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Do not fill this in! === Classical antiquity === {{Main|Second Temple period}} {{further|Yehud (province)|Hasmonean dynasty|Herodian dynasty|Judaea (Roman province)|Syria Palaestina}} The construction of the [[Second Temple]] was completed {{Circa|520 BCE}}.<ref name="rennert" /> The Achaemenids ruled the region as the province of [[Yehud Medinata]],<ref name="Grabbe355">{{cite book |last=Grabbe |first=Lester L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MnE5T_0RbMC&dq=%22gave%2Bthe%2BJews%2Bpermission%2Bto%2Breturn%2Bto%2BYehud%2Bprovince%2Band%2Bto%2Brebuild%2Bthe%22&pg=PAPA355 |title=A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period: Yehud – A History of the Persian Province of Judah v. 1 |publisher=T & T Clark |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-567-08998-4 |page=355 |access-date=1 December 2018 |archive-date=19 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219070639/https://books.google.com/books?id=-MnE5T_0RbMC&pg=PAPA355&dq=%22gave%2Bthe%2BJews%2Bpermission%2Bto%2Breturn%2Bto%2BYehud%2Bprovince%2Band%2Bto%2Brebuild%2Bthe%22 |url-status=live }}</ref> which had a population of around 30,000 in the 5th to 4th centuries BCE.<ref name="Finkelstein" />{{rp|308}} In 332 BCE, [[Alexander the Great]] of [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedon]] conquered the region as part of his [[Wars of Alexander the Great|campaign against the Achaemenid Empire]]. After his death, the area was controlled by the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]] and [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] empires as a part of [[Coele-Syria]]. Over the ensuing centuries, the [[Hellenization]] of the region led to cultural tensions that came to a head during the reign of [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes|Antiochus IV]], giving rise to the [[Maccabean Revolt]] of 167 BCE. The civil unrest weakened Seleucid rule and in the late 2nd century the semi-autonomous [[Hasmonean dynasty|Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea]] arose, eventually attaining full independence and expanding into neighboring regions.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Helyer |first1=Larry R. |title=The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts |last2=McDonald |first2=Lee Martin |publisher=Baker Academic |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8010-9861-1 |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Joel B. |pages=45–47 |chapter=The Hasmoneans and the Hasmonean Era |oclc=961153992 |quote=The ensuing power struggle left Hyrcanus with a free hand in Judea, and he quickly reasserted Jewish sovereignty... Hyrcanus then engaged in a series of military campaigns aimed at territorial expansion. He first conquered areas in the Transjordan. He then turned his attention to Samaria, which had long separated Judea from the northern Jewish settlements in Lower Galilee. In the south, Adora and Marisa were conquered; (Aristobulus') primary accomplishment was annexing and Judaizing the region of Iturea, located between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains |editor-last2=McDonald |editor-first2=Lee Martin}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ben-Sasson |first=H.H. |title=A History of the Jewish People |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-674-39731-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kSovzudhFUC&pg=PA226 |page=226 |quote=The expansion of Hasmonean Judea took place gradually. Under Jonathan, Judea annexed southern Samaria and began to expand in the direction of the coast plain... The main ethnic changes were the work of John Hyrcanus... it was in his days and those of his son Aristobulus that the annexation of Idumea, Samaria and Galilee and the consolidation of Jewish settlement in Trans-Jordan was completed. Alexander Jannai, continuing the work of his predecessors, expanded Judean rule to the entire coastal plain, from the Carmel to the Egyptian border... and to additional areas in Trans-Jordan, including some of the Greek cities there.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ben-Eliyahu |first=Eyal |title=Identity and Territory: Jewish Perceptions of Space in Antiquity |date=30 April 2019 |isbn=978-0-520-29360-1 |page=13 |publisher=Univ of California Press |oclc=1103519319 |quote=From the beginning of the Second Temple period until the Muslim conquest—the land was part of imperial space. This was true from the early Persian period, as well as the time of Ptolemy and the Seleucids. The only exception was the Hasmonean Kingdom, with its sovereign Jewish rule—first over Judah and later, in Alexander Jannaeus's prime, extending to the coast, the north, and the eastern banks of the Jordan. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZSyDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 }}</ref> [[File:Israel-2013-Aerial 21-Masada.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Masada]] fortress, the location of a [[Siege of Masada|1st-century Roman siege]]]] The [[Roman Republic]] invaded the region in 63 BCE, first [[Third Mithridatic War|taking control of Syria]], and then intervening in the [[Hasmonean Civil War]]. The [[Roman–Parthian Wars|struggle]] between pro-Roman and pro-[[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] factions in Judea led to the installation of [[Herod the Great]] as a [[Herodian dynasty|dynastic vassal]] of [[Ancient Rome|Rome]]. In 6 CE, the area was annexed as the [[Judea (Roman province)|Roman province of Judaea]]; tensions with Roman rule led to a series of [[Jewish–Roman wars]], resulting in widespread destruction. The [[First Jewish–Roman War]] (66–73 CE) resulted in the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple]] and a sizable portion of the population being killed or displaced.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Seth |title=The ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6pkAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-04127-1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=85–86 |oclc=863044259 |quote=The year 70 ce marked transformations in demography, politics, Jewish civic status, Palestinian and more general Jewish economic and social structures, Jewish religious life beyond the sacrificial cult, and even Roman politics and the topography of the city of Rome itself. [...] The Revolt's failure had, to begin with, a demographic impact on the Jews of Palestine; many died in battle and as a result of siege conditions, not only in Jerusalem. [...] As indicated above, the figures for captives are conceivably more reliable. If 97,000 is roughly correct as a total for the war, it would mean that a huge percentage of the population was removed from the country, or at the very least displaced from their homes. Nevertheless, only sixty years later, there was a large enough population in the Judaean countryside to stage a massively disruptive second rebellion; this one appears to have ended, in 135, with devastation and depopulation of the district.