The Jewish state comes to an end in 70 AD, when
the Romans begin to actively drive Jews from the home they
had lived in for over a millennium. But the Jewish Diaspora ("diaspora"
="dispersion, scattering") had begun long before the Romans had even dreamed of Judaea. When the Assyrians conquered
Israel in 722, the Hebrew inhabitants were scattered all over the
Middle East; these early victims of the dispersion disappeared utterly
from the pages of history. However, when Nebuchadnezzar deported
the Judaeans in 597 and 586 BC, he allowed them to remain in a unified
community in Babylon.
Another group of Judaeans fled to Egypt, where they settled in the
Nile delta. So from 597 onwards, there were three distinct groups
of Hebrews: a group in Babylon and other parts of the Middle East,
a group in Judaea, and another group in Egypt. Thus, 597 is considered
the beginning date of the Jewish Diaspora. While Cyrus the Persian
allowed the Judaeans to return to their homeland in 538 BC, most
chose to remain in Babylon. A large number of Jews in Egypt became
mercenaries in Upper Egypt on an island called the Elephantine.
All of these Jews retained their religion, identity, and social
customs; both under the Persians and the Greeks, they were allowed
to run their lives under their own laws. Some converted to other
religions; still others combined the Yahweh cult with local cults;
but the majority clung to the Hebraic religion and its new-found
core document, the Torah.
In 63 BC, Judaea became a protectorate
of Rome. Coming under the administration of a governor,
Judaea was allowed a king; the governor's business was
to regulate trade and maximize tax revenue. While the
Jews despised the Greeks,
the Romans were a nightmare. Governorships
were bought at high prices; the governors would attempt
to squeeze as much revenue as possible from their regions
and pocket as much as they could. Even with a Jewish
king, the Judaeans revolted in 70 AD, a desperate revolt that ended tragically. In
73 AD, the last of the revolutionaries were holed up
in a mountain fort called Masada; the Romans had besieged the fort for two years, and the 1,000 men,
women, and children inside were beginning to starve.
In desperation, the Jewish revolutionaries killed themselves
rather than surrender to the Romans.
The Romans then destroyed Jerusalem, annexed Judaea as
a Roman province, and systematically drove the Jews from
Palestine. After 73 AD, Hebrew history would only be
the history of the Diaspora as the Jews and their world
view spread over Africa, Asia, and Europe.