Selected Figures and Events in Jewish History

In one sense of the word history, Jewish history begins not with our first written records but with such figures as Adam and Eve and Noah who lived thousands of years prior to our earliest written records. This account begins with Abraham. Note the danger of viewing Judaism merely as leading up to Christianity. Despite the incompleteness of this sketch, intended only for beginners, it should be remembered that Judaism has continued to develop since Biblical times, and it continues as an important world religion. (The latter portion of this survey draws on Alan Segal’s key dates in “The Jewish Tradition” from World Religions: Western Traditions, ed. Willard G. Oxtoby [New York: Oxford University Press, 1996], p. 13.)

Ca. (which means circa, Latin for "around") 2000 BCE: Abraham and the original covenant (formal agreement) as—the story goes—with God. The teaching emphasizes (1) faith in the one God. Other cultures worship many gods, but the unity of God is revealed to Abraham. We come into right relationship with God by faith, not by merely outward actions. (2) The covenant community must not only believe but must also obey God. In return, God will give blessings; Abraham's offspring will multiply greatly. Note: Abraham's first-born son was named Isaac, and Isaac’s first-born son was named Jacob--who was also called "Israel"--a name that was then applied to a people and then to a land.

Ca. middle of the thirteenth century BCE: Moses leads the Hebrews (and others who joined them) out of slavery in Egypt. He stays with them in the desert for 40 years and instructs them in the law that is to enable them to function as an enduring people on the stage of world history.

Moses was raised in the royal household in Egypt during a period when male Israelite babies were being killed to prevent the slave-people from becoming numerous and strong. Moses taught monotheism (note Ikhnaton's failed monotheistic revolution a century earlier in Egypt) sometimes mixed with henotheism. His primary name for God--Yahweh--might come from at least two sources: (1) there was a spirit of the Sinai volcano (according to British historian Arnold Toynbee) who was familiar to the Hebrews, and Moses wisely expanded their religion by injecting a higher concept into a familiar name; (2) Exodus 3.16 records a revelation of God to Moses: "I AM THAT I AM." The four-letter word ("tetragrammaton") came to be regarded as a name for God so sacred that people were forbidden to pronounce it (and today we are not even sure how to pronounce it, since the vowel indicators beneath the letters were not used until centuries after the text was written).

Moses taught that there are rewards for righteousness and punishments for wickedness. He may have exaggerated threats to discipline his people, while reserving the proclamation of his broad concept of a God of love for persons and occasions when a higher truth could be proclaimed. Obviously, it is possible to interpret the texts that support this interpretation in other ways. For example, someone could claim that the universal God of love represents a (later?) and more highly evolved concept, while the fearsome God of battles was a throwback to a different author and period in Israelite history. Someone else could also claim that all these teachings are revealed and equally true; the limited mortal mind merely fails to comprehend the mystery of God's sovereign character.

Ca. 1000-924 BCE: the united kingdom of Saul and David and Solomon, split ca. 924 into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

Prophets Amos (fl. [which means ]floruit, Latin for "flourished"] 760; Hosea (fl. 750-722), Isaiah the first (chapters 1-39 in the book of Isaiah, fl. 738-701), and Micah (fl. 725-700).

722 BCE: Assyria conquers the northern kingdom of Israel.

The prophet Jeremiah (fl. 627-585) proclaimed the destruction of Jerusalem, making the unpopular statement that Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar was an agent of the Most High (43.10). After his first prediction came true, Jeremiah stayed in Jerusalem to proclaim hope.

586 BCE: the fall of Judah. After the siege of Jerusalem, leading families are taken into captivity in Babylon. 539 BCE: Persia conquers Babylon and lets the Jews return in 538 to rebuild a second temple in Jerusalem.

333 BCE: conquest of Palestine by the armies of Alexander the Great, launching the Hellenistic period, in which a liberal form of Judaism developed, centered in Alexandria, born of the encounter of Judaism with Greek civilization.

164 BCE: Following the change of the temple in Jerusalem into a temple of Olympian Zeus by the forces of the ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes, there was a revolt by the Jewish priest Mattathias and his sons, which eventually threw out the foreign army.

63 BCE: conquest of Palestine by the Romans.

66-70 CE. The First Jewish Revolt led to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. After 70, rabbinic Judaism became predominant, stemming from Pharisees (a lay movement concerned with the observance and interpretation of the Torah).

132-135 CE: The Second Jewish Revolt led to the Jews being banned from Jerusalem altogether.

c. 200 The Mishnah of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi

c. 500 Completion of the Babylonian Talmud

d. 1204 Moses Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed)

1492 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain

d. c. 1760 Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem, in Poland—a mystical, orthodox leader and gifted teacher, a founder of Hasidic Judaism

d. Moses Mendelssohn, pioneer of Reform in Germany

1881 Severe pogrom in Russia spurs Jewish emigration

1889 Conservative Judaism separates from Reform in the United States

1939-45 Shoah—the “Holocaust”—the slaughter of six million European Jews during the Hitler period.

1948 The founding of the state of Israel.