Assouan, the Syene of the ancients. The papyri were the contents of a deed box of a member of a Jewish colony in upper Egypt, and the deeds refer to house property in which Jews are concerned. Here then at Assouan, about 470 B.C. is a colony of Jews who have acquired houses and other property, and have become bankers and money lenders, within a century of the death of Jeremiah. In the papyri there is evidence of the existence of a tribunal of the Hebrews, a court where cases could be decided, as fully recognized by law as any of the other courts, Egyptian or Persian, for Egypt, "the basest of kingdoms," was then subject to a Persian suzerain. Most significant of all, Yahweh is acknowledged as the God of the Jews, and the existence of a chapel and even of an altar of sacrifice is beyond all doubt. Evidently these Jews in Egypt did not consider that an altar of Yahweh could not stand anywhere else than at Jerusalem, or that outside Jerusalem the worship of the synagogue was the only worship of the God of their fathers. These facts are rendered still more striking when we regard them as a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy: "In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of hosts; one shall be called the city of destruction. In that day there shall be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to Yahweh" (Isaiah 19:18, 19). These papyri give information similar to that which the clay tablets discovered at Nippur give regarding the house of Murashu Sons (see CAPTIVITY) about the same time-the time when Ezra was setting out from Babylon to restore at Jerusalem the worship of the temple which Zerubbabel had rebuilt. It was just about a century from the time that Jeremiah had gone down to Egypt that we have the first of these deeds, and it was the grandfathers, or great-grandfathers, of the persons concerned whom he had accompanied thither so much against his will.

8. Jewish Temple at Syene:

These papyri were discovered in 1904, and a year or two later, additional papyri were discovered in a mound which stands on the site of the ancient Elephantine or Yeb, an island in the Nile, on the frontier also. One of these papyri contains a petition from the Jewish colony in Elephantine addressed to Bagohi (called Bagoas by Josephus, Ant, XI, vii, 7), the Persian governor of Judah, about 408 B.C. They ask for assistance to enable them to rebuild the temple of Yahweh in Elephantine, which had been destroyed at the instigation of the priests of the rain-headed Egyptian god Khnub, who had a temple in the fortress of Yeb or Elephantine. This Jewish temple had been erected to Yahweh at least 125 years before and had been spared by Cambyses in 525 B.C. when he destroyed all the temples erected to the gods of Egypt. The destruction of the temple at Yeb occurred in the 14th year of Darius, 411 B.C. It contained an altar for burnt sacrifice, and there were gold and silver vessels in which the blood of sacrifice was collected. The head of the college of priests presenting this petition is Jedoniah, a name found in an abbreviated form in Jadon (Nehemiah 3:7).

9. Theories of the Syene Settlement:

An attempt has been made to show that the bearers of these Hebrew names were descended from the captivity of the Northern Kingdom. It is suggested that they had come into Egypt with the Persian army under Cambyses from their adopted homes in Assyria and the cities of the Medes and had obtained possessions on the southern frontier of Egypt. Names believed to point to the Northern Kingdom, like Hosea and Menahem, occur very frequently, but this is too narrow a foundation for such a theory, and the Israelite origin of the Syene colonists is not established (JQR (1907), 441). There is more to be said in favor of the view that they were the descendants of a Jewish military colony. That Jewish mercenaries fought in the campaigns of the Pharaohs we have already seen. And that Elephantine was an important garrison town on the frontier is also certain. Josephus (Ant., XIV, vi, 2) mentions a Jewish military colony holding a post at Pelusium in the century before Christ, and this might be a similar garrison stationed at the opposite extremity of the land in the 5th century. Such a garrison would attract Jews engaged in business and in the occupations of civil life, and so a distinct Jewish community would be formed. It has even been suggested that the tidings of the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem furnished the motive to these Egyptian Jews to build the temple and rear the altar of burnt offering which the heathen priests of Khnub had destroyed.

