Jeremiah's Prophecy of the Return of Jews to Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon 605-562 BCE, Conquerer all the lands from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier including Judah.  

Where was Babylon?  Is it Iraq?  It was known in the bible as the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  In Genesis it is regarded as the cradle of humanity and of the scene of the Tower of Babel-man's first revolt against G-d.  Abraham was born in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, but migrated to Canaan where he later fought Amraphel, King of Shinar.  Ur today is in Iraq.
                                                                           

The Assyrians had already attacked Israel in 722 BCE and had led 10 of the 12 tribes away as slaves.  This left the tribe of Judah and some of the Benjaminites .  Then along came the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE and destroyed the 1st Temple built by King Solomon.  This was the period that Jeremiah had been born into.
                                                                         

Jeremiah Painting by Michelangelo

"I will make Myself available to you----the word of HaShem (G-d)----and I will return your captivity and I will gather you in from all the nations and from all the places where I have dispersed you----the word of HaShem----and I will return you to the place from which I exiled you."

This has been now taking place in Israel. It took 2,000 years of patiently waiting.   From 650,000 Jews in 1948 to 6,000,000 today, Jews have been returning to the land of their origins.  The wonderful thing happening is that many from the 10 Lost Tribes from the days of the Assyrian attack back in 722 BCE  are returning, claiming to be from these lost tribes.  As anti-Semitism happens more and more in Europe, those Jews are finding refuge in returning to Israel such as the recent French and Swedish Jews.  Jeremiah saw it all happening.
                                                                           

Priests serving in the Temple of Solomon

Jeremiah lived in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE which would be sometime between 600 to 500 BCE.  He belonged to a priestly family of Anathoth near Jerusalem, and began to make prophecies in 625 BCE.

This means in today's DNA science that he must have had the Y haplotype of J1 and also J2, the Cohen gene.  Cohens were from the brother of Moses, Aaron.  It was Aaron who was chosen by Moses to be the High priest.  His sons were consecrated to the the Priesthood. Today's organization in the synagogue of men are the Cohens and the Levites and the Israelites.  Cohens have certain responsibilities.  What we notice the most is that they are the first to read from the Torah on Shabbat morning.  Then the Levites are called to read and after them, the Israelites.  There are also other responsibilities Cohens and Levites are expected to do.  Scientists have recently found  "indications that the majority of contemporary Jewish priests descend from a limited number of paternal lineages,"  or lines from Aaron.  " We find almost half of Jews today are descended from Aaron, brother of Moses  as they have the Cohen haplogroup gene, J1 and J2."

"Half of today's Kohanim (Jews knowing that they are Cohens in the synagogue) have the haplogroup of J1c3 or (J-P58). The Cohen I know personally is J1  (M267) and matches with J1c3d (L147.1) and J1c3-P58.   15% of the Kohanim today have the haplogroup of J2a (J-M410).  This line goes back a good 3,200 years to 4,200 years ago to Aaron, brother of Moses or his descendants who would have the same Ydna haplogroup but would have had time to pick up a few mutations.."  Therefore, Jeremiah was a Cohen from the priestly line.  Understandably,  he had inherited some special qualities of the gift of prophecy.  

His first prophecies were about scolding the nation of Israel for idolatry practices that he found going on.  After King Josiah's reform in 621 BCE, (637-608 BCE) he warned the nation to keep the covenant then made with G-d.

His prophecies were gloomy, and this aroused bitter resentment, but during the reigns of King Jehoiakim or  originally called Eliakim , depicted by Jeremiah as a tyranical oppressor, and died while Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians in 598 BCE, (608-598 BCE) and King Zedekiah  or originally called Mattaniah (597-586 BCE) , he found, others starting to understand what he was saying and came over to his side.  He then found supporters among leading personalities and priests.  One was Baruch, a member of a prominent family who then joined him as a faithful friend and scribe.  

