(Hebrew: Yehudi) A name which at first was restricted to the subjects of the Kingdom of Juda, but which after the Babylonian exile became the common name for the race descended from Jacob and for the followers of the Mosaic religion. Before the coming of Christ they were the chosen people of God among whom the Saviour of the world was destined to appear. They were elected by God in the person of Abraham, who left Ur, a city of the Chaldees on the Euphrates River, to settle in southern Chanaan. Jacob, his grandson, during a famine moved with his family to Egypt, where his descendants in the course of about 400 years multiplied rapidly; but when persecuted by the Egyptians, they were led out of Egypt, at God's command, by Moses, who likewise organized them into a theocratic nation. Josue, the successor of Moses, brought them pack to Chanaan, and divided its territory among the twelve tribes, which made up the nation. The land had to be taken by force from the original inhabitants. During the period of conquest, the union among the tribes was rather loose. There was no central government, but there was a common center of worship. Samuel succeeded in effecting a union among the tribes, which was further strengthened when a kingdom was established and Saul was chosen as ita first king. Under his successors, David and Solomon, the nation reached the height of its glory; but Solomon's building activities, and his luxurious mode of life gradually increased taxation till it became oppressive and when Roboam, his son and successor, refused to lighten the burden, the ten northern tribes revolted, and formed the Kingdom of Israel; the two southern tribes, however, remained faithful to David's house, and formed the Kingdom of Juda. The history of both kingdoms is largely a chronicle of wars and intrigues. There was constant fighting amongst themselves, and a desperate effort to ward off foreign invaders. After a hectic existence of about 211 years, the northern kingdom was conquered by Sargon in 722 BC and annexed to the Assyrian Empire. About 140 years later, the southern kingdom of Juda was overrun by Nabuchodonosor, and Jerusalem was captured and destroyed in 582 BC. A large number of the inhabitants were carried off as prisoners to Babylon. After a period of approximately 70 years, Cyrus, King of Persia, gave the exiles permission to return, and about 50,000 Jews followed Zorobabel to Palestine in 538 BC. Other expeditions came later under Esdras and Nehemias. Jerusalem and the Temple were rebuilt, and a tiny Jewish state was formed, subject to Persia, but under the jurisdiction of the Jewish high priest and a council of elders. After Persia lost the supremacy in the East, Judea changed masters several times, yet the internal government remained undisturbed. Soon, however, Greek-speaking colonies grew up around her, and Hellenic influence began to penetrate even into her community. Intrigue and bribery on the part of members of the high priest's family brought about internal dissension and occasioned a series of Syrian invasions. Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), King of Syria, made a violent attempt to hellenize the Jews; but a priest of Modin named Mattathias, and his sons, Judas Machabeus, Jonathan, and Simon, carried on a long and successful struggle against the armies of Syria, and at length, in 143 BC, gained complete independence for Judea. Its territory was greatly extended by the conquests of John Hyrcanus, Simon's son and successor; then once more dissension and intrigue in the ruling family precipitated a civilwar, whereupon Rome interfered. Herod, an Idumean, was appointed King of Judea by Rome, and not long after his death Roman procurators assumed control of the government in Palestine. The rapacity and cruelty of these procurators led at length to an organized revolt against Rome, which terminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and of its Temple in the year 70 AD, and in the dispersion of the Jews of Palestine throughout the civilized world. Jewish colonies existed long before this date in many states both of the East and of the West. Josephus (Antiquities, xiv,7,2) quotes Strabo as saying: "Now these Jews are already in all cities, and it is hard to find a place on the habitable earth that hath not admitted this trihe of men, and is not possessed by it." Since the Jews were forbidden by the Law to mingle with Gentiles, these colonies remained distinct, and formed "a nation within a nation." As a rule, the colonial Jews obtained the rights of citizenship, along with religious liberty and the privilege of governing themselves according to their Law. They had their own magistrates as well as their own courts of justice. They were exempted from military service and from taxes which were incompatible with the Mosaic prescriptions, e.g., tax levies in the Sabbatical year. Add to this the enormous wealth which they everywhere accumulated by their business acumen and tireless industry, and it is easy to understand why they were marked out for hatred and persecution everywhere. What happened in the Roman Empire was repeated in every state where the Jews settled. They grew in numbers and wealth, excited the envy and hatred of the native population, and were persecuted and driven out of the country. After the downfall of Jerusalem, the rabbis gathered at Jabne, near Jaffa, where they reorganized the Sanhedrin, the Council of 71Elders. Driven from Jabne in the time of Hadrian, c.135AD, they settled in Sepphowis, in Galilee, where the Mishna, a collection of the oral traditions about the Law, was published. From Galilee they migrated to Babylonia, which remained for nearly five centuries the chief center of Jewish life. During this period the Talmud, a vast compilation of discussions about the Law and the Mishna, was produced. In the 10th century Spain became the principal center of Jewish activity, where in addition to further commentaries on the Law, books of philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and poetry appeared. In Germany the Jews had settlements since 321 AD, principally along the Rhine, where Jew was synonymous with merchant. In Italy they flourished for many centuries; while in France they were alternately protected and persecuted. Universal persecution of the Jews broke out in Europe at the beginning of the First Crusade, 1096. The Crusaders massacred the Jews of the various German cities through which they passed. Subsequent crusades were occasions for further atrocities. In the course of the 13th century the Jews were exiled from France and England, and in the 14th, severe laws were passed against them and bloody assaults made on them in France (where they had been readmitted), in Spain, Germany, and Bohemia. During this and earlier centuries, the popes were the staunchest defenders of the Jews, and by a series of Bulls tried to protect them from oppression and mob violence. In 1492 all Jews were banished from Spain, and in 1496 from Portugal. They were driven from one country to another till, towards the end of the 18th century, "Edicts of Toleration" were passed by various governments which abolished the harsh laws against them and granted them civilrights. Austria led the way in 1782. France followed in 1791, Holland in 1796, Prussia in 1812. During the last century brief anti-Semitic outbreaks occurred in various states, notably in Russia and Rumania, which were the occasion of vast Jewish emigration, especially to the United States. The following religious sects exist today: Orthodox Jews, who believe in the inspiration of Scripture and who cling to the prescriptions of the Mishna and Talmud Conservative Jews, who also hold the inspiration of Scripture, but who have adapted the prescriptions of tradition to modern Conditions Liberal or Reformed Jews, who have very lax views about the inspiration of Scripture, who try to make their beliefs conform to modern rationalistic theories, and who have abandoned many of the ancient customs and practises Zionism is a movement to make Palestine the national home of the Jews and the chief center of Jewish culture. It also aims at restoring the ancient Hebrew language among the Jews.

Title of Christ used by the Magi (Matthew 2); by Pilate (John 19).

A section of the western wall of the temple area, where the Jews assemble every Friday afternoon to bewail their desolate condition (Psalm 79:1,4,5 ). The stones in this part of the wall are of great size, and were placed, as is generally believed, in the position in which they are now found in the time of Solomon. "The congregation at the wailing-place is one of the most solemn gatherings left to the Jewish Church, and as the writer gazed at the motley concourse he experienced a feeling of sorrow that the remnants of the chosen race should be heartlessly thrust outside the sacred enclosure of their fathers' holy temple by men of an alien race and an alien creed. Many of the elders, seated on the ground, with their backs against the wall, on the west side of the area, and with their faces turned toward the eternal house, read out of their well-thumbed Hebrew books passages from the prophetic writings, such as Isaiah 64:9-12 " (King's Recent Discoveries, etc.). The wailing-place of the Jews, viewed in its past spiritual and historic relations, is indeed "the saddest nook in this vale of tears." (See LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF .)

The word Jew is derived ultimately from the tribe of Judah through Middle English Iewe , Old French Ieu , Latin Iudaeus , and Greek Ioudaios (compare the woman's name Judith , which originally meant “Jewess”). The Old Testament Era The Hebrew yehudim meant originally descendants of the tribe of Judah and then those who inhabited the territories claimed by them (2 Kings 16:6 ; 2 Kings 25:25 ; Jeremiah 32:12 ). With the deportation and subsequent assimilation of the “Ten Lost Tribes” of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians after 722 B.C., the only Israelites to survive into the exilic period (with a few from the tribe of Benjamin, e.g. Mordecai, who is called a “Jew” in Esther 2:5 ) were those from Judah, hence the name Jews (Nehemiah 1:2 ). The corresponding Aramaic word is used in Daniel 3:8 ,Daniel 3:8,3:12 . The Intertestamental Period The Greek name Ioudaios (plural Ioudaioi ) was used for the Israelites in the Greek and Roman world. This is the name used in the treaty between Judas Maccabeus and the Romans, described in 1 Maccabees 8:23-32 : “May all go well with the Romans and with the nation of the Jews” Matthew, Mark, Luke The term Ioudaios occurs relatively rarely in the Synoptic Gospels, the first three Gospels which are closely parallel to each other. The word occurs but five times in Matthew, seven times in Mark, and five times in Luke, usually in the expression “King of the Jews” (12 of the total of 17). Of the remaining occurrences only Matthew 28:15 designates Jews as contrasted to Christian believers. John By contrast the word Ioudaios occurs 70 times in the Gospel of John. Some of these references are quite positive, especially in the dialogue between Jesus and the woman of Samaria ( John 4:1 ). In John 4:9 the woman says to Jesus, “thou, being a Jew,” and in John 4:22 Jesus says, “salvation is of the Jews.” Many of the Jews believed in Jesus ( John 8:31 ; Acts 12:1-33 ; John 12:11 ). Other references are neutral as in John 3:1 , where Nicodemus is described as a ruler of the Jews. The description of Jesus' opponents reveals a striking difference between the Synoptic Gosepls and John. Whereas the former names Jesus' enemies as scribes and Pharisees, high priests and Sadducees, the Gospel of John simply uses the general term “Jews.” The term often implies Jewish authorities as in John 7:13 ; John 9:22 ; John 19:38 ; John 20:19 . The Jews impugned Jesus' birth and His sanity (John 8:48 ), and even alleged that He was demon possessed (John 8:52 ). The Jews questioned His statements about the Temple (John 2:20 ) and were scandalized at His claim to be the bread from heaven (John 6:41 ). They regarded His affirmations of equality with the Father as blasphemous and picked up stones to kill Him (John 5:18 ; John 7:1 ; John 10:31 ,John 10:31,10:33 ; John 11:8 ). The heightened use of the term “Jews” in John to serve as a general designation for those who denied that Jesus was the Christ may be explained by the fact that John's Gospel was composed at a later date than the Synoptics—after such events as the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the insertion of a curse upon the minim (“heretics,” especially Christians) into the daily synagogue prayer in A.D. 80 had increased mutual hostilities between Jews and Christians. Acts Paul was a Jew from Tarsus (Acts 21:39 ; Acts 22:3 ). After his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, his fellow Jews sought to kill him (Acts 9:23 ). King Herod Agrippa I arrested Peter and killed the Apostle James, believing this would please the Jews (1618448567_60 ). Following his conviction that the gospel should be preached first to the Jews (Romans 1:16 ), Paul on his missionary journeys began his preaching in the Jewish synagogues—at Salamis on Cyprus (Acts 13:5 ), at Iconium (Acts 14:1 ), at Thessalonica (John 8:31-41 ), at Athens (Acts 17:15-17 ), and at Corinth (Acts 18:1 ). Though he made some converts among the Jews, even converting the synagogue ruler at Corinth (Acts 18:8 ), and no doubt had success among the “god fearers” or proselytes who were interested in converting to Judaism (Acts 13:43 ; Acts 17:4 ), the majority of the Jews reacted violently against Paul's message (Acts 13:50 ; Acts 14:2 ; Acts 17:5 ; Acts 18:12 ). Paul therefore turned his efforts increasingly toward the Gentiles, the non-Jews. Pauline Letters As the “apostle to the Gentiles,” Paul argued against “Judaizers” that Gentile converts did not have to be circumcized, that is, become Jews first, before they became christians (Acts 15:1-5 ). His arguments were accepted by James and the church council at Jerusalem held about A.D. 49. Paul, who had been “an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5 ) and had been more zealous in his pursuit of Judaism than his peers (Galatians 1:13-14 ), came to the radical conclusion that a true Jew is not one who was physically descended from Abraham (compare Acts 17:1 ), adhered to the Torah or Law of Moses (Romans 2:17 ,Romans 2:17,2:28 ) and was circumcized. For Paul a true Jew is one who believes that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ (Galatians 3:26-29 ), relies on God's grace and not works of the law (Ephesians 2:8-9 ), and has been circumcized in his heart by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:2-9 ; Galatians 5:6 ). In spite of his grief that most of his fellow Jews did not accept his message, Paul did not teach that God had abandoned the Jews but believed that God still has a plan for them (Romans 9-11 ). (Note: the word Ioudaios is not found in any of the non-Pauline letters of the New Testament.) Revelation The two references in the Book of Revelation are to the church at Smyrna (Revelation 2:9 ) and the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:9 ), where there were those who claimed to be Jews but who were denounced as the “synagogue of Satan” because they opposed Christians. See Israel ; Hebrews ; Pharisees ; Sadducees . Edwin Yamauchi

