In
1451 BC, Joshua led the twelve tribes of Israel into the Promised Land. There
they remained until 721 BC, when Yahweh allowed the ten northern tribes to be
dragged into exile and oblivion for their faithless devotion to the Olympian
gods. Then, in 588 BC, Yahweh allowed Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to exile
even the two remaining tribes. While Yahweh later enabled a remnant to return
to Jerusalem, from 588 BC until now most descendants of these tribes have lived
outside of Jerusalem and its surrounding land.
Diaspora Judaism is the Judaism found outside of Jerusalem and its surrounding land. Diaspora is a Greek word meaning "dispersion" or "scattering."
Diaspora Judaism is the Judaism found outside of Jerusalem and its surrounding land. Diaspora is a Greek word meaning "dispersion" or "scattering."
At
the birth of Jesus, Jews of the Diaspora lived in all the major cities under the
authority of Rome. Beginning with the persecution of the first church in
Jerusalem (AD 33), Christian Jews experienced a scattering of their own to all
parts of the Roman world. Like the apostle Paul, they would take the Good News
of Jesus Christ with them to synagogues wherever they traveled.
Around
250 BC, in Alexandra, Egypt, Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora had their
normative writings translated from Hebrew into Koiné Greek: the common language
spoken in eastern Olympia at that time. This translation became known as the
Septuagint. After AD 33, when Christian Jews preached the Gospel to others, they
most frequently quoted the Septuagint.
As
time went by, Christian Jews increasingly shared the Gospel with Gentiles:
people who were not Jews. Eventually, the Greek Septuagint became scripture for
Christians while a Hebrew text became scripture for all Jews regardless of
their first language.