Jehoiakim 608-598 BCE- was the son of Josiah, made king by Pharaoh Necoh in succession to his brother Jehoahaz.
Jehoiachin 598-597 BCE-  was son of Jehoiakim and reined in 597 BCE, became king during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, lasted for 3 months and 10 days when only 18 years old, then capitulated to Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon.  He had to remain in detention  for a long time.  His original name was either Coniah or Jeconiah.
Zedekiah-597-586 BCE  was the son of King Josiah of 637-608 BCE , and was appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar at age 21 to succeed the exiled  King Jehoiachin.  Because he had conspired with Egypt against Babylon finally, Babylon invaded Judah and captured Jerusalem.  He was put on trial by Nebuchadnezzar, his sons were killed in front of him and  he was blinded by having his eyes put out, then kept in prison until he died.  It's in the Book of Kings II 25 and Jer. 52.

Nebuchadnezzar became King of Babylonia  and took the Babylonian throne in 605 BCE. Jeremiah said he would conquer Judah. Judah was the southern part of Israel that consisted of the land allotted to the tribe of Judah.   The king of Judah then, King Jehoiakim, was upset because this prophecy could have a negative affect on his people, like a self-fufilling prophecy, and so he ordered Jeremiah's arrest.  This caused Jeremiah to go into hiding until the country had actually submitted to Nebuchadnezzar that very next year in 597 BCE.

King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE), Judah's last real king, had admired Jeremiah a great deal, but he hadn't followed his advice.  He went ahead a joined into an anti-Babylonian alliance.  Jeremiah then foretold of Judah's coming defeat and advocated to surrender now.  King Zedekiah put him in prison for that statement for a short period, and then had him consigned to a pit, being saved by Zedekiah's personal regard for him.

After the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar's officials, aware of Jeremiah's pro-Babylonian attitude, accorded him protection.

 At this time, the Governor of Judah was a man named Gedaliah.  He was from a noble Jewish family and was appointed by the Babylonians as the governor.  The population was allowed to remain in Judah after the 586 BCE when the 1st Temple was destroyed.  Gedaliah  set up the seat of his administration at Mizpah.   Then Gedaliah was murdered by the commander,  Ishmael ben Nethaniah.  He and his followers were apparently planning a revolt against Babylon with their neighbors, and the panicky survivors of this attack forced Jeremiah and Baruch to go with them to Egypt where they were going to seek refuge as outlaws.  This slaughter of Gedaliah was tragic because it destroyed any hope of holding a Jewish community together in Judah after the Babylonian conquest.  Jews today have a fast on the day after Rosh ha-Shanah (Tishri 3) to remember the assassination of Gedaliah.

Jeremiah's last recorded prophecy was a condemnation of the Egyptian Jews for their idol-worship.

His subsequent history has been the subject of Jewish and Christian legends.  Jewish tradition says that he was the author of of the Book of Kings in the Bible, and possibly even Lamentations.  Evidently Baruch had taken dictation from Jeremiah and then were put together in the Book of Jeremiah, which was in a section of the Latter Prophets in the Bible.  His book consists of 52 chapters from 1-18,and his prophecies that were mostly from the time of King Josiah;  19-36 that were prophecies and a narrative from many periods mostly from the rein of King Jehoiakim, King Jehoiachin and King Zedekiah; 37-44 which was a historical narrative from the time of Zedekiah to the journey into Egypt;  45-51 that consisted of many prophecies mostly concerning other nations; and 52 that was a recapitulation of the last chapter of  the Book of Kings.

The Book of Jeremiah was edited by Baruch., who was Jeremiah's scribe.  It was Baruch who read the prophecies to the people of Jerusalem (jer. 36.).    There are variant readings between the masoretic text ( is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Tanakh for Rabbinic Judaism) .and the  Septuagint (Greek Translation of the Hebrew) evidence of subsequent re-editing. (The Septuagint Old Testament, because (1) It represents a translation of an older Hebrew text, (2) It includes books not found in the Masoretic text. It's something used by Christians. ) The final  edition has been placed in the 2nd century BCE which would be the time of Roman occupation in Jerusalem.  .

Resource: The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia
 https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/departinghoreb/masoretic-hebrew-vs-septuagint-part-1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ApBbv5j44
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/06/demographics-of-jews-in-israel-and.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2009/08/finally-updated-look-at-y-chromosomes.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-was-really-aarons-lineage-cohen.html

Forty Thousand Surviving the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE: A Population Bottleneck

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

Jewish Slaves led away from Jerusalem in 70 CE forced to carry Temple Loot by Romans 
 The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome.