10. Importance of the Discovery:

While the petition to the religious authorities at Jerusalem indicates that the priests of Elephantine regarded their temple as dependent upon the temple at Jerusalem, it is significant. that they were also, as is shown in their letter, in communication with Delaiah and Shelemiah the sons of Sanballat, the governor of Samaria. That this was Nehemiah's enemy (Nehemiah 4:1; Nehemiah 6:1, etc.) is impossible, for he lived nearly a century earlier. But the association with descendants of his, themselves Samaritans, gives a schismatical appearance to the position of the Elephantine temple. The existence of this temple with its priesthood, its altar of sacrifice, and its offerings, from 500 years B.C., is an important fact in the history of the Dispersion. It was meant to keep those Jewish exiles true to the religion of their fathers and in religious fellowship with their brethren in Palestine. For a like purpose the Temple of Onias at Leontopolis was erected in the early years of the Maccabean struggle. Onias had to flee from Jerusalem with a number of priests and Levites, and for the aid he rendered to Ptolemy Philometor, the king of Egypt, he received a gift of land upon which he built a temple like to the Temple at Jerusalem. Professor Flinders Petrie believes he has discovered this temple of Onias IV at Tel el-Yehudiyeh (Hyksos and Israelite Cities, 31). The discovery confirms the account given of the temple by Josephus, who is our only authority for its erection (Ant., XIII, iii, 2; XIV, viii, 2).

11. A New Chapter of Old Testament History:

The Elephantine-Syene papyri have added a new and valuable chapter to Old Testament history. We know now of a Jewish temple in Egypt which certainly reaches 400 years further into antiquity than the temple of Onias IV at Leontopolis, and we obtain important information as to the relations of its priesthood with the leaders of the Jerusalem Jews and the Samaritans. We know now from unbiased authorities that the Jewish settlements in the Valley of the Nile are much older than has hitherto been believed. We have valuable confirmation not only of the notices in the Book of Jeremiah, but also of the statements in the later Hellenistic literature. Moreover, it is now shown that the skepticism which has prevailed in some quarters as to the very existence of any considerable Egyptian Dispersion before the time of Alexander the Great is unwarranted (Peters, Die judische Gemeinde von Elephantine-Syene, 50; Schurer, GJV4, III, 19).

12. Alexandrian Judaism:

What exactly were the fortunes of this Jewish community at a later time, no record has yet been found to tell. Possibly it decayed in course of time, for Herodotus who visited Egypt about 450 B.C. makes no mention of it and found no Jews in sufficient numbers to attract his attention. It was undoubtedly with the founding of Alexandria in 332 B.C. that the flourishing period of Judaism in Egypt commenced. Alexander the Great had hastened from the field of victory at Issus 333 B.C., through Syria by way of Tyre, the siege of which occupied him some months, showing clemency to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and severity to the recalcitrant inhabitants of Gaza till by its eastern gate he entered Egypt and took possession of the land of the Pharaohs. The Jews appear to have been friendly to Macedonian conquest, and in Alexander's new city they received the rights of citizenship and two quarters all to themselves. That they were restricted to their own quarters does not appear, and in the time of Philo, at the commencement of the Christian era, they had synagogues and places of prayer in all parts of the city. Alexander died in 323 B.C. but the favor which he had accorded to the Jews was continued by the Ptolemies who succeeded to his Egyptian empire. The first Ptolemy, Lagi or Soter (322-285 B.C.), increased the Jewish population of Alexandria by raids into Palestine on which he brought back a large number of captives, both Jews and Samaritans. Other Jews, hearing of his liberality and of the prosperity of their coreligionists, were attracted to Egypt and settled in Alexandria of their own accord (Josephus, Ant, XII, i, 1). Under their own ethnarch they enjoyed great prosperity and had full religious liberty. The principal synagogue of the city was on a scale of great magnificence. In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor (182-146 B.C.) they were allowed to set up the temple at Leontopolis, as we have already noticed. In the time of Philo the Jewish colony in Egypt was considered to number a million.

13. The Jews and Hellenism:

It was in Alexandria that the Jews first came so powerfully under the influence of Hellenism, and here that the peculiar Greco-Jewish philosophy sprang up of which Philo was the most notable representative. The same soil was eminently favorable to early Christianity which had from the end of the 2nd century onward its greatest teachers and their learned catechetical school. See ALEXANDRIA.

