The Jewish History of the World - The First Diaspora -- The Greeks

April 5, 2009

Guide to "The Jewish History of the World"

The Jews

The Greeks

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The Romans

The Muslims (setting the stage)

The European Christians

The American Christians

The Jewish History of the World

First Diaspora

Greek Era

Source: The Christian Solution book
Bootstrap of the Greeks

Why Greek and not Babylonian?

European history, as most Christians know history, begins with the Babylonian Captivity; otherwise known as, the Babylonian Exile of the Israelites (Old Testament Jews : OT Jews).

Technically, this section should be "The Jewish Destruction of the Babylonians to regain 'The Promised Land'"; however, no one really cares about the Babylonians.

It is the interplay with the Greeks that is of interest to us today; hence, this section will detail how Greeks were dragged into this Jewish world struggle for existence.

Introduction: The Babylonians

In many respects, Babylonian civilization was the mirror image of Western civilization.

Babylon was created as many years before Christ, as we are living today after Christ; founded by Sargon around 2009 BC to our 2009 AD.
Hammurabi gave civilization the Hammurabi Code as many years before Christ as the years past Christ when we received our Constitution, sometime around 1776 BC to our 1776 AD.
Babylon was destroyed as many years before Christ as Rome was destroyed after Christ, about 500 years
The Babylonian Empire was destroyed about the same time that the Roman Empire was created -- around 500 BC.
Babylon would cause its destruction by making the exact same mistake Rome would make 500 years later -- it would invade Israel.

The beginning of the end:
The Babylonians invade Israel

Babylonian Captivity Timetable

600 BC	Babylon invades Israel	Year 0
597 BC	Jerusalem Captured - 1st deportation	Year 3
586 BC	Revolt - 2nd deportation	Year 4
581 BC	Revolt - 3rd deportation	Year 19
550 BC	Cyrus takes the Medes	Year 50
547 BC	Cyrus takes Lydia and Iona	Year 53
539 BC	Cyrus takes Babylon	Year 61
539 BC	Babylonian Captivity ended	Year 61
539 BC	Cyrus agrees to rebuild Temple	Year 61

Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar had no idea when he decided to invade the Kingdom of Judah around 600 BC, that expanding his thousand-year-old dynasty would be the seed of its destruction.

The Israelites tried to resist, but were unsuccessful and lost Jerusalem in 597 BC, against the far mightier armies of Babylon.

The Book of Jeremiah notes that the leading citizens of the OT Jews were removed in 597 BC with the Temple of Jerusalem partially despoiled. Eleven years later, in 586 BC, a Judean rebellion brought even harsher measures by Nebuchadnezzar, as he totally destroyed the First Temple and razed Jerusalem as punishment, with many Israelites deported from Judah. Finally, a third deportation occurred in 581 BC.

The First Jewish Diaspora

For sixty years, the OT Jews were slaves to Babylonian Kings, in their first Diaspora.

A pittance of time in the thousand-year history of Babylon, but the most important 60-years Babylon would ever know.

The Jews were praying for deliverance; they were in search of a divinely appointed leader, or as they call him, a messiah.

Their prayers would be answered, for they would have their messiah.

Their Messiah? -- Cyrus II of Persia, more commonly referred to as Cyrus the Great.

Behinds-the-scene Story of the First Jewish Diaspora

Few radical changes in history happen by chance.

The Pharisees and Sadducees from all over the Judaic world had groomed Cyrus for power and had plotted with him to overthrow the Babylonian Empire.

A direct confrontation right away would not be successful against the great power of the Babylonians.

First, Cyrus had to gain strength while Babylon was to be destroyed from within.

Behind-the-scene building of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus would first have to build his power by taking the smaller kingdom of the Medes (550 BC) and from the Greeks, he would take the Greek kingdoms of Lydia and Iona (547 BC).

The Greeks were as unaware as anyone that Cyrus was being supported by the remnants of Jewish Pharisees who had escaped Nebuchadnezzar to arrive at Cyrus's Persia, and who were plotting with Cyrus for his triumph over Babylon. They were but an insignificant minority in a country of minorities.