Did the Romans plot the burning of Jerusalem to coincide with the day the most people would be in harm's way?  This siege of the Jewish capital, Jerusalem began on the very day of the Passover sacrifice to which many thousands of pilgrims had arrived from all parts of the country.  This made the number of besieged people very high. "The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in 66. The siege ended with the sacking of the city and the destruction of its famous Second Temple. " In this first Jewish-Roman War that took place from February to August in the year of 70 CE, the Romans fought with 70,000 soldiers and the Jews had a total of about 40,000 total.  All the fighting Jews were slain.  
                                                                                 

Romans burned down Temple in 70 CE and the city of Jerusalem

Among the people were many from beyond the Euphrates River and other foreign lands.  1,100,000 men perished during the siege.  97,000 were taken captive and sold and of those only 40,000 survived.  All the citizens of Jerusalem and the rest were sold as slaves.  Some were sent into the mines in Egypt.  Others were sent among the provinces for the circuses of Rome.  Where did the 40,000 who survived settle after having been allowed to go where they liked? 
                                                                           

"Titus began his siege a few days before Passover which falls on the 14th of Nissan( in 2015 would have happened on Wednesday, April 1st), surrounding the city, with three legions (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XV Apollinaris) on the western side and a fourth (X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east  If the reference in his Jewish War at 6:421 is to Titus's siege, though difficulties exist with its interpretation, then at the time, according to Josephus, Jerusalem was thronged with many people who had come to celebrate Passover. The thrust of the siege began in the west at the Third Wall, north of the Jaffa Gate. By May, this was breached and the Second Wall also was taken shortly afterwards, leaving the defenders in possession of the Temple and the upper and lower city. After Jewish allies killed a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sent Josephus, the Jewish historian, to negotiate with the defenders; this ended with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally was launched shortly after. Titus was almost captured during this sudden attack, but escaped.
                                                                             

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish general whose real name was Yoseph ben Mattityahu ha-Cohen, c 38 to 100 CE, was himself of a priestly family who survived only to be the slave of the Romans as their historian.  In 64, before Jerusalem was burned down, he went to Rome on a semi-public mission.  In 66 the Jewish people had revolted and temporarily regained their independence.  He was then regarded as an expert in political affairs and was sent as a representative of the Revolutionary Government to the Galilee where he assumed the supreme military command.  He then quarreled violently with the patriotic extremists who accused him of temporizing tendencies. He estimated that during his time there were 80,000 Jews living in Jerusalem.  He said 6,000 were Pharisees, the forerunners of today's rabbis.
                                                                       

 Then the Romans attacked in 67, and he directed the resistance and was besieged in Jotapata, an ancient town in the Galilee which Josephus fortified and held against the Romans in the war of 66-70 CE. but on the capture of the city, he did the unthinkable and went over onto the Roman side.  From then on he called himself  Flavius, the family name of Vespasian, the Roman Emperor from 69 to 79. Emperor Nero had sent him in 67 to subdue the Judean rebellion and by 68 he had conquered the Galilee, Transjordan and the Judean coast before suspending operations on receiving the new of Nero's death.  In 69 he became emperor, and the campaign was ended by his son, TITUS. Vespasian patronized Josephus and the Talmud reports that speaks of his favorable treatment of Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai. Josephus said that during this war from 66 to 73 CE, 1,100,000 Jews were killed.  Tacitus, the Roman historian estimated that 600,000 Jews had died in the war.
                                                                                 

 "Hillel Geva estimated from the archaeological evidence that the actual population of Jerusalem before its 70 CE destruction was at most 20,000." 
                                                                            

Visitors at Western Wall

"Geva was among the senior archeologists who had  the privilege of excavating the Western Wall compound and the Jewish quarter for more than a decade after the reunification of the city in 1967. " 
                                                                             

Emperor Titus seizes Jerusalem

 Josephus went with Vespasian and Titus during the siege of Jerusalem and tried to persuade the Jews to abandon their resistance.  After the revolt was crushed by the Romans, he was given some confiscated estates in Judea, but lived in Rome instead.  In his own writings, he tried to show his integrity as a patriotic leader and his devotion to the Roman cause.
                                                                           

 He wrote THE JEWISH WAR, towards the end of Vespasian's reign which was most likely based on another writing-THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, which gave the history of the Jews from the beginning to the outbreak of the War with Rome.