14. The Septuagint:

The great monument of Hellenistic Judaism, which had its chief seat in Alexandria, is the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, which became such a powerful praeparatio evangelica, and was the Bible of the Apostles and the first Christians, even of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is ascribed in the Letter of Aristeas to the interest of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.) in a proposal to secure a copy of the Jewish Law in an accessible translation for the famous Royal Library. It is more likely that as familiarity with their Hebrew tongue diminished in their new surroundings, the need of an intelligible version of the Law to begin with was felt, and Jewish hands were set to work to produce it. In course of time the rest followed, but from the tradition of its being the work of 70 or 72 translators it is known as the Septuagint. See SEPTUAGINT.

15. Early Evidence of a Jewish Community:

The question has been raised whether too much has not been made of a Jewish community in Alexandria so early, and it has been asserted that we can scarcely speak of a Jewish Dispersion anywhere before the Maccabean period in the second half of the 2nd century B.C. The evidence as we have seen points to the existence of Jewish communities continuously from the days of Jeremiah. Papyri prove the presence of Jews in Egypt, not only in the towns but in country districts from a comparatively early period. A remarkable inscription has recently come to light showing that at Schedia, some 20 miles from Alexandria, there existed a Jewish community which had built a synagogue and dedicated it to the honor of Ptolemy III Euergetes (247-222 B.C.) and his queen Berenice. If such a community was organized in the little town of Schedia at that date, we can well believe the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria to have had a considerable Jewish community at a still earlier date.

16. Dispersion in Syria:

When we turn to Syria, we find large numbers of Jews, notwithstanding the hatred of Greeks and Syrians. Josephus (BJ, VII, iii, 3) says that it is the country which has the largest percentage of Jewish inhabitants, and Antioch among the towns of Syria had the preeminence. In Damascus, which seems to have had a Jewish quarter or Jewish bazaars in the days of Ahab (1 Kings 20:34 and Burney's note at the place), the Jewish population was numbered by thousands. From Galilee and Gilead and the region of the Hauran, Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan brought bodies of Jews, who were settlers among a pagan population, for safety to Judea (1 Maccabees 5).

17. In Arabia:

Even in Arabia Judaism had considerable footing. Edward Glaser, who prosecuted valuable archaeological researches in Arabia (see Hilprecht, Recent Researches in Bible Lands, 131), professes to have found Himyaritic inscriptions of the 4th and 5th centuries of our era which are monotheistic and therefore Jewish, but there is still uncertainty as to this. In the beginning of the 6th century a Jewish king actually reigned in Arabia, and because of his persecution of the Christians he was attacked and overthrown by the Christian king of Abyssinia.

18. In Asia Minor:

Of the widespread distribution of the Dispersion in Asia Minor there is abundant testimony, not only in the texts of the apostles, but in classical and early Christian literature and in the epigraphic literature which has been accumulating for the last 30 years. At Pergamum, in Lydia, in Karia, at Magnesia, at Tralles, at Miletum, in Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Pontus, considerable Jewish communities existed at the beginning of the Christian era. At Smyrna the Jews played a prominent part in the death of Polycarp 155 A.D., being especially zealous in heaping up fagots upon the fire that consumed the martyr. In his Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia Sir William Ramsay mentions numerous indications found on inscriptions of Jewish settlers, and his chapter on "The Jews in Phrygia" focuses the results of his inquiries (op. cit., 667; compare 649). He has also made it extremely probable that long before Paul's day there was a strong body of Jews in Tarsus of Cilicia, and he holds that a Jewish colony was settled there as early as 171 B.C. "The Seleucid kings," he says, like the Ptolemies, "used the Jews as an element of the colonies which they founded to strengthen their hold on Phrygia and other countries." But it is difficult to trace out the profound influence they exerted in the development of their country from the fact that they adopted to such an extent Greek and Roman names and manners, and were thus almost indistinguishable. At Laodicea and Hierapolis there have been found many evidences of their presence: for example, at the latter place an inscription on a gravestone tells how the deceased Publius Aelius Glycon mortified a sum of money to provide for the decoration of his tomb every year at the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