}}</ref> A second uprising known as the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] took place during 132–136 CE. Initial successes allowed the Jews to form an independent state, but the Romans massed large forces and brutally crushed the rebellion, devastating and depopulating Judea's countryside.<ref name=":8" /><ref>Werner Eck, "Sklaven und Freigelassene von Römern in Iudaea und den angrenzenden Provinzen", Novum Testamentum 55 (2013): 1–21</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Raviv |first1=Dvir |last2=Ben David |first2=Chaim |date=2021 |title=Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account? |journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology |language=en |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=585–607 |doi=10.1017/S1047759421000271 |s2cid=245512193 |s2cid-access=free |issn=1047-7594 |quote=Scholars have long doubted the historical accuracy of Cassius Dio's account of the consequences of the Bar Kokhba War (Roman History 69.14). According to this text, considered the most reliable literary source for the Second Jewish Revolt, the war encompassed all of Judea: the Romans destroyed 985 villages and 50 fortresses, and killed 580,000 rebels. This article reassesses Cassius Dio's figures by drawing on new evidence from excavations and surveys in Judea, Transjordan, and the Galilee. Three research methods are combined: an ethno-archaeological comparison with the settlement picture in the Ottoman Period, comparison with similar settlement studies in the Galilee, and an evaluation of settled sites from the Middle Roman Period (70–136 CE). The study demonstrates the potential contribution of the archaeological record to this issue and supports the view of Cassius Dio's demographic data as a reliable account, which he based on contemporaneous documentation.|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Mor |first=Menahem |title=The Second Jewish Revolt |date=18 April 2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-31463-4 |pages=483–484 |doi=10.1163/9789004314634 |quote=Land confiscation in Judaea was part of the suppression of the revolt policy of the Romans and punishment for the rebels. But the very claim that the sikarikon laws were annulled for settlement purposes seems to indicate that Jews continued to reside in Judaea even after the Second Revolt. There is no doubt that this area suffered the severest damage from the suppression of the revolt. Settlements in Judaea, such as Herodion and Bethar, had already been destroyed during the course of the revolt, and Jews were expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba. However, it should not be claimed that the region of Judaea was completely destroyed. Jews continued to live in areas such as Lod (Lydda), south of the Hebron Mountain, and the coastal regions. In other areas of the Land of Israel that did not have any direct connection with the Second Revolt, no settlement changes can be identified as resulting from it.}}</ref><ref>Oppenheimer, A'haron and Oppenheimer, Nili. ''Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society''. Mohr Siebeck, 2005, p. 2.</ref> Jerusalem was rebuilt as a [[Colonia (Roman)|Roman colony]] ([[Aelia Capitolina]]), and the province of Judea was renamed [[Syria Palaestina]].<ref name="H.H. Ben-Sasson, 1976, page 334">H.H. Ben-Sasson, ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_History_of_the_Jewish_People/2kSovzudhFUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA334 A History of the Jewish People]'', Harvard University Press, 1976, {{ISBN|978-0-674-39731-6}}, page 334: "In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Judaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jewish literature."</ref><ref name="Ariel Lewin p. 33">Ariel Lewin. ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Archaeology_of_Ancient_Judea_and_Pal/zlToSqE0k_cC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA33 The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine]''. Getty Publications, 2005 p. 33. "It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name – one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity (Palestine), already known from the writings of Herodotus – Hadrian was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land." {{ISBN|978-0-89236-800-6}}</ref> Jews were expelled from the districts surrounding Jerusalem,<ref>Eusebius, ''Ecclesiastical History''. 4:6.3-4</ref><ref name=":02" /> and joined communities in the diaspora.<ref name="Kessler20102">{{cite book |author=Edward Kessler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87Woe7kkPM4C&pg=PA72 |title=An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-70562-2 |page=72 |quote=Jews probably remained in the majority in Palestine until some time after the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century. [...] In Babylonia, there had been for many centuries a Jewish community which would have been further strengthened by those fleeing the aftermath of the Roman revolts.}}</ref> Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence and [[Galilee]] became its religious center.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cohn-Sherbok |first=Dan |title=Atlas of Jewish History |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-415-08800-8 |page=58}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Lehmann |first=Clayton Miles |date=18 January 2007 |title=Palestine |url=http://sunburst.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/palestin.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130407005423/http://sunburst.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/palestin.htm |archive-date=7 April 2013 |access-date=9 February 2013 |website=Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces |publisher=University of South Dakota}}</ref> Jewish communities also continued to reside in the southern [[Hebron Hills]] and on the coastal plain.<ref name=":02" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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