A Thousand Years of Jewish History From the days of Alexander the Great to the Moslem Conquest of Spain

Mohammed never forgave the Jews for their refusal to accept him as "The Prophet" of God, superseding all others. He had accepted so much from them--the fundamental idea of monot...

In addition to the Book of Daniel there are other writings that throw light on these times; notably the collection known as "The Apocrypha." This is a Greek word meaning hidden...

"She said to the Holy One: 'Rather let my food be as bitter as the olive, but received from Thy hands, than honey-sweet but dependent on the hand of man.'"

B.C.E. | B.C.E. Seleucidan Era begins 312 | Judea under Greco-Syrian rule 203 | Uprising under Mattathias 168 Antiochus III, the Great 223 | Judas Maccabee 167 Antiochus IV Epip...

Ever since the Bar Cochba war, the numerical centre of gravity of the Jews had shifted to Babylonia, and soon after the compilation of the Mishna in Palestine, Babylonia became...

So far the rule of Pontius Pilate as it concerned Judea. But his rule has become of wide import because of his relation to Jesus of Nazareth, who was put to death during his adm...

Cyrus conquer Return of Judah the Babylonians 538 from Exile 536 Cambyses 529 Haggai and Darius 522 Zechariah, defeated at prophets 520-516 Marathon 490 Second Temple Xerxes 485...

All the supplementary laws that grew up around the _written_ Codes of the Bible were called, by distinction, the _Oral Law_. These included the decisions of the Scribes (p. 19),...

The maxims with which the rabbis occasionally endorsed their decisions and the bits of humor with which they relieved the tension of argument, may give a deeper insight into the...

Jamnia was the first of many Palestinian schools; one was located at Sepphoris, another at Tiberias, both in Galilee; another at Lydda in the south not far from the Mediterranea...

The new kingdom acquired _de jure_ (by treaty), must yet be fought for to be maintained _de facto_. The citadel of Jerusalem, as well as that key to the mountain passes, Gazara,...

What had been the result of the attempt of Alexander Janneus to force Judaism upon Idumea? It had begun by giving the Idumean Antipater, from the intimate relations created, the...

The Jews now belonged to no land, yet for that very reason, they, in a sense, belonged to all lands. They were cosmopolitans, citizens of the world. To follow their history afte...

To turn again to the history proper. The production of the Talmud is part of the story of Babylonian Israel. Except that fanatic outbreak about the year 500 (p. 236) little occu...

The Greeks and the Jews have been the greatest contributors toward the higher civilization of mankind, the Greek in the intellectual and artistic realm, the Jew in the religious...

=SYRIA.= =JUDEA.= B.C.E. | B.C.E. Demetrius I, Soter 162 | Alliance with Rome 161 | Judas Maccabeus died 160 | Jonathan, High Priest and Tributary Prince 152 Alexander Balas 150...

Preparations for rebellion had been carefully planned for some years. Arms had been stored in caves. Akiba was the inspiration of the revolt, its Deborah, let us say. But who wa...

We are now ready to consider one to whom frequent reference has been made--the greatest of the Alexandrian Jewish missionary philosophers, styled the "noblest Judean of his age"...

In taking up again the thread of Judea's story, let its relation to the Roman State be clearly understood. It was under the immediate supervision of the procurator. He in turn w...

What literature did this sad period produce? There was neither heart nor leisure to turn to poetry or philosophy, or even to write a second "Lamentations." But in the prosaic fi...

Now we must turn our glance westward again--to Rome. At the death of Antoninus Pius in 161, two emperors reigned conjointly--Varus, a degenerate, and Marcus Aurelius, a philosop...

The Peninsula of Arabia is bounded on the southwest by the Red Sea, on the southeast by the Indian Ocean, on the northeast by the Persian Gulf, and on the north touches the main...

The times were becoming so uncertain in Babylonia as well as in Palestine that the Jews felt it necessary now to collect and _write down_ their varied traditions and laws to ins...

Let us now take a glance at the religious life of Judah in this reign. The picture is brighter. Hillel was made president of the Sanhedrin in the year 30. A new direction was gi...

