Dispersion
VIEW:47 DATA:01-04-2020
DISPERSION.The name (Gr. Diaspora) given to the Jewish communities outside Palestine (2Ma_1:27, Joh_7:35, Jam_1:1, 1Pe_1:1). It is uncertain when the establishment of these non-Palestinian communities began. It appears from 1Ki_20:34 that an Israelltish colony was established in Damascus in the reign of Ahab. Possibly the similar alliances of David and Solomon with Phnicia had established similar colonies there. In the 8th cent. Tiglath-pileser III. carried many Israelites captive to Assyria (2Ki_15:29), and Sargon transported from Samaria 27,290 Hebrews (cf. KIB [Note: IB Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek.] ii. 55), and settled them in Mesopotamia and Media (2Ki_17:6). As the Deuteronomic law had not at this date differentiated the religion of Israel sharply from other Semitic religions (cf. Israel), it is doubtful whether these communities maintained their identity. Probably they were absorbed and thus lost to Israel.
The real Dispersion began with the Babylonian Exile. Nebuchadnezzar transplanted to Babylonia the choicest of the Judæan population (2Ki_24:12-16; 2Ki_25:11, Jer_52:15). Probably 50,000 were transported, and Jewish communities were formed in Babylonia at many points, as at Tel-abib (Eze_3:15) and Casiphia (Ezr_8:17). Here the Jewish religion was maintained; prophets like Ezekiel and priests like Ezra sprang up, the old laws were studied and worked over, the Pentateuch elaborated, and from this centre Jews radiated to many parts of the East (Neh_1:1 ff., Tob_1:9-22, Isa_11:11). Thus the Jews reached Media, Persia, Cappadocia, Armenia, and the Black Sea. Only a few of these Babylonian Jews returned to Palestine. They maintained the Jewish communities in Babylonia till about a.d. 1000. Here, after the beginning of the Christian era, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled.
In b.c. 608, Necho took king Jehoahaz and probably others to Egypt. In this general period colonies of Jews were living at Memphis, Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Pathros in Egypt (Jer_44:1). Papyri recently discovered prove the existence of a large Jewish colony and a Jewish temple at the First Cataract, in the 5th cent. b.c. Other Jews seem to have followed Alexander the Great to Egypt (Jos. [Note: Josephus.] BJ II. xviii. 8; c. Apion. ii. 4). Many others migrated to Egypt under the Ptolemys (Ant. XII. 1. 1, ii. 1 ff.). Philo estimated the number of Jews in Egypt in the reign of Caligula (a.d. 3841) at a million.
Josephus states that Seleucus I. (312280) gave the Jews rights in all the cities founded by him in Syria and Asia (Ant. XII. iii. 1). This has been doubted by some, who suppose that the spread of Jews over Syria occurred after the Maccabæan uprising (168143). At all events by the 1st cent. b.c. Jews were in all this region, as well as in Greece and Rome, in the most important centres about the Mediterranean, and had also penetrated to Arabia (Act_2:11).
At Leontopolis in Egypt, Onias III., the legitimate Aaronic high priest, who had left Palestine because he hated Antiochus IV., founded, about b.c. 170, a temple which was for a century a mild rival of the Temple in Jerusalem. With few exceptions the Dispersion were loyal to the religion of the home land. Far removed from the Temple, they developed in the synagogue a spiritual religion without sacrifice, which, after the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, kept Judaism alive. All Jews paid the annual half-shekel tax for the support of the Temple-worship, and at the great feasts made pilgrimages to Jerusalem from all parts of the world (Act_2:10-11). They soon lost the use of Hebrew, and had the Greek translationthe Septuagintmade for their use. Contact with the world gave them a broader outlook and a wider thought than the Palestinian Jews, and they conceived the idea of converting the world to Judaism. For use in this propaganda the Sibylline Oracles and other forms of literature likely to interest Græco-Roman readers were produced.
George A. Barton.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
(See CAPTIVITY.) Galuth (Jer_24:5; Ezr_6:16). Literally, "the spoliation," those stripped of the temple and home of their fathers. Septuagint used diaspora, "dispersion," in Deu_28:25; compare Deu_30:4, "driven out unto the outermost parts of heaven"; Jer_34:17; Joh_7:35, "the dispersed among the Gentiles." They became, in God's gracious providence, seed sown for a future harvest in the Gentile lands of their sojourn (1Pe_1:1). The dispersion included all the twelve tribes, the ten tribes carried away by the Assyrians as well as Judah carried to Babylon, though Judah alone returned to Palestine (Jas_1:1; Act_26:7).
