The current nation of Israel is still largely made up of the original southern kingdom of Judah, while the tribes of the northern kingdom remain scattered.
Judah, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, descended from Judah, who was the fourth son born to Jacob and his first wife, Leah. It is disputed whether the name Judah was originally that of the tribe or the territory it occupied and which was transposed from which.
Babylonian Captivity, also called Babylonian Exile, the forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following the latter's conquest of the kingdom of Judah in 598/7 and 587/6 bce.
They were named Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun—all sons or grandsons of Jacob. In 930 bc the 10 tribes formed the independent Kingdom of Israel in the north and the two other tribes, Judah and Benjamin, set up the Kingdom of Judah in the south.
After the defeat of Pharaoh Necho's army by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim began paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. Some of the young nobility of Judah were taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city wall and the Temple, together with the houses of the most important citizens.
Tribe of Judah
| Map of the twelve tribes of Israel, before the move of Dan to the North. (The text is partially in German.) |
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| Geographical range | West Asia |
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| Major sites | Hebron, Bethlehem |
| Preceded by | New Kingdom of Egypt |
| Followed by | Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) |
Conquered by the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V, they were exiled to upper Mesopotamia and Medes, today modern Syria and Iraq. The Ten Tribes of Israel have never been seen since.
After Herod's death the country was ruled alternately by Herod's direct descendants and by Roman procurators. As a result of the Jewish revolt that broke out in ad 66, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed (ad 70). The name Judaea is still used to describe approximately the same area in modern Israel.
According to the biblical Book of Genesis the patriarch Jacob was given the name Israel (Hebrew: ??????????, Standard Yisraʾel Tiberian Yiśrāʾēl) after he wrestled with the angel (Genesis 32:28 and 35:10). The given name is already attested in Eblaite (??????, išrail) and Ugaritic (??????????, yšrʾil).
3,000 to 2,500 B.C. — The city on the hills separating the fertile Mediterranean coastline of present-day Israel from the arid deserts of Arabia was first settled by pagan tribes in what was later known as the land of Canaan. The Bible says the last Canaanites to rule the city were the Jebusites.
Arabs vehemently opposed the Balfour Declaration, concerned that a Jewish homeland would mean the subjugation of Arab Palestinians. The British controlled Palestine until Israel, in the years following the end of World War II, became an independent state in 1947.
Before Israel became a nation, the majority of people dwelling in the region were Palestinians—Arabs who lived in what was then known as Palestine. On May 14, 1948, Israel was officially declared a state, marking the first Jewish state in over 2,000 years.
Bethlehem lies 10 kilometres south of the city of Jerusalem, in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land. Since at least the 2nd century AD people have believed that the place where the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, now stands is where Jesus was born.
Throughout history, Palestine has been ruled by numerous groups, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians and Mamelukes. From about 1517 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled much of the region.
The First Jewish–Roman War began in the year 66 CE, originating in the Greek and Jewish religious tensions, and later escalated due to anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens.
Galilee, Hebrew Ha-galil, northernmost region of ancient Palestine, corresponding to modern northern Israel. Its biblical boundaries are indistinct; conflicting readings leave clear only that it was part of the territory of the northern tribe of Naphtali.
Rome involved itself in the region's affairs in 63 BCE and, after Augustus became emperor, Palestine became a province known as Roman Judea in c. 31 BCE.
The Biblical name for the region of Bethlehem in the West Bank is Judea, where King David was also born.
After the death of King Solomon (sometime around 930 B.C.) the kingdom split into a northern kingdom, which retained the name Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah, so named after the tribe of Judah that dominated the kingdom.
Herod Antipas, (born 21 bc—died ad 39), son of Herod I the Great who became tetrarch of Galilee and ruled throughout Jesus of Nazareth's ministry. In The Gospel According to Luke (13:32), Jesus is reported as having referred to him with contempt as “that fox.”
The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the region south of Jerusalem, including Gush Etzion and Har Hebron. The region of Samaria, on the other hand, refers to the area north of Jerusalem.
