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Diaspora

The term "diaspora" refers to the widespread migration or "dispersion" of Jews throughout the Mediterranean, European, and Ancient Near Eastern world in antiquity. The diaspora probably has its roots in the late 8th century B.C.E., during the period in which the nation of Israel was conquered and resettled by the Assyrians (see 2 Kings 17). The Babylonian conquest of Judah also contributed to the dispersion of Jews into Mesopotamia and Egypt (see 2 Kings 18–25).

During the Persian and Hellenistic Periods, that is, in the 6th through 1st centuries B.C.E., Jews began to migrate throughout the ancient world. By the time of the first century C.E., the Jewish diplomat, scholar, and philosopher Philo? of Alexandria could write:

the [Jewish] nation itself [is exceedingly populous], so that it [is] not contained as every other nation [is] by the circuit of the one region which was allotted to it for itself, but [...] I may almost say, it [has] spread over the whole face of the earth; for it is diffused throughout every continent, and over every island, so that everywhere it appears but little inferior in number to the original native population of the country (Legat 214; trans. Yonge).

Philo doubtless exaggerates for dramatic effect, especially since this statement appears in the context of a polemical treatise directed against the memory of Caligula. These words are represented as the political considerations of the Syrian prefect Petronius, when he is concerned about being ordered to set up a statue of Caligula in the temple of Jerusalem (in 40 C.E.). While the statement cannot be used to project actual population figures, one may be certain at least that Philo believes his audience will accept it, based on their own experience, as a fairly reasonable description of the diaspora in the first century C.E. We know from it that the Jews perceived themselves to have migrated everywhere.

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