The Disapora

• THE DIASPORA (cf. Jn. 7:35, the Dispersion among the Greeks).
• The Diaspora. This term describes the scattering of the Jews outside of Palestine.
• Causes of the Dispersion.
• The Israelites were taken by force into various lands.
• Israel was taken by Assyria in 722 BC.
• Judah was taken to Babylon in 605, 597, 586 BC.
• Wars and famine at home made foreign residence more desirable (Machen, 39).
• Some of the Jews who had been scattered preferred to stay where they were when conditions improved (e.g., the Jews in days of Esther).
• In the days of Jeremiah there were communities of Jews in Egypt at Tahpanhes, Migdol,

Memphis, and in the land of Pathros (Jer. 42:14; 43:7; 44:1).

• There was a Jewish colony at Elephantine, an island in the upper Nile, in the 5th century BC.
• "The Seleucid kings of Syria encouraged Jewish colonies in the cities of Asia Minor" (Machen 39).
• Advantages of commerce may have caused voluntary migration.
• ''By New Testament times it was estimated that more Jews lived outside of Palestine (perhaps as many as three to five million) than lived in the homeland" (Drumwright 119).
• Josephus could observe: "There is not a community in the entire world which does not have a portion of our people" (Josephus, Bell. ii. 16.4).
• Many of the cities Paul visited throughout Asia and Europe had Jewish communities (e.g. Acts 13:14; 14: 1; 16:3, 13; 17: 1, 17; 18:24; 19:8; 28:17). This provided a great benefit to early

Christianity!