The Old Testament . Judah the Patriarch . Judah initially referred to the fourth son of Jacob (Israel) by his wife, Leah. Direct references to the patriarch Judah are limited to the Book of Genesis. He was born in Paddan Aram before Jacob returned to Canaan (Genesis 35:23 ). In the brotherly conspiracy to eliminate Joseph, Judah recommended selling Joseph to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites rather than killing him, and his brothers agreed (Genesis 37:26-28 ). Later, Judah moves west to Adullam, away from the Jacob clan, where he married a Canaanite woman. She bore him three sons—Er, Onan, and Shelah. The two oldest sons died young, but not before the eldest had married Tamar. According to custom, she should have become wife of Judah's youngest son; however, Judah feared that Shelah might also die, so through a ploy Judah denied Tamar her due. Subsequently, Tamar became pregnant by Judah by means of deception, bearing him twin sons, Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38 ). David was a Judahite through Perez. The one notable descendant of Judah through Zerah was Achan, who brought calamity on the Israelites when he took booty from Jericho at the time of the conquest (Joshua 7:1,18,24 ). Judah went to Egypt with his brothers for food in both expeditions (Genesis 42:3 ; 43:3-5 ). He appears to have been the leader on the second trip, for it is he who pleads with Joseph for Benjamin's release. When the extended family of Jacob immigrated to Egypt, Judah's family was in the retinue while he was in the advance party (Genesis 46:12,28 ). The blessing of Jacob suggests the significant future role Judah's descendants were destined to play. They are to be ferocious warriors and powerful rulers in a fertile and productive land (Genesis 49:8-12 ). Judah died and was buried in Egypt (Exodus 1:6 ). The Tribal Name . The name appears frequently in the Old Testament to identify the tribe of Judah. Bezalel, the chief artisan in beautifying the tabernacle, was of the tribe of Judah (Exodus 31:2 ). The third tribe mentioned in the census of Numbers is Judah (Numbers 1:7 ), and they possessed the largest group of fighting men (Numbers 1:26 ). The tribal contingent led by Judah was first in the line of march through the wilderness (Numbers 2:3-9 ), and Caleb of Judah joined Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim, in bringing back a good report about the trip of the twelve spies into Canaan. In the second census, Judah was still the predominant tribe (Numbers 26:22 ). The Territorial Name . The division of the land takes the size of the tribe into account, allotting a large region to Judah. The Negeb in the south and the wilderness to the east, however, were marginal areas, not capable of sustaining agriculture. The northern boundary extended from the point where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea westward (to the north of Jerusalem) along the Wadi Sorek to the Mediterranean Sea. Smaller tribal groups and clans within the tribal boundaries were in time absorbed into Judah—Kenites (Judges 1:16 ), Kenazzites (1:11-15), Simeonites (1:17), Jerahmeelites, and Othnielites. The State Name . The tribal elements of Judah were united under the rule of David at Hebron (2 Samuel 2:4,11 ), and he subsequently united the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (2 Samuel 5:3 ). David was addressed as "king of Israel" by Michal (2 Samuel 6:20 ), but after the division of the kingdom upon the death of Solomon, Rehoboam bore the title "king of Judah" (1 Kings 14:21 ). The rulers of the southern kingdom continued to bear that title; the last to be called king of Judah was the captive Jehoiachin (2 Kings 25:27 ). Israel and Judah . The title "king of Israel" was comparable to "king of Judah" during the period of the two kingdoms; however, the name "Israel" also could connote the whole people of God, including Judah. Early texts identify Israel as the people of Yahweh, the God of Israel (Exodus 5:1 ). The concept is clearly that of a religiously identifiable group. The political distinction between Judah and Israel apparently developed early in the period of David, but following the demise of the northern kingdom, prophets and poets continued to speak of Israel, obviously including the people of Judah (Psalm 76:1 ; Isaiah 1:3-4 ; 5:7 ; Jeremiah 2:1-4 ). Isaiah referred to "both houses of Israel" (8:14), and Jeremiah, in prophetic speech intended for those in exile, referred to Judah as the "Virgin Israel" (31:21). Ezekiel also refers to the exiled community in Babylonia as "the house of Israel" (3:1) and as the "people of Israel" (4:13). Other postexilic writers also employed the expression "Israel" in reference to the nonpolitical, cultic community of the exiled people of Judah (Ezra 2:70 ; Nehemiah 7:73 ). In Babylonia, those exiled from the kingdom of Judah adapted the Israelite religion, which had been bound to territory and temple, transforming Yahwehism into a universalistic early Judaism. The Development of Judaism . Nascent Judaism . The Judahites became the Jews in Babylon. Even Mordecai of the tribe of Benjamin is identified as a Jew (Esther 2:5 ), although the designation "Israel" also continued in use to identify the whole of the ethnic and cultic community (Ezra 2:70 ). The first Jews to return from the Babylonian exile to Jerusalem rebuilt the temple; however, the religious practices of the next generation did not conform to the vision of Judaism that the Babylonian Jewish community held. The reforms of Ezra, based on the Torah, which he brought to Jerusalem and read publically to its inhabitants, revived and redirected Palestinian Judaism (Nehemiah 8-10 ). The reforms of Ezra resulted in a number of practices. There was a strict prohibition against mixed marriages. All who were of foreign descent were excluded from Israel (Nehemiah 13:3 ), including wives and children (Ezra 10 ). Thus, a Jew was one born of a Jewish mother. Adherents pledged to observe the Torah. Thereafter the Jews were identified as the people of the Book, a people committed to keeping the law of Moses. There was also strict observance of the Sabbath. Jewish tradition holds that the shekinah , the Spirit of Divine Inspiration, departed Israel after Ezra, who was himself ranked second to Moses. With Ezra, the law of Moses was a given; there was no need for further revelation. What was needed was the transmission of the text by careful scribes and the interpretation of the text by competent scholar-teachers. These circumstances led to the ongoing interpretive expansion of the traditions into the oral law. Despite the departure of the prophetic spirit, certain devout Jews were inspired to write religious works during the intertestamental period. These survive as the Apocrypha, works found in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, but later denied a place in the Hebrew Bible by Jewish leaders. However, in the Roman Empire outside Palestine, the Septaugint was the Bible of Jewish communities and the early church until the end of the first century a.d. Other works similar to the Apocrypha written in the same period were never considered for inclusion in the canon. These include the pseudepigrapha and the sectarian documents of the Dead Sea Scroll community. The noncanonical writings of the intertestamental period attest to the development of Jewish religious thought. The transcendence of God was stressed; he was remote from humankind and the world. Angels, as intermediaries between God and man, were emphasized, as well as their demonic counterparts. Jews thought much about the cause and manifestation of human sin and conflict between good and evil. Related to this problem was the development of ideas latent in Hebrew Scripture on resurrection of the body, immortality of the soul, and the concept of the afterlife. During this period the biblical concept of the Messiah took on new importance. He was to be the eschatological figure chosen by God to lead in the last great conflict between good and evil and to institute the kingdom of God that would last forever. Ezra and Nehemiah acted under the authority of the Persian monarch. They imposed ethnic cleansing on the population within the small province named Yehud ^[1] (Judea), a province that included Jerusalem and its hinterland in a radius of ten to fifteen miles. At first under Persian authority, then under the Greeks, the province was governed by high priests who were descendants of Aaron. The Maccabean revolt established an independent commonwealth under priest-kings of the Hasmonean house rather than the line of Aaron. Herod the Great married into the Hasmonean family, and he and his successors were kings under Roman authority. High priests continued to control the temple until its destruction in the first revolt of the Jews against the Romans in a.d. 70. Early Jewish Sects . The Samaritans became the earliest Jewish sect. The ethnic division may be traced back to the eighth century b.c. (2 Kings 17:24-41 ), but the religious separation apparently became permanent due to the reforms of Ezra (Nehemiah 13:28 ). The Samaritan sect believed only in the Five Books of Moses. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek culture predominated. Jewish leaders in Jerusalem tended to assimilate Hellenistic culture, subtly undermining the strict religious practices of the Judaism Ezra had mandated. Those opposed to Hellenization tended to stand apart from the Jerusalem hierarchy, forming a pious group of Hassideans who opposed foreign rule and culture. The Maccabean revolt against Syrian sovereignty broke out, and an extremely religious fanatical sect of Zealots supported the revolt and high priesthood of the Hasmoneans. Controversy over the high priesthood and other issues led to the fragmentation of Judaism. The Pharisees were strictly orthodox, holding to the authority of both the Torah and the oral tradition, and believing in resurrection and immortality. They conflicted with the Sadducees who believed in the Torah only, rejecting the interpre tation of the rabbis of the Pharisees. The Essenes separated themselves from much of Jewish society. The Qumran community opposed the loss of the Aaronide priesthood; they may have been associated with the Essenes. Others opposed the alliance between political power and religious authority, advocating instead lay leadership. The Qumran community apparently believed in the revealing presence of the Shekinah; the Temple Scroll is written as inspired scripture. Christianity also began as a Jewish sect. Jesus insisted on a moral and ethical life based on love for God and love for one's neighbor, rather than the observance of a multitude of rules as advocated by the rabbis of the Pharisees. The first revolt of the Jews against the Romans deeply affected both Judaism and Christianity. The Jewish-Christian sect in Palestine was superseded by Gentile Christianity due to the missionary efforts of Paul, the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, and the defensive efforts of rabbinical Judaism to separate the church and the synagogue. The New Testament . The word "Jew" (Gk. Ioudaios [ Matthew 1:2-3 ; Luke 3:30,33 ; Hebrews 7:14 ), twice to the territory (Matthew 2:6 ; Luke 1:39 ), and three times to the tribe (Hebrews 8:8 ; Revelation 5:5 ; 7:5 ). References to Judah are contained in quotations from or references to the Old Testament, frequently related to Jesus as the fulfillment of ideas or statements in the Hebrew Bible. References to Jews and Judaism, however, bear a range of negative, neutral, and positive connotations. For example, John's Gospel contains sixty-three references to the Jews, of which approximately 60 percent are negative in nature, with another 20 percent neutral and a group of 20 percent that reflect a positive image. When Luke refers to Jews in Acts, the references tend toward anti-Judaism. Overall, when Jews are mentioned in the New Testament, the connotation usually is negative, reflecting the developing rift between the church and the synagogue. Unfortunately, this became the seed that in time would mature into modern, ungodly, anti-Semitism. Theology . Genesis provides hardly a hint that Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, would providentially become the conduit through which God would fulfill his promises to Abraham. The biblical biography of Judah is not pleasant reading. He helped pillage the Shechemites after his brothers, Simon and Levi, had slain the men of the city (Genesis 34:27 ). He moved away from his kindred into Canaanite territory and married a Canaanite woman (Genesis 38:2 ). He failed to bring his sons up in the way of the Lord (Genesis 38:7,10 ), and he failed to do right by his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Genesis 38:11-26 ). Yet it was through Perez, one of the twin sons born to Tamar and fathered by Judah, that David's lineage is traced, and ultimately that of Jesus, the Messiah (Matthew 1:3-6 ). Only the Blessing of Jacob hints at not only the dynasty of David but the enigmatic "Shiloh, " which has traditionally been interpreted as a prophetic reference to Christ (Genesis 49:10 ). The story of Jacob illustrates how unsearchable are God's judgments (Romans 11:33 ). The dynasty of David and the kingdom of Judah survived intact for over four centuries before it succumbed to the destructive power of Nebuchadnezzar's army. The history of that kingdom was marred and largely inglorious, despite the reforms of devout kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah. The demise of the kingdom and the deportation into exile of its leaders and much of its population was the direct result of ill-conceived international politics, domestic inequities and injustice, and religious deviation (2 Chronicles 36:13-20 ). Yet among the deportees was the remnant of the faithful who saved the precious scrolls that comprise the bulk of Bible and carried them into exile with them. And in exile the people of Judah became the Jews, the people of the Book, transforming the territorial temple-centered religion of their forefathers into a uNIVersal religion devoted to the worship of the one true God. Prophetic promises and messianic hope based on the study of God's Word among those in exile made possible the remnant that returned to rebuild temple and town, as God had promised through the prophet Jeremiah (25:11; 29:10-14). The establishment of nascent Judaism and the return and rebuilding of Jerusalem testify to the graciousness of God and his faithfulness in all generations. The intertestamental period established the Jewish matrix into which Jesus of Nazareth was born at the turn of the era. In that period various currents of thought in Judaism resulted in the development of the oral law, the writing of the Apocrypha, and the fragmentation into factions such as the Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Dead Sea Scroll sect. This environment stimulated Jews to develop ideas that would be important in the rise of Christianity. These ideas included messianic stirring, interest in the eschaton (the end of days), the resurrection from the dead, and the rule of God. The Jewish soil in which the church sprouted and grew reflects the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4 ). R. David Rightmire See also Apocrypha ; Dead Sea Scrolls ; Israel ; Pharisees ; Sadducees Bibliography . J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination; Encyclopedia Judaica, 10:21-25,383-97; J. Gager, The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity ; H. R. Greenstein, Judaism—An Eternal Covenant ; N. P. Lemche, Early Israel ; M. Mansoor, Jewish History and Thought: An Introduction ; E. M. Meyers and J. Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity: The Social and Historical Setting of Palestinian Judaism and Christianity ; H. A. Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation ; M. Shermis, Jewish-Christian Relations: An Annotated Bibliography and Resource Guide ; M. H. Tanenbaum, M. R. Wilson, and A. J. Rudin, eds., Evangelicals and Jews in Conversation ; R. de Vaux, Translating and Understanding the Old Testament .