19. Among Greeks Proper:

The Dispersion among the Greeks proper had attained to considerable dimensions in the time of Christ. Philo, as noticed above, mentions Thessaly, Boeotia, Macedonia, Aetolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth and the fairest and most fertile parts of the Peloponnesus as having Jewish inhabitants. Inscriptions recovered from Delphi and elsewhere relating to the manumission of slaves in the 2nd century B.C. contain the names of Jews (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 325). In Sparta and Sicyon, Jews lived in the days of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 15:23). At Philippi we know from Acts 16:16 there was a proseuche, or place of of prayer, and at Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth there were synagogues in Paul's time. On the islands of the Greek archipelago and the Mediterranean there were Jews. Cyprus, the home of Barnabas, had a large Jewish population; and Euboea and Crete are named by Philo as Jewish centers. Rhodes has the distinction of having produced two opponents of Judaism in the first half of the 1st century B.C. Clearchus of Soli, a disciple of Aristotle, introduces in one of his dialogues a Jew from Coele-Syria, Hellenic not in speech only but in mind, representing him as having come in his travels to Asia Minor and there conversed with Aristotle. Such an experience may have been rare so early; the incident may not be fact, but fiction; yet such as it is it tells a tale of the spread of Judaism.

20. The Roman Dispersion:

The relations of Rome with the Jewish people lend special interest to the Dispersion there. Jews do not appear to have been settled in Rome before the Maccabean period. There is a certain pathos in the appeal made to the Roman state by Judas Maccabeus, amid the difficulties that were gathering round his position, for "a league of amity and confederacy" with the Roman people (1 Maccabees 8:17-32). His brother and successor, Jonathan, followed this up later (1 Maccabees 12:1-4, 16). And in 140 B.C. Simon sent a delegation which concluded a treaty, offensive and defensive, with Rome, which was duly intimated by the Senate to their allies in various countries, especially of the East. During the stay of the mission at Rome its members seem to have made attempts at religious propagandism, and the praetor Hispalus compelled them to return to their homes for attempting to corrupt Roman morals by introducing the worship of Jupiter Sabazius which is no doubt the Roman interpretation of the Lord of Hosts (Yahweh Sabaoth). But ere long in Rome, as in Alexandria, they formed a colony by themselves, occupying Trastevere, the Transtiberine portion of the city, together with an island in the Tiber. Their prosperity grew with their numbers. When Cicero in 59 B.C. was defending Flaccus he speaks of gold being sent out of Italy, and all the provinces, to Jerusalem, and there was present among his listeners a large body of Jews interested in the case.

21. Jews and Pompey:

When Pompey had captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C., he brought back with him to Rome a number of Jewish captives. They were sold as slaves, but many of them received their freedom and rights to citizenship. When Julius Caesar, who was a great patron and protector of the Jews, was assassinated, they wept over him for nights on end.

22. Jews and the First Caesars:

Augustus protected and encouraged them. Tiberius, however, adopted repressive measures toward them, and 4,000 Jews were deported by him to Sardinia while others were driven out of the city. With the downfall of Sejanus, the unworthy favorite of Tiberius, this repressive policy was reversed and they were allowed to return to Rome. Claudius again devised measures against them (circa 50 A.D.), and they were banished from the city. They had, however, so multiplied and they had attained such influence that it was impossible to get rid of them altogether.

23. Influence of Jews in the Early Roman Empire:

Their customs and religious observances brought down upon them the scorn of Juvenal and others, while Empire their faith and worship had attractions for the thoughtful and the superstitious.

"The Jews from the time of the first Caesar," says Sir Samuel Dill, "have worked their way into every class of society. A Jewish prince had inspired Caligula with an oriental ideal of monarchy. There were adherents of Judaism in the household of the great freedmen of Claudius, and their growing influence and turbulence compelled that emperor to expel the race from his capital. The worldly, pleasure-loving Poppea had, perhaps, yielded to the mysterious charms of the religion of Moses. But it was under the Flavians, who had such close associations with Judea, that Jewish influences made themselves most felt. And in the reign of Domitian, two members of the imperial house, along with many others, suffered for following the Jewish mode of life" (Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, 84).

