PEOPLES AND NATIONS
Diaspora, “dispersion,” is the term used for Jews living outside of the Jewish homeland (John 7:35). It derives from the Greek verb meaning “to scatter.” Dwelling in Jewish communities surrounded by Gentiles, they were subjected to Gentile cultural influences and pressure to a higher degree than Jews living in the land of Israel. First, an Eastern Diaspora developed, then a Western Diaspora.
The dispersal of the Jewish people had several causes, first being forcible deportation and captivity. In the sixth century BC, Nebuchadnezzar took several waves of Jews into exile in Babylonia and other eastern regions. Only a meager population of poor, illiterate peasants were left behind (2 Kings 25:12). Scholars call this the Eastern Diaspora. At the same time, a significant number fled from the Babylonians into Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them and settling at Tahpanhes in the Nile delta region (Jer. 43). Other Jews had apparently already gone to Egypt. A colony of Jewish mercenaries existed at Elephantine in Upper Egypt, just north of the first Nile cataract.
After the demise of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, the Persian king Cyrus permitted Jews to return to Judea (Yehud). They were under the leadership of men such as Ezra and Nehemiah, and a remnant did so, rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. But the majority remained in Babylonia and prospered there. Meanwhile, the community of returnees in Judea grew, and in the second century BC, they even became an independent kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty.
During the first century BC, two brothers of the Jewish ruling family fought for the kingship, providing an opportunity for the Romans to intervene. The Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BC, putting an end to Jewish independence. He seized hundreds of captives whom he sold into slavery, beginning what is called the Western Diaspora.
Another reason for the diaspora was voluntary emigration because of commercial opportunities and also because Judea was a poor country whose population multiplied in time of peace. Some governments offered inducements for Jews to settle in their lands, as in the case of the mercenaries at Elephantine, who guarded the southern border of Egypt.
The result was that Jews became scattered all over the ancient Mediterranean world. In the book of Acts, we see that wherever Paul went, he found a Jewish community. According to Philo of Alexandria (first century AD), 40% of the population of the great Egyptian metropolis of Alexandria was Jewish. Jews had a higher birthrate than Greeks and Romans, and some have estimated that they made up as much as a fifth of the population of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus. Because their religion was based on a book, they had a high literacy rate. They prospered economically as traders and artisans because they helped each other. Wherever a Jew might go, for instance, at a synagogue, he would meet local Jews who could advise him and help him get started in his business. Also, his religion encouraged him to form good personal habits.
As a consequence, the Jews were influential, and the Roman Empire made some effort not to provoke them even though it usually did not tolerate any threat to its power and stability. It granted Jews special privileges, and whenever local governments requested the empire to revoke them, it refused to do so.
The list of exclusive privileges and exemptions granted to Jews is long. Although Rome had a law against private associations, it did not enforce it on Jews. Roman governors had to protect Jewish freedom of religion, and the empire declared Judaism a religio licita, a legally recognized religion. Rome excused Jews from worshiping the emperor and from compulsory military service. Nor could they be summoned before a court on the Sabbath. If the distribution of money or grain fell on the Sabbath, Jews would receive their portion the next day. In matters of civil litigation between Jews, they had the right to use their own law and their own courts. Also they could collect and administer their own funds, especially the temple tax. Every adult male was required to contribute a half-shekel annually for the support of the Jerusalem Temple, according to Exodus 30:13-15; cf. Matthew 17:24.
The Jews of the diaspora tended to be more prosperous than those back home. The treasures accumulated in the Temple were immense, so Jewish wealth worldwide must have been great. For example, Jews controlled the grain export business of Egypt, which was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, and Jews had responsibility for collecting custom along the Nile River. The leading physicians in big cities such as Ephesus were Jewish. The most beautiful buildings in Alexandria and Antioch were synagogues.
The Jews did not intermarry much with other people and tended to live together in separate neighborhoods. Everywhere the local Jewish community met together at least once a week. No other religion had weekly corporate worship. It provided a source of unity and sense of identity. The frequent travels of their members and an exchange of letters tied the synagogues to each other and Jerusalem.