"The pilgrim troops of the law became caravans of the gospel" (Wordsworth). The difficulties of literally observing the Mosaic ritual, while in Babylon and elsewhere, led them to see that they could be united by a common faith, though unable to meet at the same Jerusalem temple, and that the spirit of the law is the essential thing when the letter is providentially set aside. Still, connection with the temple was kept up by each Jew everywhere contributing the half shekel to its support (Mat_17:24). The three great sections of the dispersion at Christ's coming were the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the Egyptian (including Alexandria where the Grecian element was strongest, and with African offshoots, Cyrene and N. Africa).
Pompey, upon occupying Jerusalem 63 B.C., took with him, and settled, many Jews in the trans-Tiberine quarter of Rome. The apostles in every city followed God's order, as Paul told the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, "it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you" (Act_3:26; Act_13:46); so Rom_1:16, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." In the assembly on Pentecost the several dispersions were represented:
(1) Parthians, Mesopotamia;
(2) Judaea (Syria), Pamphylia;
(3) Egypt, Greece;
(4) Romans. The converts from these pioneered the way for the subsequent labors of the apostles in their respective countries. Lucius of Cyrene and Simeon Niger (the black) from N. Africa were leading members of the church of Antioch. So we find Aquila from Pontus, Barnabas of Cyprus, Apollos of Alexandria, Clement probably of Rome. Besides the Jews, in the several cities there were the "devout" Gentiles who in some degree acknowledged the God of Israel. All these formed stepping stones for the ultimate entrance of the gospel among the idolatrous Gentiles. Forty years after Peter's martyrdom, Pliny, Roman governor of Pontus and Bithynia, writing to the emperor Trajan, says: "the contagion (Christianity) has seized not only cities, but the smaller towns and country, so that the temples are nearly forsaken and the sacred rites intermitted."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
During the centuries immediately before the New Testament era, Jews had become widely scattered across western Asia, eastern Europe and northern Africa. Some of these were descendants of people who had been taken captive to foreign lands by Assyria, Babylon and other invaders of Palestine. Some had fled as refugees in times of persecution; others had moved to different places in search of trade. All these people were known as Jews of the Dispersion or the scattered Jews (Joh_7:35; Jam_1:1; 1Pe_1:1).
By New Testament times many of these Jews had lived in foreign countries so long that they had little or no knowledge of Palestinian languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic. Instead they spoke Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire, and so became known as Hellenists (from the word hellas, meaning Greece). At the same time they maintained their Jewish identity through keeping the Jewish law. Wherever they lived they built synagogues (Act_13:5; Act_13:14; Act_17:1; Act_17:10; Act_18:1-4) and kept the traditions of their ancestors. Usually they went to Jerusalem for the more important ceremonies and festivals (Act_2:1; Act_2:5; Act_21:27-29).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
The real Dispersion began with the Babylonian Exile. Nebuchadnezzar transplanted to Babylonia the choicest of the Judæan population (2Ki_24:12-16; 2Ki_25:11, Jer_52:15). Probably 50,000 were transported, and Jewish communities were formed in Babylonia at many points, as at Tel-abib (Eze_3:15) and Casiphia (Ezr_8:17). Here the Jewish religion was maintained; prophets like Ezekiel and priests like Ezra sprang up, the old laws were studied and worked over, the Pentateuch elaborated, and from this centre Jews radiated to many parts of the East (Neh_1:1 ff., Tob_1:9-22, Isa_11:11). Thus the Jews reached Media, Persia, Cappadocia, Armenia, and the Black Sea. Only a few of these Babylonian Jews returned to Palestine. They maintained the Jewish communities in Babylonia till about a.d. 1000. Here, after the beginning of the Christian era, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled.
In b.c. 608, Necho took king Jehoahaz and probably others to Egypt. In this general period colonies of Jews were living at Memphis, Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Pathros in Egypt (Jer_44:1). Papyri recently discovered prove the existence of a large Jewish colony and a Jewish temple at the First Cataract, in the 5th cent. b.c. Other Jews seem to have followed Alexander the Great to Egypt (Jos. [Note: Josephus.] BJ II. xviii. 8; c. Apion. ii. 4). Many others migrated to Egypt under the Ptolemys (Ant. XII. 1. 1, ii. 1 ff.). Philo estimated the number of Jews in Egypt in the reign of Caligula (a.d. 3841) at a million.
Josephus states that Seleucus I. (312280) gave the Jews rights in all the cities founded by him in Syria and Asia (Ant. XII. iii. 1). This has been doubted by some, who suppose that the spread of Jews over Syria occurred after the Maccabæan uprising (168143). At all events by the 1st cent. b.c. Jews were in all this region, as well as in Greece and Rome, in the most important centres about the Mediterranean, and had also penetrated to Arabia (Act_2:11).