The Greeks had no idea that they were a part of the plan to exact revenge upon Babylon, just 8 years in the future.

Behind-the-scene destruction of Babylon

Meanwhile, Babylonia would be softened from within by the Israelite slaves.

They plotted to undermine the stability and confidence of the Babylonians, by setting each minority against the other within the country, thus making it primed for invasion.

Behind-the-scene conquest of Cyrus the Great against Babylon

Cyrus was now ready.

He easily conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BC. In doing so, he earned the undying gratitude of the OT Jews.

Of course, Cyrus, a Herodian for the Sadducees, would end the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and allow them to go home. That was the entire goal.

Furthermore, Cyrus decree that the OT Jews could begin building the Second Temple in Jerusalem and agreed to pay for it; however, it would not be completed until the reign of Darius the Great. (And who determines who is Great and who is not? -- The Israelites of course.)

Behind-the-scenes Conclusion

The Persians obviously thought they were the victors over the mighty 1,500-year-old empire of the Babylonians.

In truth, Babylonian civilization was destroyed only 60 years after bringing OT Jews into their country.

Three generations of OT Jews was all that was needed to wreck complete and utter havoc on one of the world's truly great civilizations.

The 1st generation -- Years 0-20
The parents were slaves
The 2nd generation -- Years 0-20
The children of slaves learned the language and the customs
The 2nd generation -- Years 20-40
The children entered society and took minor positions of power
The 3rd generation -- Years 40-60
The grandchildren entered society and took major positions of power
The 3rd generation -- Years 40-60
The grandchildren used their power to internally destroy Babylon

As Christians, we of course believe that God had a hand in this as well.

We will see this 60-to-80 year cycle repeat itself throughout history; where only two generations of Jews are required to obtain control over an enemy, followed by two more generations required to complete its utter destruction.

Against the heaviest pounding, steel holds strong, but after years of seemingly unassailable support and protection -- against innocent water -- even steel rusts into oblivion.

Cyrus and Moses were both deliverers from bondage

Thus, Cyrus became the only Gentile in the entire history of the OT and NT Jews to be designated a Messiah -- for to the OT Jews, Cyrus the Great was indeed a divinely appointed leader.

By freeing the Israelites from the Babylonian Captivity, Cyrus of Persia was on the same level as Moses, who had freed the Israelites from Egyptian Captivity.

(In actuality, Muhammad was also considered a Messiah for freeing Jerusalem of Christian control, until around 1492, when Islam lost its hegemony in the world to the Christians. That will change again as Israel is brought into union with the Muslim world surrounding it.)

And, thus began a long and glorious Judeo-Persian history.

The bootstrap of Babylon -- completed!

History after the Babylonian Captivity Ended

Timetable of Greek vs Judeo-Persian Wars

539 BC	Babylonian Captivity ended
539 BC	Cyrus agrees to rebuild Temple
500 BC	Begin Greek Classical Period
500 BC	Greek Ionian Revolt
492 BC	Darius invades; stopped at Marathon
480 BC	Xerxes invades; fights "300" Spartans
432 BC	Start of Peloponnesian civil wars
400 BC	End of Peloponnesian civil wars
336 BC	End Greek Classical Period
336 BC	Philip of Macedonia readies for war
334 BC	Alexander the Great initiates conquest
330 BC	Alexander enters capital of Judeo-Persians
323 BC	Begin Greek Helenistic Period
146 BC	Rome conquers the Greeks
146 BC	End Greek Helenistic Period

Many OT Jews, the ones God favored, returned to the Israeli province of the Achaemenid Empire, but the money-loving Jews stayed behind in Babylon to take advantage of their new extra-special status in the richest, largest, most powerful country the world had ever known up to this point.

After taking Babylon, Cyrus proclaimed himself "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world"... Cyrus' dominions comprised the largest empire the world had ever seen. At the end of Cyrus' rule, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from Asia Minor in the west to the northwestern areas of India in the east.
This Achaemenid Empire is the Judeo-Persian Empire that the Greeks would fight bitterly over the years until Alexander the Great finished it off.

