History and Timeline of Israel and Judah
The Assyrian Captivity of the Joes
Assyria began invading and conquering parts of Israel in 740 BCE where the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and eastern half-tribe of Manasseh were carried captive to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan (I Chronicles 5:26; II Kings 15:29).
The nearly twenty year charge was finished in 722 BCE with the destruction of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom (II Kings 17:3-6). A mere 27,290 captives were deported from Samaria (certainly much less than the number deported in the previous 19 years). It can also be assumed that many Israelites voluntarily fled with Phoenicians to remote allied Phoenician-Israelite settlements via the sea (such as Carthage and Punic cities in Iberia) and to any other region out of reach to the Assyrians because of distance or mutual hostility toward Assyria. Some Israelites of course fled to Judean lands in the south, but this is less likely to have occurred in mass due to hostilities between Israel and Judah and due to the fact that Judah too was being besieged. For more details on the Tyre-Sidon connection, read the article Phoenician-Israelite Colonies.
The Babylonian Captivity of the Jews
About 130 years after Israel’s deportations, Babylon invaded the Southern Kingdom of Judah and took the first captives in 597 BCE. There were two more deportations in 587 and 582 BCE.
After the Persians conquered Babylonia, Cyrus granted the Jews permission to return to their native land and rebuild the Temple in 537 BCE. It is believed that only 40,000 returned, but it is probable many more migrated back home to Judea in later years (the Jewish people would have a home in "Jewdea" for about 600 more years before the Romans would massacre hundreds of thousands in and around 70 CE when they destroyed the Second Temple).
Brief Timeline of Israel (Joseph) and Judah
| Dates | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| c.2050 BCE | Time of Abraham | |
| c.1500 BCE | The Great Exodus (mixed multitude) | |
| c.1011-971 BCE | Time of David and Phoenicia-Israelite Alliance | |
| c.970-960 BCE | First Temple built by Solomon | |
| c.928 BCE | Kingdom of Israel divided into Judah (Jews) and Israel (Joes) | |
| 740-722 BCE | Assyrian Captivity (Joes) | |
| 597 BCE | Babylonian Captivity (Jews) | |
| 537 BCE | Jews return from Babylon and rebuild Second Temple | |
| c.500-400 BCE | First Appearances of Saka/Scythian Peoples | |
| c.300 BCE | Rise of the Parthian Empire east of the Euphrates | |
| c.6-2 BCE | Birth of Yeshua (Jesus) | |
| 70 CE | Roman Destruction of Second Temple (Judah scattered) | |
| 37-100 CE | Life of Flavius Josephus, a Roman/Jewish Historian (Read important quote) | |
| 198-224 CE | Collapse of Parthian Empire (largely populated by Israelite Joes) | |
| 200-800 CE | Great Migration Period - Central Asian epicenter | |
| 652-1016 CE | Kingdom of Khazaria (Caucasus Mountains - Jews and Joes) | |
| 1939-1945 CE | Holocaust - WWII (6 million Jews lost) | |
| 1948 CE | Nation of Israel is Reborn (largely re-populated by Jews) | |
| ???? CE | Joes return from 2700 years of exile | |
| ???? CE | Messiah returns to rule and restore United Kingdom of Israel (Ezekiel 37) | |
Empires who have ruled the Lands of Israel and Judah since the fall of Judah to Babylon
- 586–539 BCE: Babylonian Empire
- 539–332 BCE: Persian Empire
- 332–305 BCE: Empire of Alexander the Great
- 305–198 BCE: Ptolemaics
- 198–141 BCE: Seleucids
- 141–37 BCE: The Hasmonean kingdom in Israel established by the Maccabees, after 63 BCE under Roman supremacy
- 37 BCE–70 CE: Herodian Dynasty ruling Judea under Roman supremacy (37 BCE-6 CE and 41-44 CE), interchanging with direct Roman rule (6-41 CE and 44-66 CE). This ended in the first Jewish Revolt of 66-73 AD, which saw the Temple destroyed in 70 CE.
- 6 CE Census of Quirinius and establishment of Roman Iudaea Province
- 70–395: province of Roman Empire first called Judea, after 135 called Palaestina. In 395 the Roman Empire is split into a Western and an Eastern part.
- 395–638: Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
- 638–1099: Arab Caliphates and subject rulers
- 1099–1187: Crusader states, most notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- 1187–1260: dominated by the Ayyubids of Egypt and Damascus
- 1260–1516: dominated by the Mamluks of Egypt
- 1918–1948: British mandate of Palestine under, first, League of Nations, then, successor United Nations; the Emirate of Trans-Jordan was separated from the rest of Palestine in 1922, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan became independent upon the expiration of the League of Nations Mandate in 1946.
- May 1948 to present: independent State of Israel
