DISPERSION, THE (of the Jews), Acaolropd (2 Maccab. i. 27 ; Jam. i. I ; I Pet. i. I ; John vii.
35 ; Joseph. Antiy. xii. I. 3, etc.; LXX. for r65 1116 [11:3 which it also renders ciroucia, nerouccaia, is the collective name given to all those descendants of the twelve tribes (Jam. i. I ; r, SwSendcpuXop, Acts xxvi. 7) who lived without the confines of Palestine (au, Cor. v. 13, etc., }'-IN, i I11n, c+ri nano, Mishna, Talmud) during the time of the second temple. The number of exiles, mostly of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin (Ezra i. 5, etc.), who availed themselves of the permission of Cyrus to return from their captivity in Babylon to the land of their fathers, scarcely exceeded, if indeed it reached, the number of 50,000 [the total stated both in Ezra and Nehemiah is, exclusive of the slaves, 42,360 ; but the sum of the items given—with slight differences—in both documents, falls short of 30,000]. Old Jewish authorities see in this surplus Israelites of the ten tribes (cf. Seder Olam Rabbah, ch. 29), and among these few but the lowest and humblest, or such as had yielded to force, were to be found (cf. Mishna Kidushin iv. 1. ; Gem. lxxi. 1). The great bulk of the nation remained scattered over the wide dominions of the Persian empire, preferring the new homes in which they enjoyed all the privileges of native born subjects, and where they had in many cases acquired wealth and honours, to the dangers and difficulties of a recolonization of their for mer country. But while, by the hands of the de spised minority who had bravely gone forth, was to be recreated not only the temple, the visible centre of Judaism, but also the still more &pos ing and important edifice of the Jewish law and Jewish culture, to the much larger section which remained behind and gradually diffused itself over the whole of the then known world, it was given to participate in the intellectual life and the pro gress in civilization of all the nations with whom their lot was cast. To the dispersion is thus due the cosmopolitan element in Judaism which has added so vastly not only to its own strength and durability, but also, geographically at least, to the rapid spread of Christianity. So far, however, from the dispersion paving the way for the new faith by relaxing the rigour of Jewish law, written or oral—as has been assumed by some—one of the strongest ties by which these voluntary exiles were bound to Palestine and Jerusalem consisted in the very regulations and decisions on all ritual and legal points which they received from the supreme religious authorities, either brought back by their own delegates, or transmitted to them by special messengers from the Central Court, the Syne drium (Acts xxviii. 21). Generally, it might be
said of the whole diaspora, as Philo (c. Flare. sec. 7) said of that of Egypt : that while they looked upon the country in which they had been born and bred as their home, still they never ceased, so long as the temple stood, to consider Jerusalem as the spiritual metropolis to which their eyes and hearts were directed. Many were the pilgrimages undertaken thither from their far distant lands (Acts ii. 5, 941 ; Joseph. Bell. 7ud. vi. 9. 3, etc.) The Talmud, rer. Msg. iii. 75 (cf. Tos. Meg. c. 2), speaks of no less than 38o synagogues in Jerusalem, besides the temple, all belonging to different communities of the dispersion (cf. also Acts vi. 9). Abundant and far exceeding the normal tax of half a shekel (Shek. vii. 4), were the gifts they sent regularly for the support of the holy place (gold instead of silver and copper, Tos. Shek. c. 2), and still more liberal were the mone tary equivalents for sacrifices, propitiatory offerings [xlrpa, Philo], for vows, etc., which flowed from ail countries into the sacred treasury. The Syne drium again regulated the year, with all its sub divisions, throughout the wide circle of the dis penion ; the fact that the commencement of the new month had been officially recognised being announced either by beacon-fires to the adjoining countries, or by messengers to places more re mote. That, in general, there existed, as far as circumstances permitted, an uninterrupted inter course between the Jews abroad and those in Palestine, cannot be doubted. Probably, owing to this very connection, two foreign academies only seem to have existed during the time of the second temple ; the youth of the dispersion naturally preferring to resort to the fountain-head of learn ing and religious instruction in the Holy City. The final destruction of the temple and Jerusalem was thus a blow hardly less sensibly felt by the dis persion than by their brethren of Jerusalem them selves. From that time forward no visible centre bound the widely-scattered members of the Jewish nation together ; nothing remained to them but common memories, common hopes, and a com mon faith.