JEWS.—This term, originally perhaps applied only to men of the tribe of Judah, ‘men of Judaea,’ is employed in the Gospels (1) in opposition to Gentiles, proselytes, or Samaritans: Mark 7:3, John 2:6; John 2:13; Mark 7:3-4,7; John 4:22; John 5:1; John 6:4; John 7:2; John 19:40; John 19:42; (2) specially of Jews as antagonistic to our Lord, a usage which is characteristic of Jn. as distinguished from the Synoptics: Matthew 28:15, John 6:41; John 6:52; John 8:48-57; John 9:18; John 10:19; John 11:19; John 11:31; John 11:33; John 11:36; John 12:9; John 12:11. On the inferences that have been drawn from this usage as to the authorship and date of the Fourth Gospel, see art. John (Gospel of). ‘The Jews’ in this sense were blind followers of the Pharisees, and bitter opponents of Christ. Scrupulous about all the practices sanctioned by the elders,—washing of hands, of cups and pots and brazen vessels, Sabbath observance, etc. (1618448567_24 John 5:10 etc.),—they had forsaken the ‘old paths’ trodden by their fathers, and the things commanded by God. ‘For fear of the Jews’ men hesitated to confess Christ (John 7:13; John 9:22). For customs of the Jews see art. Social Life. See also artt. Israel and Jerusalem. Literature.—Westcott, Gospel of St. John, Introd. p. viii ff.; Andrews, Life of our Lord ^[1], p. 470; Fairbairn, Studies in the Life of Christ, ch. x. J. Soutar.

KING OF THE JEWS.—See preceding art., Divinity of Christ (p. 477b), Names and Titles of Christ.

Originally, a Jew was a member of the state of Judah during the period of the division of Israel into two nations: Judah and Israel. It became a common reference from the 8th century B.C. Today it is used of adherents of the Jewish religion.