In recent excavations, which have laid bare much of subterranean Rome, many Jewish tombs have been examined and have yielded much additional knowledge of the conditions of Jewish life in the capital of the Caesars. Probably Jews gracing Pompey's triumph after his Syrian campaign, 61 B.C., made the first Roman catacombs similar to those on Jewish hillsides and especially round Jerusalem; and in these Jewish catacombs pagans and Christians were never laid.

24. Jews in Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa:

In Italy, apart from Roman and Southern Italy, where they were widely spread, the number of Jews at the beginning of our era was not large. In Southern Gaul they were numerous and in Spain they were numerous and powerful. In North Africa there were Jewish communities in many centers, and Cyrene was the home of a large and flourishing Jewish population.

25. The Numbers of the Dispersion:

It is not easy to form a trustworthy estimate of the Jewish population of the world in the times of Christ. Harnack reckons up four or four and a half millions (Expansion of Christianity, I, 10) within the Roman Empire. The Judaism of the Dispersion would at least be several times more numerous than the Judaism of Palestine.

26. Jewish Proselytism:

The question has been discussed how far the Jews of the Dispersion recruited their ranks by proselytism. That they should maintain a propaganda on behalf of their ancestral faith would only be in keeping with the character of their religion as a religion of revelation. Although they had to live within "the hedge of the Law" to protect them against the corruptions and idolatries of the Gentiles, there was nevertheless at the heart of Judaism a missionary purpose, as we see from the universalism of the Psalms and the Prophets.

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Greek

1290. diaspora -- a dispersion (Isr. in Gentile countries)
... 1289, 1290. diaspora. 1291 . a dispersion (Isr. in Gentile countries ... 35).].
Word Origin from diaspeiro Definition a dispersion (Isr. in Gentile ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1290.htm - 7k

Strong's Hebrew

8600. tphowtsah -- dispersion
... dispersion. Transliteration: tphowtsah Phonetic Spelling: (tef-o-tsaw') Short
Definition: dispersion. dispersion From puwts; a dispersal -- dispersion. ...
/hebrew/8600.htm - 5k

1048. Beth Patstsets -- "place of dispersion," a place in Issachar
... "place of dispersion," a place in Issachar. Transliteration: Beth Patstsets Phonetic
Spelling: (bayth pats-tsates') Short Definition: Beth-pazzez. ...
/hebrew/1048.htm - 6k

8600a. tephotsah -- dispersion
... dispersion. Transliteration: tephotsah Short Definition: dispersions. Word Origin
from puts Definition dispersion NASB Word Usage dispersions (1). 8600, 8600a ...
/hebrew/8600a.htm - 5k

6462. Pispah -- an Asherite
... Pispah. Perhaps from pacac; dispersion; Pispah, an Israelite -- Pispah. see HEBREW
pacac. 6461, 6462. Pispah. 6463 . Strong's Numbers.
/hebrew/6462.htm - 6k

6514. Peruda -- an Israelite
... Perida, Peruda. Or Priyda {per-ee-daw'}; from parad; dispersion; Peruda or Perida,
one of "Solomon's servants" -- Perida, Peruda. see HEBREW parad. 6513, 6514 ...
/hebrew/6514.htm - 6k

Library

Sojourners of the Dispersion
... THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER SOJOURNERS OF THE DISPERSION. 'Peter, an Apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered ...'"1 Peter 1:1. ...
/.../expositions of holy scripture ephesians peter/sojourners of the dispersion.htm

The Dispersion of the Jews, and their Desolate Condition for ...
... Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world Chapter
XXIII."The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting ...
/.../the five books against marcion/chapter xxiii the dispersion of the.htm

The Jewish Dispersion in the West - the Hellenists - Origin of ...
... THE JEWISH DISPERSION IN THE WEST - THE HELLENISTS - ORIGIN OF HELLENIST LITERATURE
IN THE GREEK TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE - CHARACTER OF THE SEPTUAGINT. ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter ii the jewish dispersion.htm

Malachi's Prophecy Concerning the Sacrifices of the Christians it ...
... Chapter CXVII."Malachi's prophecy concerning the sacrifices of the Christians It
cannot be taken as referring to the prayers of Jews of the dispersion. ...
/.../chapter cxvii malachis prophecy concerning the.htm