By then  the Jews had been suffering from the domination of the Persian Empire, and then later, the conquering armies of Alexander the Great.  When Alexander died, his vast kingdom was divided among his generals.  They had a power struggle which engulfed all the nations of the Middle East and Israel found itself under the sway of the Seleucid Dynasty.  They were Greek kings who reigned from Syria.

We learn in the Talmud that when Alexander the Great and his conquering legions advanced on Jerusalem, the High Priest Shimon HaTzaddik met them with a delegation of elders.  Alexander saw them coming, dismounted and prostrated himself before this Jewish sage.  Alexander explained that each time he went into battle, he saw a vision in the likeness of this High Priest leading the Greek troops to victory.  Alexander believed the Jews had spiritual powers.  He was a king and generous ruler and canceled the Jewish taxes during Sabbatical years and even offered animals to be sacrificed on his behalf in the Temple.  His heirs failed to sustain his benevolence.

The Romans had no leader like Alexander the Great.  They  had destroyed the Jews' 2nd Temple in Jerusalem and then took over the city.  On this date of 70 CE they burned the capital down and took away Jews as slaves for Rome, however,  many others were able to get out and flee.  Then the Romans built their own temple over the spot where Solomon's 2nd Temple had stood.

Individual Jews had lived in France before this date of 70 CE.  There had been organized Jewish communities in France during the period of the Roman Empire. The earliest Jews who were to be called Ashkenazis got to France from Rome, and then went into Germany as well where they were there for a long period of time, long enough to mix German in with Hebrew which was called Yiddish.

We know that many Jews remained in Judah and Israel that the Romans didn't catch.  Those that left went in 3 directions.  One was to the neighboring Middle Eastern countries and settle there.  The other went to France and the Rhineland "Germany." and became the Ashkenazim. . Some had gone in the direction of Spain where they became the Sephardim.
                                                                       

Every country has coveted the Land of Israel, for it is located between 2 continents, Asia and Africa and sits on the crossroads there.  It's also between 2 seas, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, making transportation so much easier.  Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottoman Turks and finally the British from WWI have all traversed the Land on their way to further conquest.                                                                              

Jews have faced a bottleneck in their population.  A bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to a cause like human activity in their case.  They either recover from it or become extinct.   Conversely, depending upon the causes of the bottleneck, the survivors may have been the genetically fittest individuals, hence increasing the frequency of the fitter genes within the gene pool, while shrinking it.  It seems like we have had many bottlenecks since then with the biggest one during the Holocaust with the loss of 6 million Jews.  
                                                                              

Levite Priest

"Y-chromosomal Aaron is the name given to the hypothesized most recent common ancestor of many of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim (singular "Kohen", "Cohen", or Kohane).  In the Torah, this ancestor is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses. The hypothetical most recent common ancestor was therefore dubbed "Y-chromosomal Aaron", by analogy to Y-chromosomal Adam.

The original scientific research was based on the discovery that a majority of present-day Jewish Kohanim either share, or are only one step removed from, a pattern of values for 6 Y-STR markers, which researchers named the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH). later findings using a larger number of Y-STR markers to gain higher resolution more specific genetic signatures, has indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish Kohanim, who share Y-chromosomal haplogroup J1c3 (also called J-P58), appear to be closely related.  While many Arabs carry the J1c3d haplogroup, about half of the Jews carry this line.  

"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora." (M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, June 9, 2000)" "Although the Ashkenazi (European) community separated from their Mediterranean ancestors some 1,200 years ago and lived among Central and Eastern European gentiles, their paternal gene pool still resembles that of other Jewish and Semitic groups, originating in the Middle East."

Aaron's line of Kohens were indeed survivors.  Despite a bottleneck, we still have some after 4,000 years.  

Resource: Josephus, by Whiston, Kregel publications

 Tanakh, Stone Edition

Your Chanukah Guide, 1996, Chabad-Lubavitch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Jerusalem
https://samser.wordpress.com/tag/hillel-geva/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron
http://www.cohen-levi.org/jewish_genes_and_genealogy/jewish_genes_-_dna_evidence.htm