A name derived from the patriarch Judah, and given to the descendants of Abraham by his eldest son Isaac. We shall here present the reader with as comprehensive a view of this singular people as we Song of Solomon 1:1-17 . Jews, history of the. The Almighty promised Abraham that he would render his seed extremely numerous: this promise began to be fulfilled in Jacob's twelve sons. In about two hundred and fifteen years they increased in Egypt from seventeen to between two and three millions, men, women, and children. While Joseph lived, they were kindly used by the Egyptian monarchs; but soon after, from a suspicion that they would become too strong for the natives, they were condemned to slavery; but the more they were oppressed, the more they grew. The midwives, and others, were therefore ordered to murder every male infant at the time of its birth; but they, shifting the horrible task, every body was then ordered to destroy the male children wherever they found them. After they had been thus oppressed for about one hundred years, and on the very day that finished the four hundred and thirtieth year from God's first promise of a seed to Abraham, and about four hundred years after the birth of Isaac, God, by terrible plagues on the Egyptians, obliged them to liberate the Hebrews under the direction of Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh pursued them with a mighty army; but the Lord opened a passage for them through the Red Sea; and the Egyptians, in attempting to follow them, were drowned. After this, we find them in a dry and barren desert, without any provision for their journey; but God supplied them with water from a rock, and manna and quails from heaven. A little after, they routed the Amalekites, who fell on their rear. In the wilderness God delivered them the law, and confirmed the authority of Moses. Three thousand of them were cut off for worshipping the golden calf; and for loathing the manna, they were punished with a month's eating of flesh, till a plague brake out among them; and for their rash belief of the ten wicked spies, and their contempt of the promised land, God had entirely destroyed them, had not Moses's prayers prevented. They were condemned, however, to wander in the desert till the end of forty years, till that whole generation, except Caleb and Joshua, should be cut off by death. Here they were often punished for their rebellion, idolatry, whoredom, &c. God's marvellous favours, however were still continued in conducting and supplying them with meat; and the streams issuing from the rock Meribah, followed their camp about thirty-nine years, and their clothes never waxed old. On their entrance into Canaan, God ordered them to cut off every idolatrous Canaanite; but they spared vast numbers of them, who enticed them to wickedness, and were sometimes God's rod to punish them. For many ages they had enjoyed little prosperity, and often relapsed into awful idolatry, worshipping Baalim, Ashtaroth. Micah and the Danites introduced it not long after Joshua's death. About this time the lewdness of the men of Gibeah occasioned a war of the eleven tribes against their brethren of Benjamin: they were twice routed by the Benjamites, and forty thousand of them were slain. In the third, however, all the Benjamites were slain, except six hundred. Vexed for the loss of a tribe, the other Hebrews provided wives for these six hundred, at the expense of slaying most of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead. There relapses into idolatry also brought on them repeated turns of slavery from the heathen among or around them. See books of Judges and Samuel. Having been governed by judges for about three hundred and forty years, after the death of Joshua they took a fancy to have a king. Saul was their first sovereign, under whose reign they had perpetual struggles with the Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines. After about seven years' struggling between the eleven tribes that clave to Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and the tribe of Judah, which erected themselves into a kingdom under David, David became sole monarch. Under him they subdued their neighbours, the Philistines, Edomites, and others; and took possession of the whole dominion which had been promised them, from the border of Egypt to the banks of the Euphrates. Under Solomon they had little war: when he died, ten of the Hebrew tribes formed a kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim, for themselves, under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in opposition to the kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, ruled by the family of David. The kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had never so much as one pious king: idolatry was always their established religion. The kingdom of Judah had pious and wicked sovereigns by turns, though they often relapsed into idolatry, which brought great distress upon them. See books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Not only the kingdom of Israel, but that of Judah, was brought to the very brink of ruin after the death of Jehoshaphat. After various changes, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse, the kingdom of Israel was ruined, two hundred and fifty-four years after its erection, by So, king of Egypt, and Halmanaser, king of Assyria, who invaded it, and destroyed most of the people. Judah was invaded by Sennacherib; but Hezekiah's piety, and Isaiah's prayer, were the means of their preservation: but under Manasseh, the Jews abandoned themselves to horrid impiety: for which they were punished by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who invaded and reduced the kingdom, and carried Manasseh prisoner to Babylon. Manasseh repented, and the Lord brought him back to his kingdom where he promoted the reformation; but his son Amon defaced all. Josiah, however, again promoted it, and carried it to a higher pitch than in the reigns of David and Solomon. After Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, the people returned to idolatry, and God gave them up to servitude to the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. The fate of their kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jechoiachin, and Zedekiah, was unhappy. Provoked by Zedekiah's treachery, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the kingdom, murdered vast numbers, and reduced them to captivity. Thus the kingdom of Judah was ruined, A. M. 3416, about three hundred and eighty-eight years after its division from that of the ten tribes. In the seventieth year from the begun captivity, the Jews, according to the edict of Cyrus, king of Persia, who had overturned the empire of Chaldea, returned to their own country. See Nehemiah, Ezra. Vast numbers of them, who had agreeable settlements, remained in Babylon. After their return they rebuilt the temple and city of Jerusalem, put away their strange wives, and renewed their covenant with God. About 3490, or 3546, they escaped the ruin designed them by Haman. About 3653, Darius Ochus, king of Persia, ravaged part of Judea, and carried off a great many prisoners. When Alexander was in Canaan, about 3670, he confirmed to them all their privileges; and, having built Alexandria, he settled vast numbers of them there. About fourteen years after, Ptolemy Lagus, the Greek king of Egypt, ravaged Judea, and carried one hundred thousand prisoners to Egypt, but used them kindly, and assigned them many places of trust. About eight years after, he transported another multitude of Jews to Egypt, and gave them considerable privileges. About the same time, Seleucus Nicator, having built about thirty new cities in Asia, settled in them as many Jews as he could; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, of Egypt, about 3720, bought the freedom of all the Jew slaves in Egypt. Antiochus Epiphanes, about 3834, enraged with them for rejoicing at the report of his death, and for the peculiar form of their worship, in his return from Egypt, forced his way into Jerusalem, and murdered forty thousand of them; and about two years after he ordered his troops to pillage the cities of Judea, and murder the men, and sell the women and children for slaves. Multitudes were killed, and ten thousand prisoners carried off; the temple was dedicated to Olympius, an idol of Greece, and the Jews exposed to the basest treatment. Mattathias, the priest, with his sons, chiefly Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who were called Maccabees, bravely fought for their religion and liberties. Judas, who succeeded his father about 3840 gave Nicanor and the king's troops a terrible defeat, regained the temple, and dedicated it anew, restored the daily worship, and repaired Jerusalem, which was almost in a ruinous heap. After his death, Jonathan and Simon, his brethren, successively succeeded him; and both wisely and bravely promoted the welfare of the church and state. Simon was succeeded by his son Hircanus, who subdued Idumea, and reduced the Samaritans. In 3899 he was succeeded by his son Janneus, who reduced the Philistines, the country of Moab, Ammon, Gilead, and part of Arabia. Under these three reigns alone the Jewish nation was independent after the captivity. After the death of the widow of Jameus, who governed nine years, the nation was almost ruined with civil broils. In 3939, Aristobulus invited the Romans to assist him against Hircanus, his elder brother. The country was quickly reduced, and Jerusalem took by force; and Pompey, and a number of his officers, pushed their way into the sanctuary, if not into the Holy of Holies, to view the furniture thereof. Nine years after, Crassus the Roman general, pillaged the temple of its valuables. After Judea had for more than thirty years been a scene of ravage and blood, and twenty-four of which had been oppressed by Herod the Great, Herod got himself installed in the kingdom. About twenty years before our Saviour's birth, he, with the Jews' consent began to build the temple. About this time the Jews had hopes of the Messiah; and about A. M. 4000, Christ actually came, whom Herod (instigated by the fear of losing his throne) sought to murder. The Jews, however, a few excepted, rejected the Messiah, and put him to death. The sceptre was now wholly departed from Judah; and Judea, about twenty-seven years before, reduced to a province. The Jews since that time, have been scattered, contemned, persecuted, and enslaved among all nations, not mixed with any in the common manner, but have remained as a body distinct by themselves. 2. Jews, sentiments of. The Jews commonly reckon but thirteen articles of their faith. Maimonides, a famous Jewish rabbi, reduced them to this number when he drew up their confession about the end of the eleventh century, and it was generally received. All the Jews are obliged to live and die in the profession of these thirteen articles, which are as follow: 1. That God is the creator of all things; that he guides and supports all creatures: that he has done every thing; and that he still acts, and shall act during the whole eternity. 2. That God is one: there is no unity like his. He alone hath been, is, and shall be eternally our God. 3. That God is incorporeal, and cannot have any material properties; and no corporeal essence can be compared with him. 4. That God is the beginning and end of all things, and shall eternally subsist. 5. That God alone ought to be worshipped, and none beside him is to be adored. 6. That whatever has been taught by the prophets is true. 7. That Moses is the head and father of all contemporary doctors, of those who lived before or shall live after him. 8. That the law was given by Moses. 9. That the law shall never be altered, and that God will give no other. 10. That God knows all the thoughts and actions of men. 11. That God will regard the works of all those who have performed what he commands, and punish those who have transgressed his laws. 12. That the Messiah is to come, though he tarry a long time. 13. That there shall be a resurrection of the dead when God shall think fit. The modern Jews adhere still as closely to the Mosaic dispensation, as their dispersed and despised condition will permit them. Their service consists chiefly in reading the law in their synagogues, together with a variety of prayers. They use no sacrifices since the destruction of the temple. They repeat blessings and particular praises to God, not only in their prayers, but on all accidental occasions, and in almost all their actions. They go to prayers three times a day in their synagogues. Their sermons are not made in Hebrew, which few of them now perfectly understand, but in the language of the country where they reside. They are forbidden all vain swearing, and pronouncing any of the names of God without necessity. They abstain from meats prohibited by the Levitical law; for which reason, whatever they eat must be dressed by Jews, and after a manner peculiar to themselves. As soon as a child can speak, they teach him to read and translate the Bible into the language of the country where they live. In general they observe the same ceremonies which were practised by their ancestors in the celebration of the passover. They acknowledge a two-fold law of God, a written and an unwritten one; the former is contained in the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; the latter they pretend, was delivered by God to Moses, and handed down from him by oral tradition, and now to be received as of equal authority with the former. They assert the perpetuity of their law, together with its perfection. They deny the accomplishment of the prophecies in the person of Christ; alleging that the Messiah is not yet come, and that he will make his appearance with the greatest worldly pomp and grandeur, subduing all nations before him, and subjecting them to the house of Judah. Since the prophets have predicted his mean condition and sufferings, they confidently talk of two Messiahs; one Ben-Ephraim, whom they grant to be a person of a mean and afflicted condition in this world; and the other Ben-David, who shall be a victorious and powerful prince. The Jews pray for the souls of the dead, because they suppose there is a paradise for the souls of good men, where they enjoy glory in the presence of God. They believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented in hell with fire and other punishments; that some are condemned to be punished in this manner for ever, while others continue only for a limited time; and this they call purgatory, which is not different from hell in respect of the place, but of the duration. They suppose no Jew, unless guilty of heresy, or certain crimes specified by the rabbins, shall continue in purgatory above a twelvemonth; and that there are but few who suffer eternal punishment. Almost all the modern Jews are Pharisees, and are as much attached to tradition as their ancestors were; and assert that whoever rejects the oral law deserves death. Hence they entertain an implacable hatred to the Caraites, who adhere to the text of Moses, rejecting the rabbinistical interpretation. See CARAITES. There are still some of the Sadducees in Africa, and in several other places; but they are few in number: at least there are but very few who declare openly for these opinions. There are to this day some remains of the ancient sect of the Samaritans, who are zealous for the law of Moses, but are despised by the Jews, because they receive only the Pentateuch, and observe different ceremonies from theirs. They declare they are no Sadducees, but acknowledge the spirituality and immortality of the soul. There are numbers of this sect at Gaza, Damascus, Grand Cairo, and in some other places of the east; but especially at Sichem, now called Naplouse, which is risen out of the ruins of the ancient Samaria, where they sacrificed not many years ago, having a place for this purpose on Mount Genzim. David Levi, a learned Jew, who in 1796 published "Dissertations on the Phrophecies of the Old Testament, " observes in that work, that deism and infidelity have made such large strides in the world, that they have at length reached even to the Jewish nation; many of whom are at this time so greatly infected with scepticism, by reading Bolingbroke, Hume, Voltaire, &c. that they scarcely believe in a revelation; much less have they any hope in their future restoration. 3. Jews, calamities of. All history cannot furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews; rapine and murder, famine and pestilence, within; fire and sword, and all the terrors of war, without. Our Saviour wept at the foresight of these calamities; and it is almost impossible for persons of any humanity to read the account without being affected. The predictions concerning them were remarkable, and the calamities that came upon them were the greatest the world ever saw. Deuteronomy 28:1-68 : Matthew 24:1-51 : Now, what heinous sin was it that could be the cause of such heavy judgments? Can any other be assigned than what the Scripture assigns? 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 . "They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and persecuted the apostles: and so filled up their sins, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost." It is hardly possible to consider the nature and extent of their sufferings, and not conclude the Jews' own imprecation to be singularly fulfilled upon them, Matthew 27:25 . "His blood be on us and our children." At Cesarea twenty thousand of the Jews were killed. At Damascus ten thousand unarmed Jews were killed: and at Bethshan the Heathen inhabitants caused their Jewish neighbours to assist them against their brethren, and then murdered thirteen thousand of these inhabitants. At Alexandria the Jews murdered multitudes of the Heathens, and were murdered in their turn to about fifty thousand. The Romans under Vespasian invaded the country, and took the cities of Galilee, Chorazen, Bethsaida, Capernaum, &c. where Christ had been especially rejected, and murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At Jerusalem the scene was most wretched of all. At the passover, when there might be two or three millions of people in the city, the Romans surrounded it with troops, trenches, and walls, that none might escape. The three different factions within murdered one another. Titus, one of the most merciful generals that ever breathed, did all in his power to persuade them to an advantageous surrender, but they scorned every proposal. The multitudes of unburied carcases corrupted the air, and produced a pestilence. The people fed on one another; and even ladies, it is said, broiled their sucking infants, and ate them. After a siege of six months, the city was taken. They murdered almost every Jew they met with. Titus was bent to save the temple, but could not: there were six thousand Jews who had taken shelter in it, all burnt or murdered! The outcries of the Jews, when they saw it, were most dreadful: the whole city, except three towers and a small part of the wall, was razed to the ground, and the foundations of the temple and other places were ploughed up. Soon after the forts of Herodian and Macheron were taken the garrison of Massada murdered themselves rather than surrender. At Jerusalem alone, it is said, one million one hundred thousand perished by sword, famine, and pestilence. In other places we hear of two hundred and fifty thousand that were cut off, besides vast numbers sent into Egypt to labour as slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews murdered about five hundred thousand of the Roman subjects, for which they were severely punished by Trajan. About 130, one Barocaba pretended that he was the Messiah, and raised a Jewish army of two hundred thousand, who murdered all the Heathens and Christians who came in their way; but he was defeated by Adrian's forces. In this war, it is said, about sixty thousand Jews were slain, and perished. Adrian built a city on Mount Calvary, and erected a marble statue of swine over the gate that led to Bethlehem. No Jew was allowed to enter the city, or to look to it at a distance, under pain of death. In 360 they began to rebuild their city and temple; but a terrible earthquake and flames of fire issuing from the earth, killed the workmen, and scattered their materials. Nor till the seventh century durst they so much as creep over the rubbish to bewail it, without bribing the guards. In the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, there were many of them furiously harassed and murdered. In the sixth century twenty thousand of them were slain, and as many taken and sold for slaves. In 602 they were severly punished for their horrible massacre of the Christians at Antioch. In Spain, in 700, they were ordered to be enslaved. In the eighth and ninth centuries they were greatly derided and abused; in some places they were made to wear leathern girdles, and ride without stirrups on asses and mules. In France and Spain they were much insulted. In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, their miseries rather increased: they were greatly persecuted in Egypt. Besides what they suffered in the East by the Turkish and sacred war, it is shocking to think what multitudes of them the eight croisades murdered in Germany, Hungary, Lesser Asia, and elsewhere. In France multitudes were burnt. In England, in 1020, they were banished; and at the coronation of Richard I. the mob fell upon them, and murdered a great many of them. About one thousand five hundred of them were burnt in the palace in the city of York, which they set fire to, themselves, after killing their wives and children. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries their condition was no better. In Egypt, Canaan, and Syria, the croisaders still harassed them. Provoked with their mad running after pretended Messiahs, Califf Nasser scarce left any of them alive in his dominions of Mesopotamia. In Persia, the Tartars murdered them in multitudes. In Spain, Ferdinand persecuted them furiously. About 1349, the terrible massacre of them at Toledo forced many of them to murder themselves, or change their religion. About 1253, many were murdered, and others banished from France, but in 1275 recalled. In 1320 and 1330, the croisades of the fanatic shepherds, who wasted the south of France, massacred them; besides fifteen hundred that were murdered on another occasion. In 1358 they were totally banished from France, since which few of them have entered that country. In 1291 king Edward expelled them from England, to the number of one hundred and sixty thousand. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, their misery continued. In Persia they have been terribly used: from 1663 to 1666, the murder of them was so universal, that but a few escaped to Turkey. In Portugal and Spain they have been miserably handled. About 1392, six or eight hundred thousand were banished from Spain. Some were drowned in their passage to Africa; some by hard usage; and many of their carcasses lay in the fields till the wild beasts devoured them. In Germany they have endured many hardships. They have been banished from Bohemia, Bavaria, Cologne, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Vienna: they have been terribly massacred in Moravia, and plundered in Bonn and Bamberg. Except in Portugal and Spain, their present condition is generally tolerable. In Holland, Poland, and at Frankfort and Hamburgh they have their liberty. They have repeatedly, but in vain, attempted to obtain a naturalization in England, and other nations among whom they are scattered. 4. Jews, preservation of. "The preservation of the Jews, " says Basnage, "in the midst of the miseries which they have undergone during 1700 years, is the greatest prodigy that can be imagined. Religions depend on temporal prosperity; they triumph under the protection of a conqueror: they languish and sink with sinking monarchies. Paganism which once covered the earth, is extinct. The Christian church, glorious in its martyrs, yet was considerably diminished by the persecutions to which it was exposed; nor was it easy to repair the breaches in it made by those acts of violence. But here we behold a church hated and persecuted for 1700 years, and yet sustaining itself, and widely extended. Kings have often employed the severity of edicts and the hand of executioners to ruin it. The seditious multitudes, by murders and massacres, have committed outrages against it still more violent and tragical. Princes and people, Pagans, Mahometans, Christians, disagreeing in so many things, have united in the design of exterminating it, and have not been able to succeed. The bush of Moses, surrounded with flames, ever burnt, and is never consumed. The Jews have been expelled, in different times, from every part of the world, which hath only served to spread them in all regions. From age to age they have been exposed to misery and persecution; yet still they subsist, in spite of the ignominy and the hatred which hath pursued them in all places, whilst the greatest monarchies are fallen, and nothing remains of them besides the name. "The judgments which God has exercised upon this people are terrible, extending to the men, the religion, and the very land in which they dwelt. The ceremonies essential to their religion can no more be observed: the ritual law, which cast a splendour on the national worship, and struck the Pagans so much that they sent their presents and their victims to Jerusalem, is absolutely fallen, for they have no temple, no altar, no sacrifices. Their land itself seems to lie under a never-ceasing curse. Pagans, Christians, Mohammedians, in a word, almost all nations have by turns seized and held Jerusalem. To the Jew only hath God refused the possession of this small tract of ground, so supremely necessary for him, since he ought to worship on this mountain. A Jewish writer hath affirmed, that it is long since any Jew has been settled near Jerusalem: scarcely can they purchase there six feet of land for a burying-place. "In all this there is no exaggeration: I am only pointing out known facts: and, far from having the least design to raise an odium against the nation from its miseries, I conclude that it ought to be looked upon as one of those prodigies which we admire without comprehending: since, in spite of evils so durable, and a patience so long exercised, it is preserved by a particular providence. The Jew ought to be weary of expecting a Messiah, who so unkindly disappoints his vain hopes: and the Christian ought to have his attention and his regard excited towards men whom God preserves, for so great a length of time, under calamities which would have been the total ruin of any other people." 5. Jews, number and dispersion of They are looked upon to be as numerous at present as they were formerly in the land of Canaan. Some have rated them at three millions, and others more than double that number. Their dispersion is a remarkable particular in this people. They swarm all over the east, and are settled, it is said, in the remotest parts of China. The Turkish empire abounds with them. There are more of them at Constantinople and Salonichi than in any other place: they are spread through most of the nations of Europe and Africa, and many families of them are estabished in the West Indies; not to mention whole nations bordering on Prester John's country, and some discovered in the inner parts of America, if we may give any credit to their own writers. Their being always in rebellions (as Addison observes) while they had the Holy Temple in view, has excited most nations to banish them. Besides, the whole people are now a race of such merchants as are wanderers by profession; and at the same time are in most, if not in all places, incapable of either lands or offices, that might engage them to make any part of the world their home. In addition to this, we may consider what providential reasons may be assigned for their numbers and dispersion. Their firm adherence to their religion, and being dispersed all over the earth, has furnished every age and every nation with the strongest arguments for the Christian faith; not only as these very particulars are foretold of them, but as they themselves are the depositories of these and all other prophecies which tend to their own confusion and the establishment of Christianity. Their number furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible, and their dispersion spreads these witnesses through all parts of the world. 6. Jews, restoration of. From the declarations of Scripture we have reason to suppose the Jews shall be called to a participation of the blessings of the Gospel, Romans 11:1-36 : 2 Corinthians 3:16 . Hosea 1:11 , and some suppose shall return to their own land, Hosea 3:5 . Is. 65: 17, &c. Ezekiel 36:1-38 : As to the time, some think about 1866 or 2016; but this, perhaps, is not so easy to determine altogether, though it is probable it will not be before the fall of Antichrist and the Ottoman empire. Let us, however, avoid putting stumbling- blocks in their way. If we attempt any thing for their conversion, let it be with peace and love. Let us, says one, propose Christianity to them as Christ proposed it to them. Let us lay before them their own prophecies. Let us show them their accomplishment in Jesus. Let us applaud their hatred of idolatry. Let us show them the morality of Jesus in our lives and tempers. Let us never abridge their civil liberty, nor ever try to force their consciences. Josephus's History of the Jews; Spect. No. 495. vol. 4:; Levi's Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion; Buxtorf de Synagoga Judiaca; Spencer de Legibus Heb. Rit.; Newton on Proph.; Warburton's Address to the Jews, in the Dedication of the 2d vol. of his Legation; Sermons preached to the Jews at Berry-street, by Dr. Haweis and others; Basnage's and Orckley's Hist. of the Jews; Shaw's Philosophy of Judiasm; Hartley on Man, vol. 2: prop. 8. vol. 3: p. 455, 487; Bicheno's Restoration of the Jews; Jortin's Rem. on Ecc. Hist. vol. 3: p. 427, 447; Dr. H. Jackson's works, vol. 1: p. 153; Neale's History of the Jews; Pirie's Posth. Works, vol. 1:; Fuller's Serm. on the Messiah.

