What does the ancient Roman historian Tacitus say about the origins of the Jewish people?

Answer 1

Tacitus mentioned several theories according to which the Jews: were fugitives from Crete; they left Egypt led by Hierosolymus and Judas because of overpopulation; they were Assyrian hordes who left in search of new territories and founded town in Judea, taking this land form the Egyptians; they were Ethiopians who were driven away from their neighbours and needed a new place; they were the Solymi, a people celebrated in the poem of Homer.

Tacitus also noted that: "Most writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease, which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this race detested by the gods."

Answer 2

Tacitus was a virulent anti-Semite. He spews the canard that the Jews originated as Egyptian lepers who were expelled from Egypt due to disease (History of Jews V, ch.2). Today we can expose this for the falsehood that it is, since DNA analysis shows that Jews were not Egyptians.
Not satisfied with that, he writes that "the Jews are the most lewd nation on Earth," despite his own admission that "the Jews will not corrupt foreign women." He also claims that the Jews "are taught to have their parents, children and brethren in the utmost contempt" (ibid.), despite the Jewish Torah being one of the major sources of Western morality. See also: Jewish origins