The Jewish World in the Days of Christ - the Jewish Dispersion in ...
... THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL: THE JEWISH WORLD IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST CHAPTER I.
THE JEWISH WORLD IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST - THE JEWISH DISPERSION IN THE EAST. ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter i the jewish world.htm

Fragment Xlviii. As Therefore Seventy Tongues are Indicated by ...
... Fragment XLVIII. As therefore seventy tongues are indicated by number, and
from dispersion the tongues are gathered� As [4896] therefore ...
/.../fragment xlviii as therefore seventy.htm

Political and Religious Life of the Jewish Dispersion in the West ...
... VI. POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE JEWISH DISPERSION IN THE WEST -
THEIR UNION IN THE GREAT HOPE OF THE COMING DELIVERER. It ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter vi political and religious.htm

Of the Birth of Our Saviour, Whereby the Word was Made Flesh; and ...
... Chapter 46."Of the Birth of Our Saviour, Whereby the Word Was Made Flesh; And of
the Dispersion of the Jews Among All Nations, as Had Been Prophesied. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/augustine/city of god/chapter 46 of the birth of.htm

The Epistle of St. James
... 1 James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the
Dispersion: greeting. Three features in this address are singular. ...
/.../moffat/the general epistles james peter and judas/the epistle of st james.htm

The Catholic Epistles.
... epistle was written was manifestly Jerusalem, where James always resided; and the
persons addressed are "the twelve tribes who are in the dispersion" (chap.1:1 ...
/.../barrows/companion to the bible/chapter xxxi the catholic epistles.htm

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Gr. diaspora, "scattered, " James 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1) of the Jews. At various times, and from the operation of divers causes, the Jews were separated and scattered into foreign countries "to the outmost parts of heaven" (Deuteronomy 30:4).

(1.) Many were dispersed over Assyria, Media, Babylonia, and Persia, descendants of those who had been transported thither by the Exile. The ten tribes, after existing as a separate kingdom for two hundred and fifty-five years, were carried captive (B.C. 721) by Shalmaneser (or Sargon), king of Assyria. They never returned to their own land as a distinct people, although many individuals from among these tribes, there can be no doubt, joined with the bands that returned from Babylon on the proclamation of Cyrus.

(2.) Many Jews migrated to Egypt and took up their abode there. This migration began in the days of Solomon (2 Kings 18:21, 24; Isaiah 30:7). Alexander the Great placed a large number of Jews in Alexandria, which he had founded, and conferred on them equal rights with the Egyptians. Ptolemy Philadelphus, it is said, caused the Jewish Scriptures to be translated into Greek (the work began B.C. 284), for the use of the Alexandrian Jews. The Jews in Egypt continued for many ages to exercise a powerful influence on the public interests of that country. From Egypt they spread along the coast of Africa to Cyrene (Acts 2:10) and to Ethiopia (8:27).

(3.) After the time of Seleucus Nicator (B.C. 280), one of the captains of Alexander the Great, large numbers of Jews migrated into Syria, where they enjoyed equal rights with the Macedonians. From Syria they found their way into Asia Minor. Antiochus the Great, king of Syria and Asia, removed 3,000 families of Jews from Mesopotamia and Babylonia, and planted them in Phrygia and Lydia.

(4.) From Asia Minor many Jews moved into Greece and Macedonia, chiefly for purposes of commerce. In the apostles' time they were found in considerable numbers in all the principal cities.

From the time of Pompey the Great (B.C. 63) numbers of Jews from Palestine and Greece went to Rome, where they had a separate quarter of the city assigned to them. Here they enjoyed considerable freedom.

Thus were the Jews everywhere scattered abroad. This, in the overruling providence of God, ultimately contributed in a great degree toward opening the way for the spread of the gospel into all lands.

Dispersion, from the plain of Shinar. This was occasioned by the confusion of tongues at Babel (Genesis 11:9). They were scattered abroad "every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations" (Genesis 10:5, 20, 31).

