![]() ![]() ![]() And the ordinary channels of communication, in conjunction with that tendency to trade which already began to characterize them, would easily bring them to islands such as Cyprus and Rhodes. From hence they would spread into Pamphylia and Galatia, and along the western coasts from Ephesus to Troas. One of Seleucus' successors to his throne, Antiochus the Great, established two thousand families of Jews in Lydia and Phrygia. But in treating of this subject, the great stress is to be laid on the policy of Seleucus, who, in founding Antioch, raised them to the same political position with the other citizens. Jews had settled in Syria and Phoenicia before the time of Alexander the Great. We, however, are more concerned with the coasts and islands of Western Asia. These Hebrew settlements may be followed through various parts of the continental East to the borders of the Caspian and even to China. Thus that great colony of Jews began in Babylonia, the existence of which may be traced in Apostolic times (1Peter 5:13) and which retained its influence long after in the Talmudical schools. In fact, since their condition was not always oppressive, when Cyrus gave them permission to return to their ancestral home the majority remained in Persia. They enjoyed many privileges in this foreign country. About the time of the battles of Salamis and Marathon, a Jew was the minister, another of the Jews the cupbearer, and a Jewess the consort, of a Persian monarch. That the above earliest dispersion was not without influential results may be inferred from these facts. The Kingdom of Judah's (Jews) captivity (tribes of Judah, Benjamin and the Levites) by the Babylonians was completed 137 years later. The first scattering of Israelites (the majority of which we not Jews) began with the Assyrian exile, when natives of Galilee and Samaria (the northern ten tribes of Israel) were carried away by the Eastern monarchs. Like the Highlanders of Switzerland and Scotland, they seem to have combined a tendency to foreign settlements with the most passionate love of their native land. The dispersion of the Jews began early, although their attachment to Judea has always been the same.
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