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100
Hasmonean Family
The newly independent Israel lived under the ruling of the Hasmonean family. During this era, three sects of Jews formed. The Sadducees were the priests and the wealthy people, very religiously conservative. The Pharisees were much less conservative and applied the text of the Torah to their everyday lives. Lastly, there were the Essenes. The Essenes were fundamentalists of sorts who dissapproved of the 'corruption' of other Jewish priests. Their main focus was on the judgement day. -
132
2nd Rebellion Against the Romans
After a 2nd rebellion against the Romans, the Jews were forbidden to practice their religion. If there were Jews that had not been executed, they were banned from visiting their holy capitol of Jerusalem. -
163
Romans (Pompey)
Roman general Pompey conquered the Hasmonean throne due to conflict within the family. During this time, the Jews looked towards the apoocalypse and a time of redemption someday, a sort of "End of Days". -
164
Maccabees
The Maccabean rebellion, led by the Hasmon family of priests, was sparked by the push for political unity in Hellenism. It did eventually win Judea independence in 164 BCE -
166
Zealots
Anti-Roman militias, Zealots, sparked a rebellion amongst the Jews against the Roman government. The Romans suppressed the Jews and destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. -
174
Antiochus IV
Antiochus IV was a Greek, Hellenistic ruler of Israel. He tried to impose Hellenistic culture universally on all citizens. He abolished the Torah, burned copies of the Torah, killed fmailies who circumsized their sons, and built an altar to Zeus. on the altar to Zeus he sacrificed a hog on it defying a Mosaic law against eating or touching dead hogs/pigs. -
200
Hellenism
Jerusalem fell under many different empires, one with much influence being the Greek empire. As the Greek lifestyle and way of thought was accepted into their culture, many of the Jewish priests as well adopted a hellenistic way of thinking. This meant that they were a little more skeptical than simply having unconditional faith. -
430
Ezra
Ezra was the leader of Israel at the time that the priestly class of Judaism was making a lot of breakthroughs in their religion. For one, these priests and scribes revised the ancient texts. Some even believe that these priests wrote the Genesis 1. -
515
Persians
The Persian king, Cyrus, allowed the return of a small population of Jews to return to Jerusalem. While many Jews did not return all the way back to Jerusalem, the ones who did were authorized another temple. This temple would represent all of the Jewish people left no matter if they were scattered in diaspora or if they had returned to their holy city. -
Sep 27, 722
Assyrians
Under the reign of King Hoshea, Israel had started to become less and less pure. Full of corruption and idolatry, the kingdom was weak and God permitted the Assyrians to take over. They banished most of the Israelites to other places with other non-Jewish people. A majority of the Israelites just became lost amongst the rest of the people in Assyria and are now referred to as the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel". -
King David
King David was the second king of Israel, successor to King Saul. After Kind Saul and his son died in battle, King David was selected to lead the country. He is remembered as one of the most remarkable Israelian kings because he was the king who captured Jerusalem and gave Israel their holy capitol. -
King Solomon
King Solomon, son of King David, built the first temple of Jerusalem. It was constructed to house the Ark of the Covenant. But King Solomon ended up using his great wealth and power to build altars for the gods of his wives, which contradicted the original intent of the Israelian nation. After Solomon's death, the nation split in half. To the North was the independent tribes, away from Jerusalem. To the South was the others who remained loyal to King David and kept Jerusalem as their capital, -
Babylonians
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia captured the city of Jerusalem. The Babylonians torched buildings and destroyed homes and the great temple built by King Solomon was destroyed. Most of the Judeans were exhiled and henceforth became known as "Jews". -
Messiah
The Messiah was a hope that the Jews had, it was specifically a person. They believed that someone would come and end the evil times and establish an era of peace.