So called from Judah. The account of this most singular people would form a wonderful history, could it be gathered into one mass of particulars. Mingled, as they now are, with all the known nations of the earth, and yet incorporated with none; carrying with them in their very countenance, customs and manners, one uniform singularity, so as to be known by all, and yet connected with none; despised, hated, persecuted, attached to their own religion, supporting it in spite of all opposition, and pertinacious still to preserve what the most learned of them do not understand; surely they are, as the Lord hath marked them, and as they are designated to be, living evidences of the truth of the gospel. Blessed be God, there is a promise concerning them, which all the faithful in Christ Jesus long to see fulfilled: "The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 59:20)

the appropriate denomination of the descendants of Judah, which soon included under it the Benjamites, who joined themselves to the tribe of Judah, on the revolt of the other ten tribes from the house of David. After the Babylonish captivity, when many individuals of these ten tribes returned with the men of Judah and Benjamin to rebuild Jerusalem, the term JEWS included them also, or rather was then extended to all the descendants of Israel who retained the Jewish religion, whether they belonged to the two or to the ten tribes, whether they returned into Judea or not. Hence, not only all the Israelites of future times have been called Jews, but all the descendants of Jacob, from the earliest times, are frequently so called by us at present, and we speak even of their original dispensation as the Jewish dispensation. The history of this singular people is recorded in the sacred books of the Old Testament; and in place of epitomizing the accounts of the sacred writers, it will be more useful to fill up the chasm between the close of the historical books there contained, and the coming of our Lord. When the kingdom of Judah had been seventy years in captivity, and the period of their affliction was completed, Cyrus, (B.C. 536,) under whom were united the kingdoms of Persia, Media, and Babylon, issued a decree, permitting all the Jews to return to their own land, and to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem. This decree had been expressly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah, who spoke of Cyrus by name, above a hundred years before his birth, as the deliverer of God's chosen people from their predicted captivity. Though the decree issued by Cyrus was general, a part only of the nation took advantage of it. The number of persons who returned at this time was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty, and seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven servants. They were conducted by Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubbabel, frequently called in Scripture Shashbazzar, was the grandson of Jeconias, and consequently descended from David. He was called "the prince of Judah," and was appointed their governor by Cyrus, and with his permission carried back a part of the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out the temple of Jerusalem. The rest of the treasures of the temple were carried thither afterward by Ezra. Joshua was the son of Josedec, the high priest, and grandson of Seraiah, who was high priest when the temple was destroyed. Darius, the successor of Cyrus, confirmed this decree, and favoured the reestablishment of the people. But it was in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, called in Scripture Ahasuerus, that Ezra obtained his commission, and was made governor of the Jews in their own land, which government he held thirteen years: then Nehemiah was appointed with fresh powers, probably through the interest of Queen Esther; and Ezra applied himself solely to correcting the canon of the Scriptures, and restoring and providing for the continuance of the worship of God in its original purity. The first care of the Jews, after their arrival in Judea, was to build an altar for burnt-offerings to God: they then collected materials for rebuilding the temple; and all necessary preparations being made, in the beginning of the second year after their return under Zerubbabel, they began to build it upon the old foundations. The Samaritans, affirming that they worshipped the God of Israel, offered to assist the Jews; but their assistance being refused, they did all in their power to impede the work; and hence originated that enmity which ever after subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans. The temple, after a variety of obstructions and delays, was finished and dedicated, in the seventh year of King Darius, B.C. 515, and twenty years after it was begun. Though this second temple, or, as it is sometimes called, the temple of Zerubbabel, who was at that time governor of the Jews, was of the same size and dimensions as the first, or Solomon's temple, yet it was very inferior to it in splendour and magnificence; and the ark of the covenant, the Shechinah, the holy fire upon the altar, the Urim and Thummim, and the spirit of prophecy, were all wanting to this temple of the remnant of the people. At the feast of the dedication, offerings were made for the twelve tribes of Israel, which seems to indicate that some of all the tribes returned from captivity; but by far the greater number were of the tribe of Judah, and therefore from this period the Israelites were generally called Judaei or Jews, and their country Judea. Many, at their own desire, remained in those provinces where they had been placed by the kings of Assyria and Babylon. The settlement of the people, "after their old estate," according to the word of the Lord, together with the arrangement of all civil and ecclesiastical matters, and the building of the walls of Jerusalem, were completed by Ezra and Nehemiah. But we soon after find Malachi, the last of the prophets under the Old Testament, reproving both priests and people very severely, not for idolatry, but for their scandalous lives and gross corruptions. The Scriptural history ends at this period, B.C. 430; and we must have recourse to uninspired writings, principally to the books of the Maccabees, and to Josephus, for the remaining particulars of the Jewish history, to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Judea continued subject to the kings of Persia about two hundred years; but it does not appear that it had a separate governor after Nehemiah. From his time it was included in the jurisdiction of the governor of Syria, and under him the high priest had the chief authority. When Alexander the Great was preparing to besiege Tyre, he sent to Jaddua, the high priest at Jerusalem, to supply him with that quantity of provisions which he was accustomed to send to Persia. Jaddua refused, upon the ground of his oath of fidelity to the king of Persia. This refusal irritated Alexander; and when he had taken Tyre, he marched toward Jerusalem to revenge himself upon the Jews. Jaddua had notice of his approach, and, by the direction of God, went out of the city to meet him, dressed in his pontifical robes and attended by the Levites in white garments. Alexander, visibly struck with this solemn appearance, immediately laid aside his hostile intentions, advanced toward the high priest, embraced him, and paid adoration to the name of God, which was inscribed upon the frontlet of his mitre: he afterward went into the city with the high priest, and offered sacrifices in the temple to the God of the Jews. This sudden change in the disposition of Alexander excited no small astonishment among his followers; and when his favourite Parmenio inquired of him the cause, he answered, that it was occasioned by the recollection of a remarkable dream he had in Macedonia, in which a person, dressed precisely like the Jewish high priest, had encouraged him to undertake the conquest of Persia, and had promised him success: he therefore adored the name of that God by whose direction he believed he acted, and showed kindness to his people. It is also said, that while he was at Jerusalem the prophecies of Daniel were pointed out to him, which foretold that "the king of Grecia" should conquer Persia, Daniel 8:21 . Before he left Jerusalem he granted the Jews the same free enjoyment of their laws and their religion, and exemption from tribute every sabbatical year, which they had been allowed by the kings of Persia; and when he built Alexandria, he placed a great number of Jews there, and granted them many favours and immunities. Whether any Jews settled in Europe so early as while the nation was subject to the Macedonian empire, is not known; but it is believed that they began to Hellenize about this time. The Greek tongue became more common among them, and Grecian manners and opinions were soon introduced. See ALEXANDER . At the death of Alexander, (B.C. 323,) in the division of his empire among his generals, Judea fell to the share of Laomedon. But Ptolemy Soter, son of Lagus, king of Egypt, soon after made himself master of it by a stratagem: he entered Jerusalem on a Sabbath day, under pretence of offering sacrifice, and took possession of the city without resistance from the Jews, who did not on this occasion dare to transgress their law by fighting on a Sabbath day. Ptolemy carried many thousands captive into Egypt, both Jews and Samaritans, and settled them there: he afterward treated them with kindness, on account of their acknowledged fidelity to their engagements, particularly in their conduct toward Darius, king of Persia; and he granted them equal privileges with the Macedonians themselves at Alexandria. Ptolemy Philadelphus is said to have given the Jews who were captives in Egypt their liberty, to the number of a hundred and twenty thousand. He commanded the Jewish Scriptures to be translated into the Greek language, which translation is called the Septuagint. ( See ALEXANDRIA. ) After the Jewish nation had been tributary to the kings of Egypt for about a hundred years, it became subject to the kings of Syria. They divided the land, which now began to be called Palestine, into five provinces, three of which were on the west side of the Jordan, namely, Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, and two on the east side, namely, Trachonitis and Persia; but they suffered them to be governed by their own laws, under the high priest and council of the nation. Seleucus Nicanor gave them the right of citizens in the cities which he built in Asia Minor and Coelo-Syria, and even in Antioch, his capital, with privileges, which they continued to enjoy under the Romans. Antiochus the Great granted considerable favours and immunities to the city of Jerusalem; and, to secure Lydia and Phrygia, he established colonies of Jews in those provinces. In the series of wars which took place between the kings of Syria and Egypt, Judea, being situated between those two countries, was, in a greater or less degree, affected by all the revolutions which they experienced, and was frequently the scene of bloody and destructive battles. The evils to which the Jews were exposed from these foreign powers were considerably aggravated by the corruption and misconduct of their own high priests, and other persons of distinction among them. To this corruption and misconduct, and to the increasing wickedness of the people, their sufferings ought indeed to be attributed, according to the express declarations of God by the mouth of his prophets. It is certain that about this time a considerable part of the nation was become much attached to Grecian manners and customs, though they continued perfectly free from the sin of idolatry. Near Jerusalem places were appropriated to gymnastic exercises; and the people were led by Jason, who had obtained the high priesthood from Antiochus Epiphanes by the most dishonourable means, to neglect the temple worship, and the observance of the law, in a far greater degree than, at any period since their return from the captivity. It pleased God to punish them for this defection, by the hand of the very person whom they particularly sought to please. Antiochus Epiphanes, irritated at having been prevented by the Jews from entering the holy place when he visited the temple, soon after made a popular commotion the pretence for the exercise of tyranny: he took the city, (B.C. 170,) plundered the temple, and slew or enslaved great numbers of the inhabitants, with every circumstance of profanation and of cruelty which can be conceived. For three years and a half, the time predicted by Daniel, the daily sacrifice was taken away, the temple defiled and partly destroyed, the observance of the law prohibited under the most severe penalties, every copy burned which the agents of the tyrant could procure, and the people required to sacrifice to idols, under pain of the most agonizing death. Numerous as were the apostates, (for the previous corruption of manners had but ill prepared the nation for such a trial,) a remnant continued faithful; and the complicated miseries which the people endured under this cruel yoke excited a general impatience. At length the moment of deliverance arrived. Mattathias, a priest, (B.C. 167,) eminent for his piety and resolution, and the father of five sons, equally zealous for their religion, encouraged the people by his example and exhortations, "to stand up for the law:" and having soon collected an army of six thousand men, he eagerly undertook to free Judea from the oppression and persecution of the Syrians, and to restore the worship of the God of Israel; but being very old when he engaged in this important and arduous work, he did not live to see its completion. At his death, his son, Judas Maccabaeus, succeeded to the command of the army; and having defeated the Syrians in several engagements, he drove them out of Judea, and established his own authority in the country. His first care was to repair and purify the temple for the restoration of divine worship; and, to preserve the memory of this event, the Jews ordained a feast of eight days, called the feast of the dedication, to be yearly observed. Judas Maccabaeus was slain in battle, and his brother Jonathan succeeded him in the government. He was also made high priest, and from that time the Maccabaean princes continued to be high priests. Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers were so successful, by their valour and conduct, in asserting the liberty of their country, that in a few years they not only recovered its independence, but regained almost all the possessions of the twelve tribes, destroying at the same time the temple on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria. But they and their successors were almost always engaged in wars, in which, though generally victorious, they were sometimes defeated, and their country for a short time oppressed. Aristobulus was the first of the Maccabees who assumed the name of king. About forty-two years after, a contest arising between the two brothers, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the sons of Alexander Jaddaeus, relative to the succession of the crown, both parties applied to the Romans for their support and assistance. Scaurus, the Roman general, suffered himself to be bribed by Aristobulus, and placed him on the throne, Not long after, Pompey returned from the east into Syria, and both the brothers applied to him for protection, and pleaded their cause before him, (B.C. 63.) Pompey considered this as a favourable opportunity for reducing Palestine under the power of the Romans, to which the neighbouring nations had already submitted; and therefore, without deciding the points in dispute between the two brothers, he marched his army into Judea, and, after some pretended negotiation with Aristobulus and his party, besieged and took possession of Jerusalem. He appointed Hyrcanus high priest, but would not allow him to take the title of king; he gave him, however, the specious name of prince, with very limited authority. Pompey did not take away the holy utensils or treasures of the temple, but he made Judea subject and tributary to the Romans; and Crassus, about nine years after, plundered the temple of every thing valuable belonging to it. Julius Caesar confirmed Hyrcanus in the pontificate, and granted fresh privileges to the Jews; but about four years after the death of Julius Caesar, Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, with the assistance of the Parthians, while the empire of Rome was in an unsettled state, deposed his uncle Hyrcanus, (B.C. 41,) seized the government, and assumed the title of king. Herod, by birth an Idumean, but of the Jewish religion, whose father, Antipater, as well as himself, had enjoyed considerable posts of honour and trust under Hyrcanus, immediately set out for Rome, and prevailed upon the senate, through the interest of Antony and Augustus, to appoint him king of Judea. Armed with this authority, he returned, and began hostilities against Antigonus. About three years after, he took Jerusalem, and put an end to the government of the Maccabees or Asmonaeans, after it had lasted nearly a hundred and thirty years. Antigonus was sent prisoner to Rome, and was there put to death by Antony. Herod married Mariamne, who lived to be the only representative of the Asmonaean family, and afterward caused her to be publicly executed from motives of unfounded jealousy. Herod considerably enlarged the kingdom of Judea, but it continued tributary to the Romans; he greatly depressed the civil power of the high priesthood, and changed it from being hereditary and for life to an office granted and held at the pleasure of the monarch; and this sacred office was now often given to those who paid the highest price for it, without any regard to merit: he was an inexorable, cruel tyrant to his people, and even to his children, three of whom he put to death; a slave to his passions, and indifferent by what means he gratified his ambition; but to preserve the Jews in subjection, and to erect a lasting monument to his own name, he repaired the temple of Jerusalem at a vast expense, and added greatly to its magnificence. At this time there was a confident expectation of the Messiah among the Jews; and indeed, a general idea prevailed among the Heathen, also, that some extraordinary conqueror or deliverer would soon appear in Judea. In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Herod, while Augustus was emperor of Rome, the Saviour of mankind was born of the virgin Mary, of the lineage of David, in the city of Bethlehem of Judea, according to the word of prophecy. Herod, misled by the opinion, which was then common among the Jews, that the Messiah was to appear as the temporal prince, and judging from the inquiries of the wise men of the east, that the child was actually born, sent to Bethlehem, and ordered that all the children of two years old and under should be put to death, with the hope of destroying one whom he considered as the rival of himself, or at least of his family. He was soon after smitten with a most loathsome and tormenting disease, and died, a signal example of divine justice, about a year and a quarter after the birth of our Saviour, and in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, computing from the time he was declared king by the Romans. See HEROD . Herod made his will not long before his death, but left the final disposal of his dominions to Augustus. The emperor ratified this will in all its material points, and suffered the countries over which Herod had reigned to be divided among his three sons. Archelaus succeeded to the largest share, namely, to Judea Propria, Samaria, and Idumea. Herod Antipas, called Herod the Tetrarch, who afterward beheaded John the Baptist, succeeded to Galilee and Peraea; and Philip, to Trachonitis, and to the neighbouring region of Iturea. The sons of Herod the Great were not suffered to take the title of king: they were only called ethnarchs or tetrarchs. Beside the countries already mentioned, Abilene, which had belonged to Herod during the latter part of his life, and of which Lysanias is mentioned in Luke 3:1 , as tetrarch, and some cities were given to Salome, the sister of Herod the Great, (A.D. 7.) Archelaus acted with great cruelty and injustice; and in the tenth year of his government, upon a regular complaint being made against him by the Jews, Augustus banished him to Vienne, in Gaul, where he died. After the banishment of Archelaus, Augustus sent Publius Sulpitius Quirinus, who, according to the Greek way of writing that name, is by St. Luke called Cyrenius, president of Syria, to reduce the countries over which Archelaus had reigned, to the form of a Roman province; and appointed Coponius, a Roman of the equestrian order, to be governor, under the title of procurator of Judea, but subordinate to the president of Syria. The power of life and death was now taken out of the hands of the Jews, and taxes were from this time paid immediately to the Roman emperor. Justice was administered in the name and by the laws of Rome; though in what concerned their religion, their own laws, and the power of the high priest, and sanhedrim, or great council, were continued to them; and they were allowed to examine witnesses, and exercise an inferior jurisdiction in other causes, subject to the control of the Romans, to whom their tetrarchs or kings were also subject; and it may be remarked that, at this very period of time, our Saviour, who was now in the twelfth year of his age, being at Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary upon occasion of the passover, appeared first in the temple in his prophetic office, and in the business of his Father, on which he was sent, sitting among the doctors of the temple, and declaring the truth of God to them. After Coponius, Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius Gratus, and Pontius Pilate, were successively procurators; and this was the species of government to which Judea and Samaria were subject during the ministry of our Saviour. Herod Antipas was still tetrarch of Galilee, and it was he to whom our Saviour was sent by Pontius Pilate. Lardner is of opinion that there was no procurator in Judea after Pontius Pilate, who was removed A.D. 36, but that it was governed for a few years by the presidents of Syria, who occasionally sent officers into Judea. Philip continued tetrarch of Trachonitis thirty-seven years, and died in the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius. Caligula gave his tetrarchy to Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the great, with the title of king; and afterward he added the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, whom he deposed and banished after he had been tetrarch forty- three years. The Emperor Claudius gave him Judea, Samaria, the southern parts of Idumea, and Abilene; and thus at last the dominions of Herod Agrippa became nearly the same as those of his grandfather, Herod the Great. It was this Agrippa, called also Herod Agrippa, and by St. Luke Herod only, who put to death James, the brother of John, and imprisoned Peter. He died in the seventh year of his reign, and left a son called also Agrippa, then seventeen years old; and Claudius, thinking him too young to govern his father's extensive dominions, made Cuspus Fadus governor of Judea. Fadus was soon succeeded by Tiberius, and he was followed by Alexander Cumanus, Felix, and Festus; but Claudius afterward gave Trachonitis and Abilene to Agrippa, and Nero added a part of Galilee and some other cities. It was this younger Agrippa, who was also called king, before whom Paul pleaded at Caesarea, which was at that time the place of residence of the governor of Judea. Several of the Roman governors severely oppressed and persecuted the Jews; and at length, in the reign of Nero, and in the government of Florus, who had treated them with greater cruelty than any of his predecessors, they openly revolted from the Romans. Then began the Jewish war, which was terminated, after an obstinate defence and unparalleled sufferings on the part of the Jews, by the total destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, by the overthrow of their civil and religious polity, and the reduction of the people to a state of the most abject slavery; for though, in the reign of Adrian, numbers of them collected together, in different parts of Judea, it is to be observed, they were then considered and treated as rebellious slaves; and these commotions were made a pretence for the general slaughter of those who were taken, and tended to complete the work of their dispersion into all countries under heaven. Since that time the Jews have no where subsisted as a nation. 2. JEWS, MODERN. The Jews divide the books of the Old Testament into three classes: the law, the prophets, and the hagiographa, or holy writings. They have counted not only the large and small sections, the verses and the words, but even the letters in some of the books; and they have likewise reckoned which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch, which is the middle clause of each book, and how often each letter of the alphabet occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures. Beside the Scriptures, the Jews pay great attention to the Targums, or Chaldee paraphrases of them. It seems probable that these were written either during the Babylonish captivity, or immediately afterward, when the Jews had forgotten their own language, and acquired the Chaldee of the Targums, at present received by the Jews. The most ancient are that of Onkelos on the law, and that of Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the prophets: the former is supposed to be of greater antiquity than the latter, and it approaches, in simplicity and purity of style, to the Chaldee of Daniel and Ezra. The Targum on the prophets is believed to have been written before the birth of Christ; and, though inferior in respect of style to the Targum of Onkelos, is much superior to any other Targum. The Jews also regard with great veneration, what is called the Talmud. This work consists of two parts: the Mishna, which signifies a second law; and the Gemara, which means either a supplement or a commentary. The Jews suppose that God first dictated the text of the law to Moses, which he commanded to be put in writing, and which exists in the Pentateuch, and then gave him an explication of every thing comprehended in it, which he ordered to be committed to memory. Hence the former is called the written, and the latter the oral, law. These two laws were recited by Moses to Aaron four times, to his sons three times, to the seventy elders twice, and to the rest of the people once: after this, the repetition was renewed by Aaron, his two sons, and the seventy elders. The last month of Moses's life was spent, according to the Jews, in repeating and explaining the law to the people, and especially to Joshua, his successor. A prophet might suspend any law, or authorize the violation of any precept, except those against idolatry. If there was any difference of opinion respecting the meaning of any law or precept, it was determined by the majority. When Joshua died, all the interpretations he had received from Moses, as well as those made in his time, were transmitted to the elders: they conveyed them to the prophets, and by one prophet they were delivered to another. This law was only oral till the days of Rabbi Jehuda, who, perceiving that the students of the law were gradually decreasing, and that the Jews were dispersed over the face of the earth, collected all the traditions, arranged them under distinct heads, and formed them into a methodical code of traditional law; thus the Mishna was formed. It is written in a concise style, chiefly in the form of aphorisms, which admit of a variety of interpretations. On this account, a Gemara or commentary was written by a president of a school in Palestine, which, together with the Mishna, forms the Jerusalem Talmud. The Jews in Chaldea, however, not being satisfied with this Gemara, one of their rabbies compiled another; which, together with the Mishna, forms the Babylonian Talmud. One of the principal branches of modern Judaism is the cabala, the study of which is regarded as the sublimest of all sciences. By the cabala, the Jews mean those mystical interpretations of the Scripture, and metaphysical speculations concerning the Deity, angels, &c, which they regard as having been handed down by a secret tradition from the earliest ages. In the eleventh century, the famous Rabbi Maimonides drew up a summary of the doctrines of Judaism, which every Jew is required to believe, on pain of excommunication in this world, and condemnation in the next. This summary consists of thirteen articles, which he calls foundations or roots of the faith. The articles are as follows: 1. That God is the Creater and active Supporter of all things. 2. That God is one, and eternally unchangeable. 3. That God is incorporeal, and cannot have any material properties. 4. That God must eternally exist. 5. That God alone is to be worshipped. 6. That whatever is taught by the prophets is true. 7. That Moses is the head and father of all contemporary doctors, and of all those who lived before or shall live after him. 8. That the law was given by Moses. 9. That the law shall always exist, and never be altered. 10. That God knows all the thoughts and actions of men. 11. That God will reward the observance, and punish the breach, of the laws. 12. That the Messiah is to come, though he tarry a long time. 13. That there shall be a resurrection of the dead, when God shall think fit. The Jewish religion is, perhaps, more a religion of minute and trifling rites and ceremonies than even the Catholic religion. The minutest circumstances in dressing and undressing, washing and wiping the face and hands, and other necessary actions of common and daily life, are enjoined by the rabbies to be performed exactly according to the prescribed regulations. Their prayers also are numerous, and some of them relate to the most trifling circumstances. Those esteemed the most solemn and imortant are called Shemoneh Esreh or the eighteen prayers, though they actually consist of nineteen, the last having been added against heretics and apostates. They are enjoined to be said by all Jews above the age of thirteen, wherever they may be, three times a day. The members of the synagogue are required to repeat at least a hundred benedictions every day. A son who survives his father is enjoined to attend the nocturnal service in the synagogue every evening for a year, and to repeat the Kodesh, in order that his father may be delivered from hell. This service may be suspended by any person going up to the desk and closing the book. This is not unfrequently done in case of quarrels; and the prayers cannot be renewed till a reconciliation takes place. Nothing is to be undertaken on Friday which cannot be finished before the evening. In the afternoon they wash and clean themselves, trim their hair, and pare their nails. Every Jew, of whatever rank, must assist in the preparation for the Sabbath. Two loaves, baked on the Friday, are set on a table. This is done in memory of the manna, of which a double portion fell on the sixth day of the week. The table remains spread all the Sabbath. Before the sun is set the candles are to be lighted; one, at least, with seven wicks, in allusion to the number of days in a week, is to be lighted in each house. The Talmudical directions respecting the wicks and oil form part of the Sabbath evening service; they are most ridiculously and childishly minute. The lesson appointed for the Sabbath is divided into seven parts, and read to seven persons at the altar. The first called up to hear it is a descendant of Aaron, the second of Levi, the third an Israelite of any tribe; the same order is then repeated: the seventh may be of any tribe. The portion read from the law is followed by a portion from the prophets. There are three services; morning, afternoon, and evening. Of the festivals of the Jews we can mention only a few, and those merely in a cursory manner. The principal are those of the new report, of the passover, of pentecost, of the new year, the fast of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. That the festival of the new moon might be celebrated as nearly as possible on the day of the moon's conjunction with the sun, most of the months contain alternately twenty-nine and thirty days; and the feast of the new moon is held on the first, or on the first and second days of the month. The women are not allowed to work: the men may. Good eating and drinking particularly distinguish this festival. The feast of the passover commences on the fifteenth day of the month Nisan, and continues among Jews who live in or near Jerusalem seven days, and elsewhere eight days. The Sabbath prece