The Judeo-Persian Empire and The Book of Ester

The Jews who stayed behind in Babylon would grow rich and powerful in this Judeo-Persian Empire and as depicted in the Book of Ester, Jewish Pharisees would even have license, granted by the King himself, to slay Persian citizens, or in this case, the former Babylonian citizens who had enslaved them.

That surely would not endear them and their King to the Persian people.

Greek Classical Period

Meanwhile, the Greeks were still not happy with this new Judeo-Persian Empire, which had gobbled up its Lydian and Ionian provinces on the way to freeing the Jews.

The Greco--Judeo-Persian Wars began around 500 BC with a Greek revolt in Ionia against the Judeo-Persians.

By this time, Darius the Great was in command and easily defeated the revolting Greeks.

Darius did not stop at a simple put down of a rebellion under his control however, for he wanted to take the battle to the rest of the Greeks who had assisted in the Ionian rebellion.

In 492 BC, Darius sent his Judeo-Persian Armada across the Bosporus, entering Trace and had reached the plains of Marathon before being stopped -- the same Marathon of Olympic Games fame.

Spartans, tonight we dine in hell!

In 480 BC, in order to avenge his father's defeat by the Greeks, the son of Darius, Xerxes, re-entered Greece to fight the "300" Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Xerxes went on to sack Athens, but was defeated at the Battle of Salamis.

The Book of Ester (as depicted in the recent Hollywood movie, "One Night with the King") had the OT Jewish Sadducees so solidly in control of Persia during the "300" battle that the King himself, Xerxes, had married to the OT Jewish woman Ester and the most trusted adviser of Xerxes was her uncle, OT Jewish Sadducee Mordecai.

These days of the Greco--Judeo-Persian Wars of 500 BC to 450 BC, followed by the Peloponnesian civil wars amongst the Greek city-states of 432 BC to 400 BC, encompass a period in Greek history called the Greek Classical Period. (500BC-336BC)

Alexander the Great

Now, it was time for the Greeks to return the horrors done to them by the Judeo-Persians.

In 336 BC, the Macedonian King Phillip was poised to invade the Judeo-Persian Empire. He felt confident that he could bloody the greatest empire known to man up until that time, but before he could invade, the OT Jews must have sent a team to Greece, for Philip was assassinated.

This assassination may have been what propelled his son, Alexander the Great, to take up his father's mantle so vigorously by deciding to conquer the entire Judeo-Persian Empire in 334 BC.

By 330 BC, Alexander was in Babylon, the greatest and wealthiest city of the world.

The Judeo-Persian Empire had grown quite wealthy on the tribute they collected from the various states under their dominion.

If history is our guide, the OT Jewish Sadducee were among the wealthiest of the wealthy and bitterness against them would be the reason Alexander the Great would be so successful.

The common Persians had no will to fight against Alexander in defense of their leaders who were enslaving and pauperizing them, only so as to further enrich the OT Jews and to keep them in power for more plundering.

Ordinary Persians welcomed Alexander the Great as a liberator from the OT Jews and fought ferociously for him.

Hellenistic Period

To conquer the Judeo-Persian Empire was to conquer the world, so the Years from Alexander's invasion in 323 BC to Rome's invasion in 146 BC, would mark the Hellenistic Period, where Greek culture would be exported to the world.

Alexander must not have known the extent of involvement which the OT Jews had behind-the-scenes in enticing the Judeo-Persians into conquering part of their lands and engaging in two massive invasions of Greece's homeland, because the OT Jews in Jerusalem would also hail Alexander as a "Liberator" and all involved actually believed it.

Or perhaps, these were indeed the righteous OT Jews and they too had felt the heavy-handed influence of the money-grubbing OT Sadducee Jews who remained in the Persian capital of Susa.

But I prefer to believe they were giving the same great performances displayed in the acting skills, which comes as second nature to the NT Jews of today, in order to save their skin and to begin working on bootstrapping the ascendant Greeks who gave way to the ascendant Romans.

So technically, the bootstrap of the Greeks would never occur, as it would be transferred to the Romans who specifically conquered Israel in 146 BC.