DISPERSION - The name (Gr. Diaspora) given to the Jewish communities outside Palestine (2 Mac.1.27, Jn.7.35, Ja.1.1, 1 P.1.1). The word is derived from diaspeiro, to scatter, which is used in the LXX for the ultimate degree of God's punishment of disobedient Israel (e.g. Lv.26.33). It is not a merely geographical term, but means separation from the unity of the nation in the holy land, and suffering among the Gentiles. In Jewish eschatology the regathering of the people and their restoration to the country chosen for them by God was a constant feature (e.g. Is.11.12, 56.8).
It is uncertain when the establishment of non-Palestinian Jewish communities began. It appears from 1 K.20.34 that an Israelitish colony was established in Damascus in the reign of Ahab. In the 8th cent. Tiglath-pileser III. carried many Israelites captive to Assyria (2 K.15.29) and Sargon transported from Samaria 27,290 Hebrews (cf KIB ii, 55), and settled them in Mesopotamia and Media (2 K.17.6). Probably they were absorbed and thus lost to Israel.
The real Dispersion began with the Babylonian Exile. Nebuchadrezzar transplanted to Babylonia the choicest of the Judaean population (2 K.24.12-16, 25.11, Jer.52.15). Probably 50,000 were transported, and Jewish communities were formed in Babylonia at many points, as at Tel-abib (Ezk.3.15) and Casiphia (Ezr.8.17). Here the Jewish religion was maintained, prophets like Ezekiel and priests like Ezra sprang up, the old laws were studied and worked over, the Pentateuch elaborated, and from this centre the Jews radiated to many parts of the East (Neh.1.1ff, To.1.9-22, Is.11.11). Thus the Jews reached Media, Persia, Cappadocia, Armenia, and the Black Sea. Only a few of these Babylonian Jews returned to Palestine. They maintained the Jewish communities in Babylonia till about AD 1000. Here, in the 5th cent. of the Christian era, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled.
In 608 BC, Necho took king Jehoahaz and probably others to Egypt. In this general period colonies of Jews were living at Memphis, Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Pathros in Egypt (Jer.44.1). The Aswan Papyri prove the existence of a large Jewish colony and a Jewish temple at the First Cataract, in the 5th cent. BC. Other Jews seem to have followed Alexander the Great to Egypt (Jos. BJ ll. xviii. 8 [494 ff]; c. Apion. ii. 4 [33 f]). Many others migrated to Egypt under the Ptolemies (Ant. xii. i. 1 [7] ; ii. 1 ff [11 ff]). Philo estimated the number of Jews in Egypt in the reign of Caligula (AD 38-41) at a million (In Flac. 6 [43]).
Josephus states that Seleucus i. (312-280 BC) gave the Jews rights in all the cities founded by him in Syria and Asia (Ant. xii. iii. 1 [119]). This has been doubted by some, who suppose that the spread of Jews over Syria occurred after the Maccabaean uprising (168-143 BC). At all events by the 1st cent. BC Jews were in all this region, as well as in Greece and Rome, in the most important centres about the Mediterranean, and had also penetrated to Arabia (Ac.2.11).
At Leontopolis in Egypt, Onias iii., the legitimate Aaronic high priest, who had left Palestine because he hated Antiochus iv., founded a temple about 170 BC, as a fulfilment of Is.19.19; this temple was destroyed in AD 73. It had little importance. With few exceptions the Dispersion was loyal to the religion of the home land. Far removed from the Temple, they developed in the synagogue a spiritual worship without sacrifice, which, after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, kept Judaism alive. All Jews paid the annual half-shekel tax for the support of the Temple cultus, and at the great feasts they made pilgrimages to Jerusalem from all parts of the world (Ac.2.10f). They soon lost the use of Hebrew, and had the Greek translation - the Septuagint - made for their use. Contact with the world gave some of them a broader outlook than the Palestinian Jews, and they tried to express the fundamental ideas of their religion in forms appealing to adherents of Greek and Roman philosophy. Through the Diaspora, Judaism exerted a great influence upon its surroundings and paved the way for Christianity. On the other hand, it aroused hostile feelings among Gentiles, as may be seen in the writings of several classical authors (e.g. Tacitus); this antagonism sometimes exploded into pogroms, as in Alexandria in AD 36 and in Antioch at the beginning of the Jewish revolt in AD 67. On the whole, Roman legislation was favourably disposed toward the Jews. The scattering of the Jews after AD 70 was not spoken of as a 'dispersion'; instead, it was described as a new Exile. The term Diaspora was taken over by the Christians as an image of the Church (Ja.1.1, 1 P.1.11). [Article: Dictionary of the Bible, J.Hastings, 2nd Ed., T&T.Clark, 1963. - G.A.B. - W.C.v.U.]