At Leontopolis in Egypt, Onias III., the legitimate Aaronic high priest, who had left Palestine because he hated Antiochus IV., founded, about b.c. 170, a temple which was for a century a mild rival of the Temple in Jerusalem. With few exceptions the Dispersion were loyal to the religion of the home land. Far removed from the Temple, they developed in the synagogue a spiritual religion without sacrifice, which, after the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, kept Judaism alive. All Jews paid the annual half-shekel tax for the support of the Temple-worship, and at the great feasts made pilgrimages to Jerusalem from all parts of the world (Act_2:10-11). They soon lost the use of Hebrew, and had the Greek translationthe Septuagintmade for their use. Contact with the world gave them a broader outlook and a wider thought than the Palestinian Jews, and they conceived the idea of converting the world to Judaism. For use in this propaganda the Sibylline Oracles and other forms of literature likely to interest Græco-Roman readers were produced.
George A. Barton.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
(See CAPTIVITY.) Galuth (Jer_24:5; Ezr_6:16). Literally, "the spoliation," those stripped of the temple and home of their fathers. Septuagint used diaspora, "dispersion," in Deu_28:25; compare Deu_30:4, "driven out unto the outermost parts of heaven"; Jer_34:17; Joh_7:35, "the dispersed among the Gentiles." They became, in God's gracious providence, seed sown for a future harvest in the Gentile lands of their sojourn (1Pe_1:1). The dispersion included all the twelve tribes, the ten tribes carried away by the Assyrians as well as Judah carried to Babylon, though Judah alone returned to Palestine (Jas_1:1; Act_26:7).
"The pilgrim troops of the law became caravans of the gospel" (Wordsworth). The difficulties of literally observing the Mosaic ritual, while in Babylon and elsewhere, led them to see that they could be united by a common faith, though unable to meet at the same Jerusalem temple, and that the spirit of the law is the essential thing when the letter is providentially set aside. Still, connection with the temple was kept up by each Jew everywhere contributing the half shekel to its support (Mat_17:24). The three great sections of the dispersion at Christ's coming were the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the Egyptian (including Alexandria where the Grecian element was strongest, and with African offshoots, Cyrene and N. Africa).
Pompey, upon occupying Jerusalem 63 B.C., took with him, and settled, many Jews in the trans-Tiberine quarter of Rome. The apostles in every city followed God's order, as Paul told the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, "it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you" (Act_3:26; Act_13:46); so Rom_1:16, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." In the assembly on Pentecost the several dispersions were represented:
(1) Parthians, Mesopotamia;
(2) Judaea (Syria), Pamphylia;
(3) Egypt, Greece;
(4) Romans. The converts from these pioneered the way for the subsequent labors of the apostles in their respective countries. Lucius of Cyrene and Simeon Niger (the black) from N. Africa were leading members of the church of Antioch. So we find Aquila from Pontus, Barnabas of Cyprus, Apollos of Alexandria, Clement probably of Rome. Besides the Jews, in the several cities there were the "devout" Gentiles who in some degree acknowledged the God of Israel. All these formed stepping stones for the ultimate entrance of the gospel among the idolatrous Gentiles. Forty years after Peter's martyrdom, Pliny, Roman governor of Pontus and Bithynia, writing to the emperor Trajan, says: "the contagion (Christianity) has seized not only cities, but the smaller towns and country, so that the temples are nearly forsaken and the sacred rites intermitted."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
During the centuries immediately before the New Testament era, Jews had become widely scattered across western Asia, eastern Europe and northern Africa. Some of these were descendants of people who had been taken captive to foreign lands by Assyria, Babylon and other invaders of Palestine. Some had fled as refugees in times of persecution; others had moved to different places in search of trade. All these people were known as Jews of the Dispersion or the scattered Jews (Joh_7:35; Jam_1:1; 1Pe_1:1).
By New Testament times many of these Jews had lived in foreign countries so long that they had little or no knowledge of Palestinian languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic. Instead they spoke Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire, and so became known as Hellenists (from the word hellas, meaning Greece). At the same time they maintained their Jewish identity through keeping the Jewish law. Wherever they lived they built synagogues (Act_13:5; Act_13:14; Act_17:1; Act_17:10; Act_18:1-4) and kept the traditions of their ancestors. Usually they went to Jerusalem for the more important ceremonies and festivals (Act_2:1; Act_2:5; Act_21:27-29).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
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