![world of life world of life](https://wordoflife.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screenshot-from-2021-05-25-13-38-33-1024x570.png)
![world of life world of life](https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/winter_z_f.jpg)
#World of life series
Beginning in 538 B.C.E., groups of exiles began to return to the Land in a series of waves, though many Jews elected to remain in Babylonia and it remained a center of Jewish life and thought for a thousand years. When Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon he permitted various native peoples, including the Jews, to return home. The Babylonian Exile marked a major turning point in the history of the Jewish people. Thus began the “dispersion” of Jews from the homeland (Greek Diaspora), a phenomenon that continued down to our own time. Later, the southern kingdom (Judah) was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire, which deported much of the Judean population (the Babylonian Exile) and in 587 destroyed Jerusalem and its holy Temple. The population created by the exile and replacement of these peoples eventually came to be known as those whom the New Testament calls the Samaritans, who had a rival holy place: Mt. the northern kingdom (Israel) was crushed by the Assyrians. the monarchy of King David and his son King Solomon emerged. The Hebrews settled the land of Canaan in the late second millennium B.C.E. By Roman times, with the northern Ten Tribes long ago carried away into Assyrian captivity and largely lost to history, it became customary to refer to all those of Hebrew or Israelite ancestry who lived in the Roman Mediterranean world as “Jews,” and to their religious-cultural life as “Judaism.” In one way or the other this diverse “Jewish” culture traces itself back to the Hebrew Bible and the history of the ancient Israelites. “Judaism” in the time of Jesus is more properly designated “Judaisms” as it can include a rich variety of forms and practices that flourished during late Second Temple times (200 B.C.E.-70 C.E.).