What empires would have a hand in the destiny of the Jewish people?

Answer 1

The Roman Empire, by starting the Diaspora of the Jews (their exile and dispersion all over the empire's territories) after the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70; and the British Empire, by promising the Jews a homeland in Palestine in the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

The facts presented above are true, however, there are two more empires that had an affect on Judea and the ancient Jewish people. Namely the Persian Empire and following the Persians was Alexander the Great's brief empire.

Cyrus of Persia encouraged the Jewish people attend to their own affairs although Judea was still a part of his empire.

Alexander the great conquered the area of Judea however his reign was cut short due to his premature death. This was unfortunate as the Greeks who took over what had been part of Alexander's empire. Their culture was most offensive to Judea. In around 168 BC BCE, the Seleucid king Antiochus 4th desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem. This touched off a revolt and Judea was free once more.

It should also be noted that Judea was often caught up in the wars of adjoining ancient empires. Between the powers that led Egypt and those of Syria were constantly interfering in Jewish life. As one example of the turmoil this caused, the city of Jerusalem changed hands 7 times between 319 & 319 BC BCE.

To a certain degree the Middle East saw small groups of Jews moving to better and safer parts of the Middle East before ancient Rome became an influence in Judea.