But a brief check was made on Christian advance and its pitiless attempt to suppress Judaism in the coming to the throne of Julian in 361. For this emperor did not endorse the n...

In Aristobulus, eldest son and successor of John Hyrcanus, we see the Hasmonean further and further estranged from the generous spirit that called them to the fore. Judas Maccab...

The man who now came to the fore was of a different mould--the famous Rabbi Akiba. He was born in Palestine in the year 50 C. E. that is, some 20 years before the Temple fell. M...

Having brought our story to the close of an epoch, we will pause and glance at the status of the Jew in other lands. The dispersion of Israel in a voluntary way had already begu...

Sorrowfully the Jews now took up the burden of life once more. In spite of dreadful devastation and dreary outlook the faith and spirit of the majority remained unbroken. Hadria...

=Roman Emperors= | =Jewry= | Titus 79 | Jamnian Academy 70 Domitian 81 | Clemens, Roman proselyte, | put to death, 95 Nerva, 96 | Revolt of the Diaspora, 115 Trajan, 98 | Aquila...

Before resuming the story of Judea under the procurators, let us take another survey of Jews and Judaism in lands outside of Palestine. The voluntary dispersion still went on. T...

The "wanderings of the Jews" have begun. The drift of the migration is westward. They are gradually leaving the Orient and finding homes in European lands. In Gaul, the land tha...

When Vespasian reached Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, the people opened their gates and at the request of Agrippa--who had now wholly thrown in his fortunes with the Romans--t...

Mohammed, to name him by the title that he afterwards acquired, was born in Mecca, five years after the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and belonged to a branch of the powerful Kor...

Rome, from the city on the Tiber, had spread over all Italy. Then gradually it mastered the lands on both sides of the Mediterranean. Greece and Carthage were absorbed in the sa...

In the meantime the new religion that had sprung from Judaism was entering its second stage of development. We have seen (p. 133) how its adoption of pagan ideas tended to separ...

=Roman Emperors and Procurators.= | =Jewry.= | YEAR. | YEAR. =Claudius= 41 | Fadus 44 | Tiberius Alexander 45 | Theudas the Messiah 45 Ventidius Cumanus 48 | Felix 52 | =Nero= 5...

The Procurators fall into two groups, with a Jewish king intervening. The table above is the first group of these administrators of Judea. Their seat of government was Caesarea,...

The selfish Herod had split up his kingdom among his three sons--Archelaus, Antipas and Philip. Before Rome had yet confirmed the succession, and while a procurator was placed i...

Titus built new fortifications and this time the attempt to destroy them was not successful. But no sooner had the last city wall fallen under the catapults shot from the Roman...

Even before the good Queen Salome died storm clouds began to darken the horizon of Judah. Her second son, Aristobulus, inherited all his father's fierceness and tyranny. The thr...

When Florus, after robbing the people, began openly to rob the Temple, the last thread of endurance snapped. Called in bitter irony a beggar, for whom forsooth alms must be coll...

=Judea's Rulers and Teachers.= | =ROME.= B.C.E. | B.C.E. | Jose b. Joezer and Jose | Final subjection of Carthage b. Jochanan 170 | and Greece 146 | Judea independent 142 | | Si...

=CHRISTIAN EUROPE.= | =MOSLEM ARABIA.= | Anti-Jewish legislation by | King Jussef of Yemen the higher clergy in | converted to Judaism 500 Gaul 525 | (Mar Zutra II, Martyr in Je...

=ROMAN EMPERORS AND= | =JEWRY.= =PROCURATORS.= | C.E. | C.E. =Augustus.= | Coponius 6 | Archelaus, tetrarch of Judea, Marcus Ambibulus 9 | deposed * Annius Rufus 12 | | =Tiberiu...

I. Esdras -- II. Esdras -- Tobit -- Judith -- Additions to Esther -- Wisdom Literature: Wisdom of Solomon -- Ecclesiasticus -- Baruch -- Song of the Three Holy Children -- Histo...