Approaching the West — Page 64
A pproaching the West—64 and Southern Judah (with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) came under the jurisdiction of Rehoboam. A majority of present day Jews claim their descent from the tribe of Judah. Two hundred years after Solomon’s death, in 722 BCE, the Assyrians conquered the Northern kingdom of Israel that was ruled at that time by an Israeli king named Hoshea. The Assyrians destroyed the Temple built by Solomon, and enslaved the Israelites. They scattered the ten Jewish tribes into the eastern zones such as Persia, Afghanistan, Kashmir and India. In the Jewish tradition, these are called the Ten Lost Tribes. In 587 BCE, the Israelite king Zedekia lost the Southern kingdom of Judah to Babylon. After five more centuries, the Roman Empire emerged, and they started to expand their territories. They annexed Syria in 64 BCE; and next year they conquered Jerusalem. In 37 BCE, Herod was appointed as the king of Judea by the Roman Senate on behest of Mark Antony. Romans annexed Egypt in 31 BCE, and thus the entire Mediterranean area was under their control before the birth of Jesus. According to the Gospels, Jesus (peace be on him) started his ministry after getting baptized by John the Baptist who had been proclaiming the near approach of ‘the Kingdom of Heaven. ’ Jesus claimed to be the awaited Messiah of the Israelites, and as such, he can be considered as the last Khal ī fah in the Mosaic dispensation. However, the majority of Israelites rejected him, because they were expecting a political leader, a king and an army commander like David to lead them to freedom out of the Roman rule. Contrary to their expectations, Jesus initiated a Messianic dispensation, without any political or military struggle against the