The Jews had one law, one holy book, one God of covenant promises, and Jerusalem provided a world center to which they all could look. They wanted to travel there as often as they could to attend the annual pilgrimage festivals. Josephus reports that 2,700,000 were present at one festival in Jerusalem. They came from far and wide, as shown by the list of nationalities in Acts 2:9-11.
The highest authority in the Jewish world was the Sanhedrin (the Jewish supreme court) in Jerusalem, the chairman of which was called the Nasi. The Nasi sent out official messengers to the Jewish communities all over the world. Called shaliach in Hebrew, or apostolos in Greek, they always went from Israel to the Diaspora. They had the authority to supervise the administration of the Jewish communities, see that Torah was being followed, and levy taxes for the office of the Nasi. Also, they frequently carried letters informing the communities of the decisions and decrees of the Sanhedrin. Saul of Tarsus was such a shaliach (Acts 9:1, 2), so he was a Jewish apostle before he was a Christian one. Later, when, as a Christian apostle, he was under house arrest in Rome, he called together the leaders of the Jewish community. “We neither received letters from Judea concerning you,” they said, “nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any evil of you” (Acts 28:21).
Such a high degree of organization was unparalleled in the ancient world except for the Roman Empire itself. Now, when a group of people is apparently prosperous and successful, highly visible, clannish and aloof, has a different and distinct lifestyle, well organized and powerful, sometimes obstreperous, and receive special consideration from the government—and when they are perceived as dangerous and threateningly numerous —others would begin to regard them with envy and resentment, even fear. Thus the Jews received admiration from some and ridicule from others.
Many Gentiles became proselytes (especially women) or “God-fearers” (Acts 13:16; 10:2, 22, 35); many pagans adopted Jewish customs, such as Sabbath observance. On the other hand, the Jews became objects of hatred, and people would blame them for every calamity. In some cities, bloody riots erupted against them. Everyone knew three things about Jews: they were circumcised, did not eat pork, and they kept the Sabbath. If anyone wanted to disassociate from Judaism, these were the boundary-markers that they would abandon.
Though Jews tried hard to maintain their distinct identity, some assimilation to the broader culture was inevitable. For one thing, they adopted the vernacular language of where they lived: Aramaic in the East, and Greek in the West. In places of high culture and education, such as Alexandria, educated Jews were concerned in explaining their religion and culture in such a way that it would appear reasonable and attractive to sophisticated Greek thinkers. They did this not only to win favor in the eyes of educated, philosophically-minded pagans but also to keep their own young people in the faith. An example was the Jewish writer Philo, whose own nephew Alexander had abandoned Judaism. Philo allegorized the Jewish scriptures to make them teach profound philosophical truths.
Philo used a Greek translation of the Scriptures known as the Septuagint. As the Bible of both the diaspora and early Christianity, it was one of the ways in which Diaspora Judaism prepared the world for Christianity. The synagogues were another way. Schools of morals and religion, they served as the “cradles of Christianity.” Both Jesus and Paul made the synagogues their first preaching centers. Connected with every synagogue were a school and a library. Books were copied by hand, and few people could own a copy of the Scriptures. But they could go to the synagogue and read them there. The Jews carried on successful missionary work (Matt. 23:15), winning many proselytes. Diaspora Jews were more interested in making a good impression on Greeks and Romans than the Jews of Judea were, and they had a less exclusive religious outlook. Only a Diaspora Jew like Philo could have said of the Sabbath, “That day is the festival, not of one city or one country, but all the earth; a day which alone it is right to call the day of the festival for all people, and the birthday of the world” (Philo On the Creation 89). He implied that the Jews were not so much God’s unique covenant people as rather the vanguard of what all humanity should become.
So in many ways, God used Diaspora Judaism as a preparation for the gospel. It gave the church its Scriptures in Greek, it offered principles of organization and mission, and it supplied much of its theological vocabulary. Thus it is not surprising that the early church should appropriate the term diaspora for its own scattered members (James 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1).