The tenth chapter of Genesis gives us an account of the principal nations of the earth in their migrations from the plain of Shinar, which was their common residence after the Flood. In general, it may be said that the descendants of Japheth were scattered over the north, those of Shem over the central regions, and those of Ham over the extreme south. The following table shows how the different families were dispersed:

" - Japheth " - Gomer " Cimmerians, Armenians " - Magog " Caucasians, Scythians " - Madal " Medes and Persian tribes " - Javan " - Elishah " Greeks " - Tarshish " Etruscans, Romans " - Chittim " Cyprians, Macedonians " - Dodanim " Rhodians " - Tubal " Tibareni, Tartars " - Mechech " Moschi, Muscovites " - Tiras " Thracians " " - Shem " - Elam " Persian tribes " - Asshur " Assyrian " - Arphaxad " - Abraham " - Isaac " - Jacob " Hebrews " - Esau " Edomites " - Ishmael " Mingled with Arab tribes " - Lud " Lydians " - Aram " Syrians " " - Ham " - Cush " Ethiopans " - Mizrain " Egyptians " - Phut " Lybians, Mauritanians " - Canaan " Canaanites, Phoenicians

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

1. (n.) The act or process of scattering or dispersing, or the state of being scattered or separated; as, the Jews in their dispersion retained their rites and ceremonies; a great dispersion of the human family took place at the building of Babel.

2. (n.) The separation of light into its different colored rays, arising from their different refrangibilities.

Thesaurus

Dispersion (4 Occurrences)
...Dispersion, from the plain of Shinar. ... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. DISPERSION
OF NATIONS. See BABEL; DISPERSION; TABLE OF NATIONS. DISPERSION, THE. ...
/d/dispersion.htm - 44k

Cyrene (7 Occurrences)
... of Arabs. 3. Biblical Importance: Cyrene comes into importance in Biblical
history through the dispersion of the Jews. Ptolemy I ...
/c/cyrene.htm - 13k

Catholic
... as Theodoret says, "they are not addressed to single churches, but generally (katholou)
to the faithful, whether to the Jews of the Dispersion, as Peter writes ...
/c/catholic.htm - 9k

Greeks (22 Occurrences)
... These latter were Jews of the Dispersion, who spoke Greek (see HELLENISM; HELLENIST),
as distinguished from Palestinian Jews; but since many of the latter also ...
/g/greeks.htm - 19k

Discomfiture (6 Occurrences)
... Peter writes to the "elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion." James employs
the term "Dispersion" to designate believing Hebrews of the Twelve Tribes who ...
/d/discomfiture.htm - 101k

Epistles (2 Occurrences)
... as Theodoret says, "they are not addressed to single churches, but generally (katholou)
to the faithful, whether to the Jews of the Dispersion, as Peter writes ...
/e/epistles.htm - 80k

Pontus (3 Occurrences)
... scattered throughout Pontus," among others, Peter addresses his first epistle (1
Peter 1:1). It was evidently the resort of many Jews of the Dispersion. ...
/p/pontus.htm - 16k

Grecians (4 Occurrences)
... These latter were Jews of the Dispersion, who spoke Greek (see HELLENISM; HELLENIST),
as distinguished from Palestinian Jews; but since many of the latter also ...
/g/grecians.htm - 14k

Peleg (8 Occurrences)
... Possibly he may have lived at the time of the dispersion from Babel. But
more probably the reference is to the dispersion of the ...
/p/peleg.htm - 10k

Apostolic (2 Occurrences)
... At first this work was rigidly centered in Jerusalem, and the first journeyings
were the result of forcible dispersion and not of planned effort (Acts 11:19). ...
/a/apostolic.htm - 17k

Bible Concordance

Dispersion (4 Occurrences)

John 7:35 The Jews therefore said among themselves, "Where will this man go that we won't find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
(WEB WEY ASV DBY YLT NAS RSV)

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
(WEB ASV DBY YLT RSV)

1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
(WEB ASV DBY YLT RSV)

Jeremiah 25:34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow in ashes, you principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel.
(Root in WEB KJV ASV WBS NAS RSV)

Subtopics

Dispersion

Dispersion of Nations

Dispersion of the Descendants of Noah

Dispersion of the Jews, Foretold

Dispersion: After Building the Tower of Babel

Related Terms

Cyrene (7 Occurrences)

Catholic

Greeks (22 Occurrences)

Discomfiture (6 Occurrences)

Epistles (2 Occurrences)