A — 1: Ἰουδαῖος (Strong's #2453 — Adjective — ioudaios — ee-oo-dah'-yos ) is used (a) adjectivally, with the lit. meaning, "Jewish," sometimes with the addition of aner, "a man," Acts 10:28 ; 22:3 ; in Acts 21:39 with anthropos, in some mss. (a man in the generic sense); the best mss. omit the phrase here; in Acts 13:6 , lit., "a Jewish false-prophet;" in John 3:22 , with the word chora, "land" or "country," signifying "Judean," lit., "Judean country;" used by metonymy for the people of the country; (b) as a noun, "a Jew, Jews," e.g., Matthew 2:2 ; Mark 7:3 . The name "Jew" is primarily tribal (from Judah). It is first found in 2 Kings 16:6 , as distinct from Israel, of the northern kingdom. After the Captivity it was chiefly used to distinguish the race from Gentiles, e.g., John 2:6 ; Acts 14:1 ; Galatians 2:15 , where it denotes Christians of Jewish race; it distinguishes Jews from Samaritans, in John 4:9 ; from proselytes, in Acts 2:10 . The word is most frequent in John's Gospel and the Acts; in the former "it especially denotes the typical representatives of Jewish thought contrasted with believers in Christ ... or with other Jews of less pronounced opinions, e.g., John 3:25 ; 5:10 ; 7:13 ; 9:22 " (Lukyn Williams, in Hastings' Bib. Dic.); such representatives were found, generally, in opposition to Christ; in the Acts they are chiefly those who opposed the Apostles and the Gospel. In Romans 2:28,29 the word is used of ideal Jews, i.e., Jews in spiritual reality, believers, whether Jews or Gentiles by natural birth. The feminine, "Jewess," is found in Acts 16:1 ; 24:24 . It also denotes Judea, e.g., Matthew 2:1 ; Luke 1:5 ; John 4:3 , the word "country" being understood ^[1]. In Luke 23:5 ; John 7:1 , where the AV has "Jewry," the RV translates it as usual, "Judea." A — 2: Ἰουδαϊκός (Strong's #2451 — Adjective — ioudaikos — ee-oo-dah-ee-kos' ) denotes "Jewish," Titus 1:14 . B — 1: Ἰουδαϊσμός (Strong's #2454 — Noun Masculine — ioudaismos — ee-oo-dah-is-mos' ) "Judaism," denotes "the Jews' religion," Galatians 1:13,14 , and stands, not for their religious beliefs, but for their religious practices, not as instituted by God, but as developed and extended from these by the traditions of the Pharisees and scribes. In the Apocrypha it denotes comprehensively "the Government, laws, institutions and religion of the Jews." C — 1: Ἰουδαΐζω (Strong's #2450 — Verb — ioudaizo — ee-oo-dah-id'-zo ) lit., "to Judaize," i.e., to conform to "Jewish" religious practices and manners, is translated "to live as do the Jews," in Galatians 2:14 . D — 1: φυτεύω (Strong's #5452 — Verb — ioudaikos — foot-yoo'-o ) "in Jewish fashion," is translated "as do the Jews," in Galatians 2:14 .

