The original designation of tlie Israelitish nation was the Hebrews, by which all the legitimate posterity of
Abraham were known, not only among themselves (Gen, xl,15; Exod.ii,7; iii, 18; v,3; vii, 16; ix, 13; Jonah i, 9 ; comp. 4 j\Iacc. ix — although the name Jew was in later times prevalent ; see the Targum of Jonathan on Exod., ut sup.), but also among foreigners (as the Egyp- tians, (Jen. xxxix, 14; xli, 12; Exod. i, 16; the Philis- tines, 1 Sam. iv, 6,9; xiii, 19; xxix, 3; the Assyrians, Judith xii, 11; and even the Greeks and Romans, see Plutarch, (S'^mpo*'. iv, 5; Appian, Cu-. ii, 71; Pausan. i, 6, 24; V, 7, 3; x, 12, 5; Porphyry, Vit. Pyihag. p. 185; Tacit. Hist, v, 2). See Israelite. After the exile, the title Jews became the usual one (compare 1 Mace, viii), while the term " Hebrews'" fell into disuse, being still applied, however, to the Samaritans (Josephus, yl ai'. xi, 8, (i), or more commonly to designate the vulgar Syro- Chaldec spoken by the Palestinian Jews (comp. Acts ix, 29; Eusebius iii, 24), in distinction from the Hellenists (Acts vi, 1 ; comp. the title of the " Epistle to the He- brews," and see Bleek, Elnleit. in d. Br. a. d. Ilebr. p. 32 sq. ; Euseb. vi, 14). See Hellenist. Yet Paid, who spoke Greek, was appropriately styled a Hebrew (2 Cor, xi, 22 ; Phil, iii, 5) ; and still later the terms Hebrew and Jew were applied with little distinction to persons of Jewish descent (Eusebius, IHst. Ev. ii, 4 ; Philo, iii, 4). See Hebrew, (For a further discussion of these epi- thets, see Gesemua, Gesch.d. Ileb?: S2)rache,9 sq. ; Heng- stenberg, Bileam, p. 207 sq. ; Ewald, Krit. Gramm. p. 3, and Israel. Gesch. i, 334 ; Hoffmann, in the Hall. Ency- clop. II, iii, 307 sq. ; Henke's 3Ius. ii, 639 sq. ; Carpzov, Grit. Sacra, p. 170 sq.)
The history of the Jewish nation previous to the Christian sera, is interwoven with that of their country and capital. See Pai,?:stixe; Jerusalem. During tlie Biblical periods it consists mostly of the narratives of the progenitors and rulers of the people, or of the events that marked its leading epochs. See Auraiiam ; Jacob; jMoses; Joshua; Judges; David; Solomon; JuDAii; Israel; Cai'tivity ; Maccabees; Herod; Jui)^:a. (For further details, sec list of works below,)
1. Strictly speaking, a history of the Jews ought per- haps to commence with the return of the remnant of the chosen people of God from the exile (q. v.), but this portion of their history, down even to the time of their final dispersion, A.D. 135, has already been treated at length in other parts of this work (we refer the reader to the articles Hadrian; Bar-Cocheba; Dispersed; Jerusalem). It was the effort, under the leadership of Bar-Cocheba, to regain their indeiiendence, that brought about a repetition of scenes enacted under Titus, and resulted actually in the depopulation of Palestine. Tal- mud and :\Iidrash (especially Midrash Echa) alike ex- haust e\'en Eastern extravagance in describing the ter- rible consequences that followed the capture by the Ro- mans of the last of the Jewish forts— Either, their great- est stronghold. Tlie whole of Judrea was turned into a desert ; about 985 towns and villages were laid in ash- es ; fifty of their fortresses were razed to the ground ; even the name of their capital was changed to yEIia Capitolina, and they were forbidden to approach it on pain of death; thousands of those who had escaped death were reduced to slavery, and such as could not be thus disposed of were transported into Egypt. " The previous invasions and conquests, civil strifes and op- liressions, persecution and famine, had carried hosts of Jewish captives, slaves, fugitives, exiles, and emigrants into the remotest provinces of the I\Iedo-Pcrsian em- pire, all over Asia Minor, into Armenia, Arabia, Egypt, Cyrene, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy. The Roman con- quest and persecutions completed this worlc of disper- sion;" and thus suddenly scattered abroad into almost every jiart of the empire, in the regions of Mt. Atlas, on both sides of the Pyrenees, on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Po, the Jews were deprived of the bond of con- nection which the possession of a common country only can afford. Their lot henceforth was oppression, pov- erty, and scorn.
Yet even in their utmost depression, their religious
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life assorted, as it has ever done, its supenority over aU the disasters of time. No sooner had the war termina- tctl than, as if risint; from the ruins of the tomb, the Sanhedrim ( q. v.) and the synagogue reappeared. Out of Palestine innumerable conRregations of various sizes ha<l long been cstabhshed; but the late events m Egypt, Cyrenaica, t'yprus, and Jlesopotamia, as well as Pales- tine, would have insured their annihilation but for the religious idiosyncrasy of the people. If but three per- sons were left" in a neighborhood, they would rally at the tryst ing-i>lace of the law. The sense of their com- mon dangers, miseries, and wants bound the Jewish people more closely to one another. A citizen of the world, having no country he could call his own, the Jew nevertheless lived within certain well-defined lim- its, beyond which, to him, there was no world. Thus, though scattered abroad, the Israelites had not ceased to be a nation ; nor did any nation feel its oneness and integrity so truly as they. Jerusalem, indeed, had ceased to be their ca|)i"tal; but the school and the synagogue, and not a Li'vitical hierarchy, now became their impreg- nable citadel, and the law their palladium. The old men, schooled in sorrows, rallied about them the man- hootl that remained and the infancy that multiplied, re- solving that they would transmit a knowledge of their religion to future generations. They founded schools as well as synagogues, until their efforts resulted in the writing of a code of laws second only to that of Moses — a system of traditionary principles, precepts, and cus- toms to keep alive forever the peculiar spirit of Juda- ism (see IJule, Kaniites, p. 59).