The name borne by the Hebrews among foreign nations, especially after the return from Babylon; from Judah their ancestor. See HEBREWS .

or simply THE DISPERSION, was the general title applied to those Jews who remained settled in foreign countries after the return from the Babylonian exile, and during the period of the second temple. At the beginning of the Christian era the Dispersion was divided into three great sections, the Babylonian, the Syrian, the Egyptian. From Babylon the Jews spread throughout Persia, Media and Parthia. Large settlements of Jews were established in Cyprus, in the islands of the AEgean, and on the western coast of Asia Minor. Jewish settlements were also established at Alexandria by Alexander and Ptolemy I. The Jewish settlements in Rome, were consequent upon the occupation of Jerusalem by Pompey, B.C. 63. The influence of the Dispersion on the rapid promulgation of Christianity can scarcely be overrated. The course of the apostolic preaching followed in a regular progress the line of Jewish settlements. The mixed assembly from which the first converts were gathered on the day of Pentecost represented each division of the Dispersion. (Acts 2:9-11 ) (1) Parthians...Mesopotamia; (2) Judea (i.e. Syria)...Pamphylia; (3) Egypt...Greece; (4) Romans..., and these converts naturally prepared the way for the apostles int he interval which preceded the beginning of the separate apostolic missions. St. James and St. Peter wrote to the Jews of the Dispersion. (James 1:1 ; 1 Peter 1:1 )

The Hebrew language, common to the Jews. Rab-shakeh was asked to speak in the Syrian language (the Aramaic); but he, wishing the people of Jerusalem to understand him, spoke in Hebrew. 2 Kings 18:28 ; Nehemiah 13:21 ; Isaiah 36:13 .

The present article is confined to the forcible deportation of the Jew; from their native land, and their forcible detention, under the Assyrian or Babylonian kings. Captives of Israel. --The kingdom of Israel was invaded by three or four successive kings of Assyria. Pul or Surdanapalus, according to Rawlinson, imposed a tribute (B.C. 771 or 712), Rawl.) upon Menahem. ( 2 Kings 15:19 ) and 1 Chronicles 5:26 Tiglath-pileser carried away (B.C. 740) the trans-Jordanic tribes, ( 1 Chronicles 5:26 ) and the inhabitants of Galilee, (2 Kings 15:29 ) comp. Isai 9:1 To Assyria. Shalmaneser twice invaded, (2 Kings 17:3,5 ) the kingdom which remained to Hoshea, took Samaria (B.C. 721) after a siege of three years, and carried Israel away into Assyria. This was the end of the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel. Captivities of Judah .--Sennacherib (B.C. 713) is stated to have carried into Assyria 200,000 captives from the Jewish cities which he took. ( 2 Kings 18:13 ) Nebuchadnezzar, in the first half of his reign (B.C. 606-562), repeatedly invaded Judea, besieged Jerusalem, carried away the inhabitants to Babylon, and destroyed the temple. The 70 years of captivity predicted by Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 25:12 ) are dated by Prideaux from B.C. 606. The captivity of Ezekiel dates from B.C. 598, when that prophet, like Mordecai the uncle of Esther (Esther 2:6 ) accompanied Jehoiachin. The captives were treated not as slaves but as colonists. The Babylonian captivity was brought to a close by the decree, (Ezra 1:2 ) of Cyrus (B.C. 536), and the return of a portion of the nation under Sheshbazzar or Zerubbabel (B.C. 535), Ezra (B.C. 458) and Nehemiah (B.C. 445). Those who were left in Assyria, (Esther 8:9,11 ) and kept up their national distinctions, were known as The Dispersion. (John 7:35 ; 1:1; James 1:1 ) The lost tribes. --Many attempts have been made to discover the ten tribes existing as a distinct community; but though history bears no witness of the present distinct existence, it enables us to track the footsteps of the departing race in four directions after the time of the Captivity. Some returned and mixed with the Jews. (Luke 2:36 ; Philippians 3:5 ) etc. Some were left in Samaria, mingled with the Samaritans, (Ezra 6:21 ; John 4:12 ) and became bitter enemies of the Jews. Many remained in Assyria, and were recognized as an integral part of the Dispersion; see (Acts 2:1 ; 26:7 ) Most, probably, apostatized in Assyria, adopted the usages and idolatry of the nations among whom they were planted, and became wholly swallowed up in them.